Groups keyboard shortcuts have been updated
Dismiss
See shortcuts

$15,000 to Make Your Short Film

2 views
Skip to first unread message

Shore Scripts

unread,
Jan 24, 2025, 10:33:54 AMJan 24
to studionort...@gmail.com
22 Greenlit Films and Counting View in browser
$15,000 to make your short film

Making a short film is a great way to create a calling card in the entertainment industry and demonstrate your point of view. Agents, managers, and producers watch short films to find up-and-coming talent. A solid festival run and/or a viral view count online can get your next project greenlit by proving your skill and that you have an audience.

These days, a short film can cost anywhere between $500 and $50,000 to make, depending on a myriad of factors. And it's no longer a surprise when a high-quality, complex short film lands closer to the $100k range, although some filmmakers continue to debate the "worthiness" of spending such a large amount on a short. Even as technology has allowed filmmaking to become more accessible over the last 25 years, inflation, of course, continues to rise. But compared to the average cost of creating a feature film, short films can be a more affordable way to showcase your talent!

Here are a few examples of some notable short films, created by filmmakers who went on to make waves in Hollywood:

"Peluca", the short film predecessor to Jared Hess's incredibly successful feature film "Napoleon Dynamite", cost a mere $500 to shoot. It was shot on 16MM film in black and white over two days while Hess was a student at Brigham Young University in 2002. 

Ava DuVernay's short film "Saturday Night Life" follows a single mother and her children as they visit a grocery store. Filmed in 2005, it cost approximately $13,000 from soup to nuts.

The original short film version of "Whiplash" by Damien Chazelle, premiered at Sundance in 2013 and was produced for an estimated $23,000. The short's success greenlit the feature which was made for approximately $3.3M and grossed over $50M.

Mix in a little math for inflation and we're looking at short film budgets of approximately $875, $21,000, and $31,200, respectively.

But what about that little voice in the back of your head that says, "But how will I find the money to make my film?"

That's where Shore Scripts comes in.

Our Short Film Fund provides an opportunity for emerging writers, directors and producers from around the world to receive much-needed financial support to get their work produced and seen. 

We accept narrative short films (live-action & animation), web series pilots, and proof-of-concept shorts for TV series and features.

This season we are awarding one $15,000 cash production grant and $4,000 in finishing funds. 

ARRI Rental will provide the Grand Prize Winner with free camera rental equipment for the duration of the production, saving the winner thousands.

Both winners will also receive mentorship from two-time Oscar-nominated producer Maria Gracia Turgeon. Short Film Fund winner Chelsea Isabella Clark-James recalls how Maria's mentorship helped her create her best script yet for NON EMERGENCY MEDICAL TRANSPORT, even helping her cut production costs.

With the support of Maria and the Sundance Collab, Chelsea was able to cut one prop, one character, one location, and four pages from her script.

“A prop can be hours of shoot time, and cost thousands of dollars. People don’t always realize that," she said. Making these changes all helped to both improve the quality of the script and decrease the budget for her film.

Brendan Beachman used his second-place prize money to help support post-production needs for his film, A WEDDING DAY.

The cash prize helped to pay for critical elements in post-production, including his composer and musician, colorist, sound designer, and VFX artist.

We have helped greenlight 22 short films to date. Could the next one be yours?

The Short Film Fund is now open - enter today!

Thank you,
The Shore Scripts Team

ENTER NOW

Shore Scripts

https://www.shorescripts.com

facebook twitter instagram
screen...@shorescripts.com

You received this email because you signed up on our website or made a purchase from us.

unsubscribe
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages