Cinema was born, by today's theatrical length standards, as a short form.
Most early films were mere seconds long. Throughout the history of celluloid many great filmmakers have worked in the short format... Georges Melies, Buster Keaton, Maya Deren, Chris Marker, Francois Truffaut, David Cronenberg, The Quay Brothers, Lynne Ramsay, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Tom Palazzolo, Jane Campion, Jem Cohen, Miranda July, Dave Fleischer, Roman Polanski. The list goes on. In many ways short films give film and videomakers their largest shot at creative freedom. The budgets are often low enough to give the filmmaker much greater control of the project without having to worry about studios, distribution deadlines, or producers.
They're called SHORT FILMS for a reason. I have seen an endless stream of short pieces that were in the neighborhood of 12 to 30 minutes that were way too long. I've seen films that were too long at 8 minutes! Don't feel married to everything that you shoot. The truth is that your film takes precedent over your ego; rough shooting schedules, impressive shots that took endless hours to set up, or long anguished production days. Don't let anything override the quality of the finished film.
There's an old saying that directors shouldn't edit their work. Hand your project over to an editor. I fully recommend it. You get final cut. They see the shots and the frame of the film with fresh eyes and you get to work on other things in the process. Try two edits. Just for the fun of it. Make a full version of your piece and then a shorter version and see how they work. You might end up preferring the shorter version. I've made a few films that I have two final versions of. I liked both versions of the film for different reasons.
Ask people to watch your final cut and get their honest opinions. Being strong and open to ideas is really helpful to filmmakers. You might be too close to the project to have a clear view of it. Again, you don't have to change a thing.
Here are things filmmakers are not told enough - by peers, family members, film books, schools or other filmmakers...
People see films to be entertained, challenged, to question, to learn, to be riveted, to be taken to NEW places, shown NEW possibilities, NEW cultures! We can see the whitewashed world all day long in Hollywood cinema. Independent filmmakers should offer an alternative.
Make the film you want to make!! The only film that's going to be noticed is the film you REALLY wanted to make in the first place.
Rusty runs the Movieside Film Festival, the largest short film festival in the country. As a filmmaker, his films have played at over 50 film festivals around the world.
