At the Gutstein Gallery, a panel of filmmakers sat down to discuss short films and the making of them on Oct. 31.
Guests included Christopher Durenberger (writer/director of “Chalk Talk”), Alisa Lapidus and Natasha Subramaniam (co-directors of “Zergut”), John Roberts (director of “The Wheel”), David Roddham (writer/director/producer of “Coward”) and Nick Moran (actor/producer for “Coward”).
The general purpose of the panel discussion was to talk about short films and topics related to shorts. One of the main questions asked by moderator Michael Chaney was “why make short films?”
As shown in the above clip, Moran talks about the experience factor. Short films and their production are a great way to gain experience within the film making field. Even working a low-end crew position provides great insight.
Roberts and Durenberger both agreed that short films are a filmmaker’s stamp. John called shorts a great “calling card” especially when paired “with a feature script.” Durenberger further stated that “shorts really don’t make any money, but they do get you places. That’s where the investment comes back.”
From there, each filmmaker talked about their own personal experiences making their individual films. They all pointed out that while a short film, by definition, is short in runtime, the term in no way indicates a lack of preparatory work. In fact, some of the films, such as “Coward” took years to produce a finished product.
It was while discussing “Coward” that Roddham and Moran noted the movie was shot on 35mm anamorphic film, as opposed to the now popular digital format — which the rest of the films represented used. This quickly led to Moran going on a lengthy diatribe about film versus digital and film’s enormous superiority. Some other guests’ facial expressions seemed to voice the contrary, but they didn’t speak up about it.
One can understand the point Moran and Roddham made however, their immediate dismissal of digital film making, across the board, as a viable option was a bit disheartening.
Overall, the panel was intriguing, although divergent at times. While discussion of the general process of making shorts and getting them distributed was great, it was the personal experiences shared that were most insightful. Further, the guests represented a wide range from those just now attempting to get their foot in the door of the industry to a few already established names looking to create new pieces of art — all creating a calling card, of sorts, for varied reasons.
