In her foreword to this primer for aspiring makers of short films, Trica Tuttle titles a section ‘How to use this book’. It’s typically practical in a publication geared towards furnishing neophyte directors and producers with concrete information above all else.
Tuttle’s opening tip, by the way, is for her readers to delve in on a need-to-know basis, so the tome is split up accordingly into bite-sized sections, from developing your initial idea to editing the film. A pep talk about the widening opportunities created by digital technology – DV has made things cheaper; the internet has created a whole new distribution and exhibition circuit for short films – sets the context, then it’s straight into the nuts-and-bolts, step-by-step guidance.
As befits the insistence on practical instruction, the emphasis is on the hard-won wisdom of experienced filmmakers. Ironically for a book about the clipped art of short film-making, some of the testimonies could have been trimmed: a few of the interviewees can be woolly (‘Editing is a beautiful, mysterious process,’ says Lisa Gunning, who cut ‘Breaking and Entering’) although this is usually tempered by more hard-nosed advice (‘If you’re in a rut, leave the room,’ Gunning continues).
Especially welcome is the chapter on getting your short film shown. Comprising almost a third of the book, this section rightly acknowledges that a film isn’t complete until it’s shown to an audience, and contains invaluable contact details for sales agents and festivals. Add to all this a Which?-style run-down of different formats, sample documentary release forms and a dummy script, and you have a book that’s as essential an on-set requirement to budding filmmakers as a baseball cap and polystyrene cup of cold coffee.
