Aug 10

Aug 10 How to Make Short Films (That Don't Suck), Ready to Kill

Acting, Cinematography, Short Films, Editing

How to Make Short Films (That Don't Suck), Ready to Kill, A short film by Darius Stevens Wilhere

So you want to make short films?

It's easy to do. In fact most people with smart phones do short films every single day. We could criticize what they do, or the quality of it, or that it's just a home movie and not really a short film, but the truth is that film is about communicating emotions, experiences and messages to an audience.

As a kid, I made many terrible, horrible short films before starting to get a grasp on some things that would eventually lead to a career in making things that didn't suck both in the high budget Hollywood range and in the low budget indie world range.

Surprisingly, there are people out there who spend a ridiculous amount of money on short films. In fact, my last feature film sort of was born out of a conversation with a friend who was bragging to me that they only spent $50,000 on their last short.

To which I, like an idiot, said "What???? I could do a feature film for that!!!!" But I digress. Short films are a great way to test ideas, interest investors, get experimental and generally have fun doing what we love doing: Making movies. They also are a great way to garner attention and acclaim at festivals and people obsessed with that make some pretty bizarre shorts in an effort to capture the critics attention. I call it the sledgehammer approach.

The best shorts are works of art with beautiful imagery, brilliant writing and a message that we think about long after that short has left the screen. That's the type of short I strive for, and I'll keep striving until I get there.

But just like a regular movie, shorts require thought, resources, careful planning, smart preparation, tight scheduling and hard work. And at the end of the day, you may or may not have something you can sell. Nobody really buys short films as stand alone short films. Which is kind of why I created this as the beginning of a series of webisodes.

But at the end of the day it was about me and a few friends having fun. We made the film for the cost of a box of pizza, some gas, a flat tire I got driving my car through the desert and one big "gotcha" that we should've avoided and I'll tell you about in the next episode.

But for now have a look at the short. You may love the story or you may hate it, but most of you should agree that it looks pretty good. I've seen thousands of shorts so I know where this one fits, certainly not at the top of the pile, but definitely not at the bottom either.