I have made over 40 short films.
Today, to me, making a short is like painting a picture in the park on a Sunday afternoon. Pleasant, but unchallenging.
With this in mind, I recently read an old posting by Mike Jones at No Film School.
In it he argues that the short film is dead.
“There are two ways of looking at how a Short Film serves the emerging and aspiring filmmaker. The first is as a Learning Exercise, the second is as a Calling Card.”
He then proceeds to debunk both beliefs and concludes:
“As with many long-entrenched elements of filmmaking, the tradition of the short film needs to be let go of and seen as the antiquated anomaly it is; a tool of a bygone era. A good short film can be great work of art but emerging and aspiring filmmakers need much more than a short work of art to build a career. The short-format, online, episodic webseries is the most dynamic, audience-driven, self-publicising, learning vehicle indie filmmakers (in film school or not) have ever had access to.“
My take: I’m warming up to this idea. I’ve been toying with a concept that could be realized as a dozen episodes. 2016 will be a great year for me to launch it! Stay tuned!