There are countless examples of writer/directors who have made short films or proof of concept short form projects that have started their careers that led to feature films.
Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is one example. He made the short in 2013, then the feature version a year later which went on to win 3 Oscars.
Benjamin Cleary had his short Stutterer that went on to win an Oscar. He’s recently directed his debut feature Swan Song starring Mahershala Ali.
Wes Anderson made the great Bottle Rocket short in 1994, which led to his debut feature in 1996. The rest, as they say, is history!
Sam Raimi with Evil Dead.
Jared Hess with Peluca, which led to his hilarious Napoleon Dynamite feature. The list is as long as it is varied!
All it takes is some IMDB searching and you will see that a huge number of top screenwriters working today started out in shorts.
Examples:
Christopher Ford wrote the short script Clown in 2010. That was directed by Jon Watts who he went on to collaborate with on Cop Car and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Kate Trefry started out writing the shorts Souls of Totality and How to Be Alone before moving on to write 9 episodes of Stranger Things, and the 2021 film Fear Street.
Hossein Amini started out in short films before going on to write such hits as Drive, 47 Robin, and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Randy McKinnon had 8 short films under his belt before he started writing on the TV Show Chambers and Grand Army.
#writer #short #film #screenplay #script
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Great encouragement, Tammy Hunt. I remember Whiplash when it was a short and loving it! So yes, totally agree.
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This is great advice. It should not be lost that this is also a valid avenue for actors looking to take charge of their careers. There are so many examples of actors who got their break by creating their own work, often as a short!
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I didn't know some of those started as short scripts, Tammy Hunt. I use short scripts to practice writing, and I use shorts as writing samples when applying for writing and ghostwriting jobs. A short script doesn't take a long time to outline, write, and rewrite (it usually takes me 1-3 days), so writers can build a portfolio of them quickly.
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Excellent advice and inspiration, Tammy Hunt. I just attended a short film festival and it felt like a launching pad more than a destination. Tom also makes a great point on how potent a quality short can be for an actor's trajectory.
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Even Martin Scorsese did 3 shorts before he made his breakthrough -- What's a Nice Girl like You Doing in a Place like This?, It's Not Just You Murray, and The Big Shave. And that was back in the 60s!
One of my favorite short films was Eli Roth's Restaurant Dogs (1995) a parody of Reservoir Dogs he made in grad school
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Thank you for the affirmation. That’s been my approach. And thanks for the content. Illuminating.