Director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean won the 2008 Sundance US Short Film Jury Prize with Sikumi “On The Ice.” He then participated in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and Directors Lab to develop his feature of the same name. There’s a great video of him discussing it in this episode of the Youtube series on the Sundance Directors Lab.

Crossbow

This brilliant short was created by director David Michôd to demonstrate his abilities as a director. He already had a feature script and needed to show how the film would be shot. That script was Animal Kingdom, which won the World Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The Raven

This short was recently picked up to be turned into a feature at Paramount Pictures. It was shot in Los Angeles for $5,000, and probably had at least $200,000 of free effects work. Shorts can sell studio features, but usually show a very specific world coupled with amazing effects work. Note that The Raven is less a complete film than one action sequence, showcasing a story’s world. Shane Acker’s 9, discussed later in this article, uses a similar teaser structure.

Gowanus, Brooklyn

This is the short that inspired the Oscar-nominated film “Half Nelson.” Winner of the Short Filmmaking Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

9

This short by UCLA animating alum Shane Acker was nominated for the Oscar for best animated short and won a student academy award. It was made into a feature in 2009 with Christopher Plummer, John C. Reilly and Elijah Wood.

Next week I will discuss the different strategies these directors used. The first part is: make a damn good short.

• Blue-Tongue Films – Hollywood’s Australia Collective – NYTimes.com
  “We run into people carrying $120,000 debt from film school,” Mr. Doolan said. “And all they want to know is how we did it.”

Here are three of the films the group has produced. I have blogged about Crossbow as a short good enough to get an agent.

Thanks to Short of The Week.