ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

6 years, 4 months ago - Sunny King

These might help.
https://blog.filmsupply.com/articles/turning-a-sundance-winning-short-film-into-a-90-minute-feature/74/
https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/8-great-proof-of-concept-films-that-got-picked-up-by-hollywood/
https://www.moviemaker.com/archives/moviemaking/directing/why-first-time-directors-must-make-proof-of-concept/
https://www.lightsfilmschool.com/blog/the-proof-of-concept-short-film-moby-dick-in-space

Hope it helps.

6 years, 4 months ago - Sunny King

One more https://www.raindance.org/7-short-films-turned-feature-films/

6 years, 4 months ago - Richard Anthony Dunford

The horror film 'lights out' is a famous example of a short getting turned into a feature. Quite a lot of filmmakers make shorts as a 'proof of concept' to get a feature version made. Like most things though I guess it's a case of the short being noticed by the right person or the contacts you have.

6 years, 4 months ago - Mark Wiggins

Lock, stock and two smoking barrels is a good example of this.

6 years, 4 months ago - Paul W Franklin

Yes.
'Saw' and others. Seems to happen mostly with horror films, I guess perhaps because it's easier to stretch the initial short out to a feature.

6 years, 4 months ago - Allan (Mac) McKenna

Like most things about this business this doesn't sound like good news. I too have written shorts that I could easily expand to features (well perhaps not easily, but they are envisaged easily) and the prognosis is - as with most matters filmic - not optimistic. As Richard suggests it depends on the short being noticed by the 'right person' - which ain't likely.

6 years, 4 months ago - Michael Patrick Kelly

Sling Blade is another good example of a short that blew up. Of course it had Billy Bob Thornton attached, but anything is possible, and as William Goldman famously stated; nobody knows anything... So nothing should stop you from trying.

6 years, 4 months ago - George Brian Glennon

Whiplash is the most recent I know of to have transitioned to major feature success (profit/ Oscar noms and wins). However It was not a normal short film. Chazelle already had powerful agent and the agent paid for the short to be made.

It had to have cost at least $75K US if not more, and had a major name starring in it. The short looked like a major motion picture. It didn't look like it was trying to, it already did.

It was placed in and won Sundance, and that doesn't just happen, the placement and "Juice" surrounding it were because of connections and money. That's what it takes. If those aren't in place it doesn't matter how good the story is, it will never get seen in any forum that matters.

My personal opinion is that if anyone thinks this (what happened to Whiplash) is going to happen for a $10K short and marginal connections, then they are dreaming.

6 years, 4 months ago - Peter Storey

I heard a truly excellent pitch the other day, I'll be a bit circumspect in describing the content, but it was a clever (and perhaps in hindsight obvious) way to tackle the short -> feature path.

The feature script was based on real historical events, 100 years or so ago. A cracking story and not really been filmed before, at least not recently. Not gigantic scale, but still spendy down to the period setting.

However, instead of producing a minified version of the story, or a proof of concept trailer, the plan was to make a complete short around a different real historic event, 2 years previously. Same milieu, themes, setting and even a couple of the same characters on the periphery - a prequel fundamentally. But much more self-contained and realisable in short form, in a tighter (ie cheaper) environment. Perfect way to show off stylistic elements, while having a life of its own - think festivals etc - as a short.

Not exactly an answer to OPs question, but perhaps a useful approach for the future. And for the record, IMHO the existence of the short is most definitely a positive, as long as it isn't simply a low production value version of the same thing. If it demonstrates visual style, tempo, handling of actors, music etc in the same way as the feature will, then it can be extremely useful. If it augments the written material and demonstrates competence, then certainly of value.

6 years, 4 months ago - Stuart Wright

SAW was a proof of concept of their feature length idea presented as a self-contained short film... It got them the funding they needed to make the feature... They didn't "stretch it out" to a feature. This is a relatively common approach. THE SURVIVALIST by Steve Fingleton did a kind of short prequel to his feature to help develop his idea.

Whereas LIGHTS OUT was a hugely successful, viral short film that got developed into a feature. It was basically too popular to ignore and dead easy to market because of the infamy of the short ... a longer shot but no less effective I guess