Short Film Distribution

Short Films struggle to get their projects out to their audience as film distributers such as Fox Searchlight are reluctent to back them due to there lack finacial rewards that come from them. When looking at how short films are distributed it is important to remember that directors are doing these films more for artistic perposes rather than finacial.

However there are ways that short films can be seen, one of the ways that has been traditionally used by directors was short film festivals. This is were the audience go to see a collection of short films, this is a good means of distribution as the audience are going there especially to see these short films. An example of a festival is the London Short Film Festival where 6000 people go to see these films, this amount of people watching the films is the reason why festivals are one of the best ways to distribute films. If are group was to look into this we would still need financial support. We could also enter film competitions this way are film will still be seen by an audience and if we won would be shown in these festivals. However we are realistic and we are not dependent on this means of distribution.

Another way is through the cinema, this is the most challenging due to the finacial limitations that short films have. However the UK film council are trying to get more and more cinemas to become digital which would allow for the distribution of short films to become a lot cheaper and the cinema to become a much more realistic option for directors. As are film has no budget to spend from this means of distribution is not one that could be realistic,much like the festivals we would still need financial support, but is the easiest way to get are film out to a mass audience.

The television could be another alternative for are group as Sky have shown short films and Channel 4 have also been known to show short films on television. This could be a great means of getting are film to a mass audience. However this would be the hardest to achieve as it would involve the TV network giving up its time slot to are film which could be unlikely.

The most resent means of distribution that directors have and the most cost effective is the internet. The internet has allowed for anyone with a video camera to film something and have an audience for their films an example of this is youtube which has millions of short films on there from ones with famous directors to home video short films all of them with an audience that is welling to watch their films. The BBC has their own service which shows short films to an audience that want to watch these short films. This is probabley the most realistic option for our short film as we don’t have the budget to get it to a cinema or get it on at a fesitval, the internet is the cheapest option, also we can have direct feedback from the audience as they can comment on our film.