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Is there a market for short films? Can you profit from them? If yes, how?

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If no, why should you even make them?

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Hello, filmmakers, I'm Tom Malloy. Welcome to another action-packed episode

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of the Filmmaking Stuff podcast, where we share tips and tactics so you can

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take action and make your movie now.

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So short films, many people make them, and it's a lot of times how filmmakers get their start.

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It's almost like they feel and rightly so

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that if they can handle a short film that's

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like a test for them to know if they can handle the feature film

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but the topic here is can you profit from short films so the first thing that

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I would love to address is that you should not be going into making a short

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film thinking that you're there to make profit that's not the reason that's not the the goal per se.

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There are many goals and there's many ways that you can quote unquote profit

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from a short film, but I, you know, financial profit, financial gain from a

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short film, it's definitely not an avenue where that's common and it's extremely difficult to do.

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The real purpose of short films is to give yourself the experience and give

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yourself that potential calling card hard for you as a director.

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And if you do this in the right way, it can lead to that feature film that you're desiring to shoot.

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So the key is this. If you are going to make a film, a short film,

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you want to understand the purpose should be to lead towards the feature, right?

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If you have a a short film

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that's a horror film and your feature is a comedy you

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don't want to do that right you want to make a comedy

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short and then you move that on to

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the the feature comedy same you know and vice versa you want to make the horror

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short you want then you want to make the horror feature the key is if you keep

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it in the same kind of genre then people could see oh he or she is is good in

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that genre now i can kind of wrap my head around the feature film that they They want to make right.

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The film doesn't have to be a trailer or anything like that,

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but it it should be very close to the type of film you want to make.

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Like meaning if you're horror short, let's just go horror specifically here.

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Say your horror short is this bloody massacre type short and then your feature

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is very psychological, you know, more like The Shining.

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Well, then that's not exactly the same type of movie. You want to make it the

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same type of movie. If you want to make the bloody.

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Feature film, then you want to make that bloody short so that people can go,

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oh, he or she could do this and they're good with the effects.

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And, you know, I could see how this can work into a feature.

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But the key is if you're doing this, then people can start to visualize,

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oh, okay, they could do a feature, right? And that should be your goal.

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I've seen people spend 50,000. I've seen people spend 150,000 on a short film.

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And that's a mistake in my opinion. If you're going going to do that, it's like, if you're going to put even $50,000

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into a short film, it's like try shooting a feature for that amount.

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I highly encourage you to check out my video series, backyard blockbuster blueprint.

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I'll put a link in here. And that shows you how you can definitely make a full

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length feature for that amount, or potentially you shoot 40 minutes short and, you know, then you go,

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okay, I could shoot another 35, 40 minutes

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and make this into a feature that that way but the key is if you

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have a feature film that's something that you

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could sell going specifically into

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selling shorts there are places that do license them and you could probably

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find some of those on sonando c-i-n-a-n-d-o.com and but the key there is that

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the licensing fees are are going to be low.

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From what I've seen in the past, $1,000, $2,000, maybe $3,000,

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that's what you're going to get with a licensing fee.

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You could also put it on a YouTube channel. If it's not your own YouTube channel,

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it's best to find a channel and reach out that may have millions of subscribers,

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and then maybe you can get some revenue that way from it by putting ads in the middle of it.

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But it's not a path for financial gain.

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It should not be the reason you make the short film.

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The reason you make the short film is the calling card for you as a director.

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And you're leading that to the feature film.

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The feature film should be genre consistent with the short and you need to take this and leverage it.

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You make that short, you apply to film festivals and you can win some awards and things like that.

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It's a lot easier to get into the major film festivals with a short film than

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it is with a feature film and make sure you have that screenplay and that plan

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to make the feature film. So somebody sees your short and they go,

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wow, this is a really, really scary horror movie.

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And you say, well, I got a feature that's the same type of genre, the same vein as this.

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And here it is. Here's the screenplay right here. And that's how you can kind

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of leverage it into a future career. You don't want to stay making shorts.

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I know some filmmakers that have been making shorts for years and it's okay,

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but that's not a world that you really want to stay in. You want to graduate to making features.

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So that should always be your goal. So the profit from short films is profit for your career.

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That's why when you're raising money for it, you have to get someone that's

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going to fund it without the idea of financial gain because you really can't pitch that way.

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So if you're self-funding or you're doing Kickstarter, Indiegogo or something

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like that to get that money or someone who just believes in you.

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Well, then that's a way that you can raise that financing for the short film.

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Thank you for tuning into the Filmmaking Stuff podcast. Podcasts,

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I'm Tom Malloy, and I can't wait to see the incredible films you create.

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Don't forget to subscribe for more tips, tactics, and inspiring stories.

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Until next time, take action and make your movie now.