Does anyone have any advice about short films? I am wondering how you can assess what is a good one to apply for. If you look on CCP and Star Now there are loads and hard to know what would be worth pursuing. Also, is it bad to do an unpaid one?
I have noticed that actors seem to do these in between TV and bigger film work.
We've made a couple - both via StarNow. Difficult to say how we picked them, liked the look of them, were local and fitted around holidays, school, other commitments. Had fun and gained some experience on film. Neither were awful, students mainly, and both very professional and worth going for. Film reel or Vimeo links provided so have material to share with CDs for future projects. Hope that helps.
I would say that the very best short films are those done by experienced teams. These tend to go via Spotlight and are often as difficult to get cast for as any other kind of screen work.
If it's unpaid work (and a lot of them are) then I would always insist on seeing the script before deciding whether to go to an audition and would ask for information from the producer about the experience of the team - you can sometimes find examples of their work on-line.
If this is for your ds then he already has a lot of really great experience and a good CV so I think he can afford to be fussy/picky about what he chooses.
Quite often, students will advertise on various sites and try to hide the fact that they are students, so it always pays to dig. Go for graduation or MA films where possible if you are considering student films and find out how the crew is organised. In some schools the students take it in turns to do various jobs - this might be great for the students, but isn't always great for the quality of the film.
Bournemouth and London Film School both have very good reputations.
I would always advise checking with an agent before agreeing to do unpaid work. The agent will often be able to make a well-informed guess about how worth while the experience is likely to be. They will also be able to let you know if it's likely to clash with any possible paid work in the pipeline.
Hello,
we have just been offered a part in a short film via StarNow, and accepted. Its 1 day filming, on a Sunday, gain experience, have fun, why not eh!
DS did one recently. He enjoyed it. It was on a Saturday and he had no experience of filming. The story was very sweet, and we had the script to see beforehand. The people were very nice, paid our fares and plied us with snacks and hot drinks. It was a long cold day, but whenever the camera wasn't rolling they rushed to put blankets on him and the other boy there. They've since sent us a link to watch the film and a downloadable link, and they've said they'll let us know if it gets into any film festivals so that they can put it on IMDB if it becomes eligible.
We'd probably do another one in future. For this one DS needed to act but there were no speaking parts - all done as voiceover (presumably as so much cheaper) - so he'd like to do one at some point where he gets to speak.
