How to create an engaging short film and
increase your short film views
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as an “original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits”.
But a short film is something much more than that. It is a fantastic way to let your raw filmmaking talent excel in all respects. But, alongside it’s necessary that your short film meets all the requirements of the compelling and demanding audience. For this purpose, you need to give a very effective structure to your shortfilm so that it attracts interest and not send the audience to sleep.
Here are certain ideas that can help you in creating an engaging shortfilm:
1. Remember that it is a shortfilm so you cannot kill half of the time of your movie in just building its backstory. The beginning of the movie needs to be as strong as possible.
2. Since you do not have a luxury of time to spend, so introduce your leading character fast to the audience. Moreover, don’t let the short time span become your enemy.
3. The most important thing is to develop a strong character for your movie because a memorable character is always the main body of a shortfilm.
4. You need not stick to the ‘right order phenomenon’. The best way to engage the audience to the very end is to deliver the key details at the perfect moment so as to maintain the suspense and the surprise.
The best recipe for a win-win situation is to get a compelling story with a strong character which is explained to the audience visually with suspense so as to engage them from the very first minute.
Congratulations! Now once you have created your own compelling shortfilm, you are ready to show it to the world. But, there is absolutely no one else other than you who will have more passion in promoting your shortfilm to the world because you invested your idea, blood, sweat and tears into it.
Here are again certain tips to increase your shortfilm views:
1. To start promoting your film, create a website that has all the information about your film, including the premise, cast/crew info etc. Keep it simple and succinct so that it does not seem flashy.
2. Keep a process journal about the making of the film. People would love to see ‘Behind the Scenes’ to know about the efforts that you have put into the film and get inspired by it.
3. Create a Facebook Fanpage, Twitter feed, Instagram page and ask your friends, family and fans/followers to share them so that you can connect to the relevant. The best marketing always connects to the audience in the best way.
4. The most important thing is to develop a head-scratching teaser. People should react to the teaser in a manner like:’WHAT THE MOVIE IS ABOUT?’Also you must mention your website at the end of the teaser so that the attracted and intriguing audience may know where to head for more information.
5. Another most important step is to create a jaw-dropping trailer that you will release 1-2 weeks after the release of your head scratching teaser. Again the trailer should be intriguing and catchy for the audience. And, again don’t forget to mention your website at the end of the trailer.
6. Yet another best way to increase your short film views is that you submit your shortfilm to film festivals, online film sites, TV and Cable shows. Again, don’t forget to mention your website at the end of the credits. Also, if you get accepted, be sure to blast it to your online audience so that they can catch it.
Like most things, thinking out of the box gets results. At the end of the day, when you have done all these things, you will find that the audience you have been exposed to is much larger than what you had initially imagined.
So, now when you know how to create an engaging short film and promoting it so as to increase your views, lets markup to set yourself for your first shortfilm. Who knows that you even get a chance to shoot your first feature film even!
Goodluck!
