Selling my short film

D

DDirector

Veteran
I have not 'made' my short film yet, but I just want to know what to do with it when completed.
Assuming its a great film, great actors, lighting, story (but yet not completely original) and over all very entertaining.
What to do with it?

I have been thinking about putting it up in various Short Film-Film Festivals to get it seen by many people.

My goal is to make some profit out of it, instead of spending a whole lot of money and getting nothing back. Sell some DVD's or downloads.
I want to put it up on YouTube, but to make money, id need a partnership with YouTube and it would still take lots of time to get any money. And I dont even know if I can make a lot from it.

I want this distributed to sell copies.
Where should I be looking?
- Can I just show it to film festivals and hope it can be distributed there somehow?

Ive never looked at distribution before. Just showing off my work to YouTube and eventually hope in getting something from a YouTube partnership.

I don't work for any company. Would I want to? Sure.. but, in making short films, music videos, and possibly commercials. Not the type to be doing interviews with clients and making documentary type stuff.
 
I don't really think there is a market for shorts. You can make a profit with a feature, but a short is much harder
 
Typically shorts are either to sell the premise as a film (e.g. gather investors/funding) or to win at festivals to bring some mention to your talents (and perhaps the film property).

The only way to make money off of shorts (short of winning contests), would be to charge people for downloading it. 99 cents a view or what have you on iTunes.

Or you could collaberate with several other filmmakers and create something *like* a feature and make that collaberation available for download and on Netflix.
 
Just to add, I 've looked into this. It's especially frustrating 'cause all I've done are short films, and I have no plan to make a feature, or even the desire. But yes, they are tough to do much with. There are distribution companies that deal with short films, so you can look into those, and there are also many online/pay per view services that deal with short films. I have several shorts under distribution from these. How much have I made? None much is how much. The youtube thing sadly, is actually, seemingly, the most viable way to acquire an audience and even earn revenue, since there are people that have made that work (people on here like to talk about that FreddieW guy, I'm thinking more of the Charlie the Unicorn guy, since he's a one man operation). I believe it's all about marketing. It's finding those people that have never heard of you but would like your work IF they saw it, and pointing them there that's the big obstacle.
 
Not true. There are numerous international short film distributors. If you have a short with international appeal and good production value you have many options available. Do a quick Google search for more information.
 
Brian_Rice said:
Typically shorts are either to sell the premise as a film (e.g. gather investors/funding) or to win at festivals to bring some mention to your talents (and perhaps the film property).
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Josh Bass said:
There are also many online/pay per view services that deal with short films. I have several shorts under distribution from these. The YouTube thing sadly, is actually, seemingly, the most viable way to acquire an audience and even earn revenue, since there are people that have made that work (people on here like to talk about that FreddieW guy...
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I've seen those sites where you can pay to see a short/feature film. But, after a quick search, you can easily find the film on YouTube or Vimeo. Seems pointless to have then.
So, is it best to submit into film festivals to get that 'credit' for having your film screened and possibly winning some award and also putting it up on YouTube to obtain a larger audience? And when the subscribers and views reach high enough go for a Partnership and hope for the best?

From what I'm seeing/hearing, this seems to be the best route.
But, if you have something in a film festival, aren't you not allowed to show it publicly, or publicly within a certain amount of time? Which can be a big delay
 
Think of your end goal in mind and figure out all the small steps and pieces of what you will need to get there. When I first got started I made shorts and while they proved I had good skills in certain areas they helped prove what I was "not good" at too. This is key because later you can work with other people who compliment your skills and turn out a higher quality production.

There is definitely a market for shorts and YES they can be sold. Don't necessarily count on the money aspect of it however by getting one or more of your shorts sold it will open doors and lead to bigger and better opportunities. I know several directors in the industry now who started this way!

Lastly, since you are in Canada there are a lot of grants and tax related credits you will be able to apply to one day, but many of these programs have prerequisites that require some of your previous work to have appeared in film festivals or have been broadcasted. Keep this in the back of your mind as you decide to work on certain projects possibly for free or for money - ensure there is some intention of putting them film in festivals, not YouTube.
 
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DDirector said:
I've seen those sites where you can pay to see a short/feature film. But, after a quick search, you can easily find the film on YouTube or Vimeo. Seems pointless to have then.
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You control where your short appears. If you don't want it to appear on YouTube and Vimeo don't post it there.
 
DDirector said:
...if you have something in a film festival, aren't you not allowed to show it publicly, or publicly within a certain amount of time? Which can be a big delay
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The smarter way to think about this is if you have a really good film on your hands, it somewhat detracts from festival directors to know if can be viewed online instead of "premiering" at THEIR festival. Check the application to the festivals you plan on entering, many will have a check box asking if this will be a "premiere" or not.

Don't forget festivals need publicity too, so you can use that fact to your advantage when applying if it has not yet screened anywhere...
 
I don't want to say that this is a non-topic, but it certainly feels like the wrong question is being asked.Can you sell a digital comic? Can you sell an e-novella? Can you sell a motion comic? These are all the same question as "Can you make money off a short film". Do you have an audience? Does your brand have an audience? Are you making something worth paying for, that you yourself would pay to see? Answering yes to any of these means answering yes to "Can you make money off of a short film?"The question I would ask myself (and have asked myself and came to a conclusion) is whether or not you would pay money to see a short film. I, personally, would not. Would I be willing to pay to see a short film if someone whose stuff I LOVED asked me to buy it? Sure. I watch The Guild on Xbox but I still buy their DVDs because I want to support their series continuing on and being successful. I think it's great to have a plan, but if you're worried about selling something, go create content and build a fan base. The reality is that MOST filmmakers make short films without profit. It's just part of the game.
 
I think there could be a market for shorts if several filmmakers got togethers. Shorts with a similar genre or theme could be packaged together on a compilation DVD and have a much better chance of selling than a short by itself. But the shorts would need to have something more in common than just that they were produced by indie filmmakers.
 
If you specifically want to make money from producing a short, perhaps you should be looking at pre-selling to a brand sponsor for air on their web site. This all started with the BMW shorts and has become a fairly significant market. You don't think the new Canon C300 shorts were produced for free just so they can try out the new camera do you?

There was this really cool choose your own adventure Zombie flick from Down Under that played on You-tube that was sponsored by a regional pizza place and starred a delivery guy. Most content that makes money is sold before it is produced. If you've at least produced enough to show that you've completed things of decent quality on time an budget you should be able to move to the next level.

In Canada there is a specific expectation of moving through various production levels, before moving on to the next level. In order to qualify for feature funding you have to produce three shorts and get them shown in recognized festivals, there is a list, and if that is your goal that is what you do. You either try to get a little arts council money, or co-op support, and get-er done. I always get hung up on the cost of festival submissions. The ratios seem to be 100 to 1 just like everything else, assuming you are good enough to get that one, so you can easily spend $5000 to get you short shown in one festival, unless it is an industry festival its just not worth it. I'd rather just park it on YouTube and hope to get some views.
 
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