Finding the Best Short Film Ideas that Level Up Your Career

Define the Goal

1. Why make a short film?

Before you dive into that pile of script ideas or short screenplays, take a step back and ask yourself: What's the goal?

There are lots of answers to this question. Some may draw from their impulses as entertainers:

These are typically the first responses to the question, but they’re actually just part of what defines your next film’s goal.

The answer to “why make a short film” should come in the form of Audience, Medium, and Purpose. In other words:

“To screen to [Audience Type], through [Medium], to achieve [Resulting Goal].” 

Here’s how the parts of the formula break down:

I WANT TO SCREEN TO [AUDIENCE TYPE]

• A broad, “general” audience. I don’t recommend this as a primary goal! Read on, and you’ll see why.
• A narrow, niche market. Audiences of a particular ethnicity, religion or cultural heritage.
• A very narrow market of individuals and small groups. Studio executives, agents, managers, investors, etc.

THROUGH A [MEDIUM]

• Film festivals. Get specific - what types of festivals? Which ones?
• Internet. Youtube, Amazon, etc.
• Other.  Private links, museum or gallery shows, private screenings, etc.

TO ACHIEVE [GOAL]

• Build a fan base
• Win awards
• Prove something. Like a proof-of-concept for a longer project, or a “calling card” to prove your filmmaking abilities.
• Make Money. It’s almost impossible to make money with a short film, but if this is one of your goals, you’ve got to articulate it early, and be disciplined in shaping the project to serve this goal.
• Connect with your audience.  This is where that first list comes into play. You’re making a movie to reach an audience through a medium to make them laugh, cry, think, scream, etc. 

Think through this list, maybe add to it, modify it, make it your own. Identify the specific goals you have for this film.

Your goals can be layered, too. Perhaps you want the film to have a festival run before it’s released online. Or perhaps there are several types of audiences that are important for you to craft the film for.

If you do have multiple, layered goals for the film, make sure that you prioritize them, so you know which goals are the most important.

A NOTE ON MAKING PROFITABLE SHORT FILMS

This isn’t an impossible goal, but it’s a very difficult one to achieve.

If you’re interested in making money off your short film, I encourage you to attend a film market or two - not just the big ones like the American Film Market in Santa Monica, but short-specific markets like the Palm Springs Film Market that coincides with the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival.

Talk to other filmmakers, find out what worked for them. Talk to the buyers, find out what they’re looking for (and what pitfalls to avoid). Talk to the exhibitors, find out if there are specific trends they’re noticing in what types of short films are being seen.

Are they looking for award winning short films? Or for certain TV or movie actors in the key art? 2k? 4k? Do certain genres sell better?

Specific running times?

There are other avenues to generate revenue from a short film, from online services to the educational market - there’s more to discuss than I can fit here, so I’ll write a more extensive article on this in the coming months. In the meantime, research the market! Don’t guess at what’s going to sell or who’s going to buy.

Defining your Strategy

2. Approaches to short film funding

Now that you know what your goals are for your short film, you’ve got to lay the foundation for your film’s startup strategy. You need to understand, in broad strokes, where the money and resources will come from.

There’s no need for specifics yet. Let’s not forget, we haven’t actually reviewed any short film ideas yet! We’re still preparing for that step. The question is simple: Where’s the money coming from?

SAVINGS ACCOUNT

If you've been saving up, self-financing is an option.  You don't have any extra fundraising costs, nor do you have anyone looking over you shoulder with pesky suggestions.

The downside, though, is that all the risk is on you. If your short film doesn't meet your goals, you'll be on the hook for the loss.

CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGNS

This is an increasingly popular strategy to fund short films. There are even websites that specialize in funding film projects.

Most crowdfunding websites take a percentage of your funding to keep their lights on, so you'll have to factor that in to your fundraising numbers.

In addition, successful crowdfunding campaign will require extra expenses you'll need to consider -- those reward t-shirts won't ship themselves!

PRIVATE DONATIONS

Perfect for those of you with "rich uncles".  Uncle Pennybags and Uncle Scrooge don't count, for the record.

They don't necessarily have to be related to you, though! Any connection you have with someone with the money and desire to be a patron of the arts is a potential donor.

All this costs is taking your potential patron out for coffee or lunch.  And it's entirely possible they'll pay for that, too.

INVESTORS

These are very rare. Most short films don't turn a profit, so very few investors are willing to put up money in exchange for a cut of profits that won't exist.

This is also the most expensive fundraising approach. Equity investing is strictly regulated by law, so setting up an investment plan of any kind will require legal help.

Investors are really only worthwhile for larger projects with extended marketing potential.  Think proof of concepts shorts that might be turned into feature films or a pilot for a web-series.

If you’re making a film for a “national audience”, who do you turn to for money? Everyone? You’d have to spend a fortune just getting their attention - and most of them won’t know why they should care to help you make your movie!

Next, you’ve got to estimate how much you expect to realistically raise from the method (or methods) you’ve selected.

If you’re going to spend your own money, this is easy to figure out. Decide how much of your own money you want to spend, and set that as your budgetary parameter.

You might be tempted to say “I’ll make this film with a bunch of friends, and we’ll all work for free, so it won’t cost anything.” If that’s the case, here are two cents:

• It might be cheap, but it won’t be free. Decide how you’re paying for lunch, small incidental expenses that might come up, etc.
• Identify your resources. If you’re getting something for nothing, know what it is and where it’s coming from.

If you’re going to run a crowdfunding campaign, consider using a crowdfunding campaign calculator tool. These vary in complexity, and they’re all essentially taking data-driven guesses, but they’re a good way to get a ballpark sense of what your crowdfunding potential is.

Here are two options you can try.

A NOTE ON CROWDFUNDING CALCULATORS:

Crowdfunding calculators can provide you with more than just a bottom line! Use them to research what your campaign needs to be in order to be successful.

I used the calculator at Jewcer.org to prepare to raise money for “The Pirate Captain Toledano”. The calculator indicated that with my social media presence and intended time commitment, I’d raise roughly $3000 for the film.

But by looking at what questions the calculator wanted me to answer, and by tweaking those numbers, I learned some techniques for improving my campaign’s success.

For example, the calculator wanted to know how many hours per week I would commit to running the campaign.

The more hours I committed, the better the campaign would run. It seems obvious, but it’s nice to see how much an extra hour per week can influence the final outcome. That campaign (which you can see here) raised over $18,500 for my short film.

WORKING WITH DIRECT CONTRIBUTORS

It is perhaps hardest to figure out how much money you can expect to raise from direct contributors. You might have an idea of how much your rich uncle would be willing to give you, or you might have to ask to find out.

The only time the fundraising numbers will be abundantly clear (with a bit of research) is if you’re making the film to make money, and are soliciting investments.

In such a case, you will likely research the potential profitability of the project you’re developing, and you will set your fundraising goal based on that.

Remember: investors want to make money, and where there’s risk, they’ve got to see a very high potential reward to feel comfortable with their investment. If you think you can make $10,000, don’t seek $9,000 in investments.

Here’s what I mean: If your strategy includes a crowdfunding campaign, you MUST find movie ideas that serve that strategy. You need to have a clear answer to the question “why would people pay to MAKE this movie?”

I’m planning a longer, in-depth article on how to run a successful crowdfunding campaign later this year. It’ll delve deeply into who contributes, why they contribute, and what you need to do to inspire their generosity.

For now, just remember that if crowdfunding is your fundraising strategy and your short film idea is a personal story about a dog you once met, it might not be the right choice for your next film!

This is also where you consider the scale and scope of the movie ideas on your list. If your strategy stipulates a budget of approximately $1000, you’ve got to pass on the globetrotting action adventure, and give closer consideration to the two-hander set in a basement.

If you’re not sure how much your movie ideas will cost, consider scratching out a rough, preliminary budget.

You can get fancy with mock-up schedules in software like StudioBinder, while Movie Magic or Gorilla can help you put together a budget.

Or you can keep it as simple as scratching out some numbers on a napkin.

You’re just looking for a very rough budget, to see if your short film ideas are in the budgetary ballpark.

YOUR SHORT FILM IDEA MUST SUPPORT YOUR GOAL!

Of course, if you want to make people scream, you’re probably looking for horror or thriller short film ideas. But this requirement that your concept must support your goal goes much deeper.

If your goal involves getting into Sundance, you’ve got to understand what Sundance is looking for (smart comedies! Or so they’ve told me…)

If you want your film to go viral on YouTube, you’re probably looking for very short story ideas with a twist that might inspire lots of social media buzz.

Whatever your goal, make sure that the short film ideas that you consider can actively push you closer to your goals.

WHAT NOT TO DO:

I know a director who wanted to create a calling card film to demonstrate his directing abilities. He wants to direct family-friendly dramas, but the film he chose for his calling card was an over-the-top parody of a popular film (that wasn’t a family-friendly drama).

His film has some beautiful footage, and some quirky comedic scenes, but none of the types of scenes that family-friendly dramas commonly require.

No serious, emotional conversations, no moment of happy resolution, nothing that actually proves the director can direct the material that he wants to direct.

When he picked his short film idea, he lost sight of his goal, and the film failed as a calling-card piece.

JUST DO YOUR THING ANYWAY

If you really love an idea, and it serves your strategy and supports your goal, but it’s just too darned expensive, don’t give up on it too quickly.

When I wrote “The Pirate Captain Toledano”, I knew right away that the project would cost much more than I expected to be able to raise. The film takes place on a 16th century tall ship - a very expensive set!

Before shelving the idea and writing something new, I called around to inquire about filming rates on tall ships. Not surprisingly, the numbers were astronomical. But when I told people about the project, they got intrigued, and when I shared the script with them, they got very excited.

In the end, The Ocean Institute in Dana Point, California, offered us a substantial discount on their filming fees, and even contributed rewards and marketing to help expand our crowdfunding campaign’s reach and appeal.

Their offer of support changed the complex calculus of the project by cutting the budget and boosting the crowdfunding potential. The impossible film was suddenly within reach.

short film goals

4. The dance of ideas

As you work through your list of screenplays and movie ideas, you’ll find that your goals and strategies are fluid, and they interact with each other.

For example, if you set a particular audience as part of your goal, you might find that it influences the type of fundraising you can expect to do.  That, in turn, can impact the scale of the movie ideas you’re considering.

Don’t be afraid to take a step back and make adjustments to your goal or to your strategy as you discover different ways that their interactions impact your film idea options.

Ultimately, the goal is to narrow your list down to three or four  possibilities.

up next

30 Ways to Brainstorm Your Short

If you’ve followed this process through to the end, you may still have a few movie ideas that survived the culling. They all serve your strategy and support your goal. Now it’s time to make a decision.

Which of these movie ideas is right for you? Our next post explores the brainstorming process.

Up Next: 30 Ways to Brainstorm Short Film Ideas →