Making a Short Film? A Very, Very Basic Primer

How Do You Make A Short Film?

Making short films is fun shit. Now that I live in LA, I’m getting into making them again, right after I do my other Hollywood stuff like eat at The Ivy and get my anus bleached. But the thing is, though it helps, you don’t have to be in La-La Land to make short films. The first one I made, a Best in Show-style mockumentary about a local band, was filmed entirely in Missouri. Really, all you need is a camera and access to the internet. And three other things…

Because making a short isn’t just fun, it could be a career-booster. If you do it well enough, it might get your own critically-acclaimed sitcom. The guys at It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia got their break as a direct result of this short:

Look easy enough? Well, it kind of is. But it abides by three rules. Though this is by no means an exhaustive list, these three things are rules you should adhere to strictly if you want to make something memorable.Though we’re probably talking “super-duper low budget indie” with your film, we’re not talking crap.

So try it! We all know how much easier it is to comment on YouTube anonymously about how everything sucks balls than to actually create something yourself. But if you decide you’d like to make a short, here’s three things you need:

1) A Polished Shooting Script

There’s an old adage that a quality film consists of three things: a good script, a good script and a good script.

So what is a polished script? It’s one you’ve rewritten two three several times, working out all of the kinks and cutting all the fat; one that you have gotten “notes” (i.e. feedback) on from people besides your mother, and most importantly it’s a script that you could sum up in a sentence if you had to (the logline). Even if you’re an artsy type, your short film should conform to some semblance of structure or it runs the chance of being a boring, muddled mess. And even short, short films (three minutes or less) usually have at least an “arc,” wherein the main character realizes something or otherwise goes through some sort of change.

Even if you improv your movie (which, incidentally, is what we did) you should at least have a very solid shooting outline to work with. The idea is that everyone working on the movie knows what is expected of them and where everything is going. Otherwise, it’s just people goofing off for their own narcissistic reasons. We have enough assholes rambling into their webcams already.

Also, you’re going to need to have your script formatted Hollywood-style. The indiest movie in the world of indie-dom still conforms to the tried and true 12-point Courier format. Here’s the standards. Because your script better look right if you’re going to get…

2) Willing Actors Who Might (Gasp!) Actually be Able to Act

Here’s the deal with most indie productions: the acting sucks. Here’s why: the director hired their friends. Actually, I’m using “hire” loosely, because most indie directors don’t even bother paying their staff. You should consider dishing out a pittance (hell, even just feeding them goes a long way.) It all goes back to treating your short like a business expense and not a goof. The biggest drama noob might not be your bestest buddy, but chances are they can do a read-through without sounding awful.  Or, if you’re doing a comedy, it doesn’t hurt to use someone with a little… timing!

Finding actors outside of LA and NY can sometimes be tricky. If you’re not in either of the Big Two, consider the webbernet. Though it’s skeezy as hell,  an ad on Craigslist can usually cull the right people. Just be honest about what you’re looking for: tall, old, skinny, fat, Japanese with an afro, whatever.

It’s not hard finding actors, even good ones. Just look, because people just looooove to be in movies. And even working with strangers usually ain’t bad. But I’ll just say this once: DON’T TAKE NOTES FROM ACTORS ABOUT THEIR LINES! It’s a slippery slope, my friend. If something goes awry, though, you can always fix it in…

3) Post! Pay it Heed!

When I made my first short film the one thing we didn’t count on being the most time-consuming was post. Like rewriting scripts for the umpteenth time, post is an awful process, but it’s also where your movie really comes together. Concise film editing can really save almost anything. And if you can find a guy who knows his or her way around sound editing too, you can take care of it all at once.

If you’ve got the scratch, hire someone out. And again, Craigslist is your friend here (most editors I know who work do so freelance). Or at least find a computer savvy-type who knows their way around Final Cut Pro.

A good script, decent actors and a willingness to work hard on post. This is by no means a definitive primer, but for you amateurs out there, it’s a start that will help elevate your crap above the other crap!