How To Make A Short Film - Part 4: Distribution (My FREE Strategy Included)

So, here we are. We’re finally coming to the end of our four-part series on how to make a short film from start to finish. We’ve covered how to get your film planned and organised in pre-production, how to successfully shoot your film and get the best out of your crew, and how to navigate all areas of post-production.

To finish off, I will be sharing all the avenues available to distribute your short film, and hopefully help you decide on the best option for you.

Grab a drink, get comfy, and enjoy this in-depth article :)

The Most Common Mistakes

Before we get into options, I want to quickly cover the three main things that indie filmmakers do wrong time and time again with short films.

The first, and more obvious one, is not setting aside a budget for distribution. This may sound obvious, but if you haven’t done it before or you’re trying a different distribution route, you may be surprised to know that it can be fairly expensive. Festival submission fees can range anywhere from ￡0 - ￡500, festival strategists cost upwards of ￡400 - ￡800, and if you plan to go down the route of working with an aggregator, you can expect upfront costs of ￡700 - ￡1,000 (more on these later on). So, as you can see, it may be wiser to sack off the jib and anamorphics, and save some money for distribution…

The second mistake is to treat your film as a piece of art, and not a marketable product. This may be a tough realisation for you, it was for me, but you have to remember that filmmaking is a business. It’s the film “industry” after all and, unless you can make people money, no one owes you anything for your piece of art no matter how great it is. When you’re making the film, by all means have your creative hat on, but when it comes to distribution you need to start thinking like a businessperson. Ask yourself, “What’s my return on investment going to be here?”

You’ve spent X number of pounds/dollars on your film, so what do you actually want it to do for you? Is it exposure? Is it a proof of concept to get a feature film made? Is it to introduce yourself into the festival circuit so you can build connections? Whatever it is, make sure you clearly define it so you know which of the strategies in this article are best for you and your project.

The third and final mistake is to leave your film to die on the internet. It’s morbid and it’s macabre, but it’s true. Many filmmakers go through the incredibly tough hurdles of making a short film, then when it comes to the business side of things and actually getting it seen, they just post it online and forget about it. No, trust me, that really happens! I’ll shortly get onto using the internet as a strategy because it is viable, but it requires work on your end. You can’t just upload it and hope for a million views. It won’t happen. Please, friend, don’t give up on your film like this.

So, now that’s all out of the way, let’s get into the six ways that you can distribute your awesome short film. At least, the six that I know of…

Option #1: Free Self-Promoted Streaming Services

To kick things off we have the most obvious option, and that’s uploading your film to a free online platform that you own and manage. These include YouTube, Vimeo, Prime Video, or your own website.

The misconception here is that this is the easiest option. Yes, this is the FASTEST option for getting your film online for people to view, but it requires a heck of a lot of promotional work on your end. Getting an organic audience to see your film through search alone is virtually impossible, so you’ll need to be extremely active on socials, build connections online to gain support from other people, share your film in groups and email lists if you can, pay for social media advertising to reach a wider audience, and so on. 

If you are willing to put in all this time and effort over a 12, 18 or even 24 month period, then I think this can actually be a really viable option. It helps you to build a personal brand as a filmmaker, gain an organic following of people who will be interested in your future work, and if the film does go viral you never know what agent, executive, chairman or president might end up seeing it.

And as an added bonus, although it won’t be anything significant, you can also generate some revenue this way through YouTube adsense, Vimeo On Demand purchases, and Prime Video streams. Plus, it can be nice to have some accountability for the success of your own film.

“But I can’t be arsed to do all that work!” I hear you say. Well, sir or madam, what if you COULD have a guaranteed audience without having to do all that work…

Option #2: Community YouTube Channels

This is bit like option 1 but with a shortcut (I feel your attention sparking at the word “shortcut”). You can submit your film to community YouTube channels that already have a strongly established audience, and are dedicated purely to short film screening.

You should do your research on the best one for you, but here are some of my recommendations:

General: Omeleto

Sci-fi: DUST

Horror: Alter

Animated & CGI: CGMeetup or TheCGBros

These channels have between one and five MILLION subscribers, and easily get tens if not hundreds of thousands of views, so you’re guaranteed to get an audience if your film is accepted. I would still strongly recommend that you put significant effort into promoting the film yourself instead of relying purely on the existing audiences.

I myself haven’t gone this route before, but to my knowledge most of these community channels don’t require exclusivity, so you’re free to carry on promoting the film on other platforms too. Just know that you probably won’t receive any of the monetisation perks that you would have if you hosted the film on your own channel.

Option #3: Dedicated Short Film Streaming Sites

Next on our list is an option that I have personally explored and found some success with, and that’s submitting your film to a website dedicated purely to screening short films. This is similar to option 2, but the difference is that these sites act more like online streaming services with work that’s curated for their audiences. This contrast with the likes of YouTube and Vimeo where you’re having to compete with an algorithm that may not favour your content, and billions of other content creators.

The three platforms I recommend are Short of the Week, Film Shortage, and IndieFlix.

Short of the Week is the king here with the highest quality work you can find anywhere online. Plus they get a huge amount of monthly traffic so you can expect your work to have a strong audience. It’s also a well renowned platform so you may even get seen by “the right person”. However, it is incredibly competitive so be prepared for a potential rejection. Also note that Short of the Week require a $30 submission fee which is non-refundable, but it’s a small price to pay for the potential gain. For an additional fee, they also provide a fairly detailed feedback form which breaks down which parts of the film they thought were good and which parts needed work. So, even if you don’t get accepted, at least you get some super helpful feedback that you can use going forward.

Next up we have Film Shortage. I received a daily pick from these lovely people in June 2019 for my short film The Seditionist. It didn’t get a ton of views but it did get some extra engagement. Since then the film was also picked up by a distributor. This could have been a direct result of the film being on their site but it’s impossible to know for sure. I suppose I could just ask the distributor couldn’t I…

Film Shortage also have a lot of great content on their website and only require a $15 submission fee as opposed to Short of the Week’s $30. That said, they also give you feedback with no extra fee, and if you’re selected you can expect your film to be on their website within two weeks. This is very quick indeed, and they even give you the option for an online premiere if your film hasn’t screened somewhere else already.

Last on the list is IndieFlix. Truth be told I don’t think they have a huge audience, but the audience they do have is made up of short movie lovers, which is exactly what you want. The great thing about them is not only do they have a submission fee of exactly zero, but they actually pay YOU based on the number of minutes your film has been streamed. In addition, they have no exclusivity clauses so you’re free to upload and promote your film anywhere else.

To me it’s a no-brainer. You might as well give IndieFlix a shot!

Option #4: Film Festivals

You thought this was going to be number one on my list didn’t you… Ha!

Given the niche market for shorts, film festivals have long been accepted as the best or even the only route for distribution. There are literally thousands of festivals all around the world which, on the one hand makes building an international audience and personal brand as a filmmaker really accessible, but on the other hand makes it difficult to know exactly where your film fits into the festival market.

Fortunately, there are some great festival strategists out there. Their entire job is to assess your film and design a catered strategy for it based on the submissions budget you have available. As I mentioned earlier festival submissions can get very pricey, with fees can ranging anywhere from ￡0 - ￡500. Yes, ￡500 for one submission! Having said that, these are for the high-prestige festivals like Tribeca and Cannes, AND you’d have to be a late submitter to pay this much, but just know that if you plan to submit to multiple or even dozens of festivals, these costs really rack up.

An excellent strategist I’ve worked with and would recommend is Festival Formula. They are a lovely team and really open up much greater opportunities for your film through their industry knowledge of the ever-changing festival circuit. A colleague of mine has also worked with The Film Festival Doctor and has seen good results with them too, so do your research and see who you think might work best for you. Just a reminder, you need to set aside a decent budget for festival submissions as well as the fee for the strategist to design your custom strategy.

Some film festivals offer cash prizes to their award winners, so there is scope for you to make some money back on your investment. One win could reimburse your strategist’s fee or part of your submissions budget, for example. Success at festivals also helps build your reputation as a filmmaker, and if you can get into any of the Oscar or BAFTA affiliated festivals, you could seriously be set to get in front of some more considerable and respected people in the biz. Furthermore, a lot of the value of film festivals comes from building relationships, so if you’re able to attend a lot of them in person it will really help get your name out there, as well as find like-minded people to take forward with you in your career.

I do have one negative thing to say about my experience with film festivals though. Don’t take it as gospel as your experience may be different, but I’ve found that submitting to the smaller festivals has not been worth the cost at all. It’s certainly a fun experience, and it’s nice to see your film with an audience, but I have to say a lot of the festivals feel very clique-y. The audiences are predominantly populated with other filmmakers who’s work is in the festival, which isn’t exactly the type of audience you’re after if you’re looking to move on to bigger and better things. Typically these filmmakers have submitted in previous years too, so they all already know and network with each other. As a result, this has impacted how selective I am these days with the festivals I submit to. That said, building relationships in any capacity is always useful, it’s just something to bear in mind.

Option #5: Short Film Distributors

Film distributors are rarely talked about when it comes to short films, and that’s because there aren’t a ton of them out there, but they’re a really great option when used correctly. In my case, as I mentioned earlier, a film of mine was picked up by a distributor. The distributor is called Shorts TV, and this deal happened a couple of months ago so I’m yet to see just how good this will be for my film.

However, I think your decision to go this route comes down to two things: 

• Timing (ie. WHEN you choose to work with a distributor)
• Longevity (will this increase your film’s lifespan?)

In my case, The Seditionist had already done 12 months on the film festival circuit, and then had presence online through YouTube and Film Shortage. At that point, in order to reach a wider audience, I had no issues signing an exclusivity agreement to get the film on international cable television. 

Not only does it increase my film’s lifespan, but I also get paid an upfront fee for the license to my film. You do, however, have to ensure you can produce all the necessary files as far as the film and trailer in their requested formats, captions, artwork, foreign translations, music cue sheets etc.

For a list of all the best distributors, check out these great articles by Raindance and No Film School.

Option #6: Short Film Aggregators

Last on the list we have film aggregators. In many ways film aggregators perform a similar task to film distributors, with their goal being to get your film onto a variety of platforms. However, whilst distributors tend to favour more broadcast and DVD release, aggregators primarily work on getting your film onto TVOD and SVOD platforms such as iTunes, Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, Vudu etc.

As previously stated, with distributors YOU have to get all of the materials together. With aggregators however, they will do all of that prep for you, including the quality checking and various encodings necessary for certain platforms. It’s also worth noting that unless you go through an aggregator, it’s unlikely your film will end up on premium platforms likes iTunes or Apple TV because these platforms only accept submissions from trusted sources.

Unlike distributors where they pay you a fee for the license to your film, you have to pay the aggregator to do all of this work for you and submit it to the aforementioned platforms. Once it’s live, then you can start receiving revenue for the amount of people streaming or buying your work. This is just a general overview, and some aggregators work different to others.

Some of the current big names include Bitmax, Quiver, and FilmHub.

Which Option Is Right For You?

I know I just hit you with a ton of information, but hopefully this is knowledge that you can actually use to help strategise your short film’s distribution strategy.

I think the route you go depends on many different factors, including how good your film really is (truthfully), how culturally and politically relevant it is, how long it is, and what you want to get out of your film. Assess all of these things, then see which platforms are most in line with your goals.

Your best bet is to try and use a combination of these methods like I did with The Seditionist. That way you’re reaching the widest audience, you’re giving yourself an opportunity to win some prizes and awards, and your film has lasted 2-5 years instead of 2-5 months.

I’ve just finished a short film called Farewell Waltz, which is a 10-minute period romance, and my strategy looks like this:

• I’m going to submit only to the top 10 festivals internationally, paying particular attention to the BAFTA and Oscar affiliated ones. If I get into any of those, great, hopefully I can build relationships with a potential agent or exec. This will probably take 12 months to give me a chance to submit to all of my desired festivals.
• After that, I’ll approach a distributor to get my film onto international cable TV in order to reach a wider audience. This will probably be a 3-year license if it’s anything similar to my current distribution deal.
• Once that’s done, I’ll upload it to a community or personal YouTube channel, Vimeo, Prime Video, and a dedicated site like Short of the Week. The more places people can find my film, the better.
• I will then use targeted social media ads to promote these links to even more people. This will probably keep it going for another 3 - 6 months.

All in all this gives my film a 4+ year lifespan. It also gives me the best chance of getting in front of people who can elevate me in my career, as well as regular short film lovers who can help me build my personal brand as a director.

There’s no real way of knowing if this, or any other strategy, is the right one. You just have to do your research, make an educated guess, keep pushing, and hope that the world rewards those who wait and work hard.

And with that ladies and gents, we sadly come to the end of this marathon series about how to make a short film. There’s 10,000+ words of amazing insight in these four articles, so read and reread them to get the most value possible, and share them with your filmmaking buddies to help them and me out :)

This is not the end of my blogging journey, no no no. I have many more amazing topics in the pipeline for you, so fill out that subscription form to stay up to date. In the meantime, you can get more filmmaking goodness from me on my podcast “Slate 1 Take 1”, as well as my Instagram where I share tips and tricks in mini blog format in my captions.

I wish you all the success for your short film journey, and hope to chat with you on socials!