Ten Tips For Short Film Makers

Show Me Shorts is always looking for ways to support the talented short film makers that make our festival possible every year. So we’re going to be sharing some resources over the next few months to (we hope!) encourage developing filmmakers. We’re kicking off with a set of rapid-fire top ten tips to help aspiring short film makers avoid the more common pitfalls and improve both their film and filmmaking experience.

Tip 1. Have a story worth telling

Is your story idea exciting and unique? Would you want to sit through this short film if someone else had made it? Would you recommend it to your friends? Ask yourself these questions before you even start writing the script. The answer is “no” for a surprising number of shorts.

Tip 2. Fix it now, NOT in post

We can’t stress this enough. While the wonders of modern post-production technology allow many errors to be corrected later, this costs money and requires expertise that you may not have access to. If you have a mistake in framing, dialogue, or anything else that can be fixed during the shoot, fix it now.

Tip 3. Keep it short

Short and sweet: Mud Crab from the 2013 festival

Write one idea. Short films are moments. Writers and directors often give their audience more details, back-story and sub-plots than necessary. It’s painful to edit out characters you love, carefully crafted dialogue and beautiful shots. Do it anyway. Be ruthless about anything that does not drive your story forward. Your audience will thank you.

 Tip 4. Invest in good sound

Sound work: Noise Control from the 2009 festival

Bad sound makes many otherwise excellent short films unbearable. Investing in good sound recording for your shoot will pay dividends. There is no replacement for a decent boom mike and someone who knows how to wrangle it. Beg, buy, or borrow one and it will improve the quality of your film exponentially.

Tip 5. Cut the helicopter shot

It is likely that you are making your short film on a shoestring budget. So keeping your locations and cast numbers to a minimum is vital to keeping your costs down. Every night shoot, crane shot or special effect costs you. Ask yourself if it’s vital to telling your story. If not, cut it.

Tip 6. Keep it simple

Simple ideas win. The “I wish I’d thought of that” ideas. Don’t try and demonstrate every filmmaking tool you have. Keep it simple and true to your story. Knowing what not to include is as important as what to keep.

Tip 7. Use visual story-telling

Visually stunning: Abiogenesis from the 2012 festival

Why waste time on dialogue when a single shot can tell us the same thing? Tell your story as visually as possible. It’s the shots that will be most evocative for the audience. This is where all that back story and world building goes.

Tip 8. Avoid clichés

Know your indie short film clichés by watching as many short films as you can. Once you know what they are you can choose to avoid them, or play around with them. In New Zealand these include stories featuring Māori children without parental supervision, grumpy old men with hearts of gold, and tangis. Technical clichés include using the sound effect of a bullroarer, dream sequences, overly long credit sequences, or waking to a ringing alarm clock. You can probably think of ten more already.

Tip 9. Substance over style

Short films are a great place to try out new techniques – whether it be a new kind of animation, camera work or art direction. Beware of relying on exciting new experimental styles at the expense of a great story.

Tip 10. Come in late, leave early

You need a great beginning and ending. There is so much clutter these days that your short film has to grab a viewer in the first few minutes or you risk losing them. Do you have a great opening shot? Are you building to a climax? Don’t waste time on lengthy introductions and credits – spark the audiences interest in the story as quickly as you can. If the pace of your film is naturally slow and ambling, make the shots as rich and enticing as possible to draw the viewer in.