Ok time for a little confession.  I hate short films...
No, really I do.  I have been  vehemently opposed to them
for as long as I can remember.  You see I am a feature
shooter.  As far as I am concerned, the only difference
between a short and a feature is shooting days.  That
being the case, I have always avoided shooting a short
film.  Ok, that is not completely true - I did have quite
a few die in principal when I was a guerilla shooter...
but I don’t count those years nowadays.

My aversion to the short end of the field had more to do
with the vision I had in my head and the inability for
the short to return its negative cost.  The prequel came
about in quite a strange manner.  I had returned to
Philadelphia to see friends and family, and I ran into
an ex-girlfriend whom had really supported me as an
emerging artist.  Since this individual knew me when I
was just trying to get a handle on screenwriting... I
thought she might enjoy something a little bit more
technical and polished.  So I let her read the feature,
and she absolutely loved it.  So much so that she wanted
to make it, and was willing to put her house up to raise
money.

Now it is really important to understand that offers like
these must be refused.  Don’t get me wrong, I want
production funds as bad as the next filmmaker; but you
mustn’t allow a person who knows you well (esp. those that
you have been romantically involved with) to invest so
heavily.  I say this because statistically most films are
going to lose money.  And watching a close friend/lover
or family member lose their house due to your artistic
whims is unacceptable.  You are going to have to live with
the debt and the guilt a lot longer than you realize.  And
let me tell you, even the most passive investor will want
some input on the look of the film when screenings don’t
go well (and a fair amount of them will not go well).

So what was different about my situation was that as I
refused to let this person invest so heavily, I countered
with – “what we could do is shoot a really impressive short”.
Now I know that seems hypocritical but I knew that this
particular person was contemplating investing upwards of
$300K in my feature... so a highly stylized short with a
longer shooting schedule was not out of the question.

We were planning on doing what few are currently doing, and
that means shooting on film with an abundance of production
value.  It was really a simple plan.  No one here at Big Hit
Productions believes any of the poppy-cock written in the
literature of short film festivals.  I mean, yeah they all
love film, and short film as an art form... but c’mon... if
you want to go against the grain, this is not the best arena.

So the plan is to use the short to sell the feature.  We are
giving the festivals something that they can all hate on,
collectively.  This may seem like a strange thing to do, but
remember that we have a long-term strategy.  The title of
this film is rather unique, as is the look.  When the feature
suddenly appears, we will have name recognition and stories
about from all festival programmers about why they didn’t
program the short years prior.

This project will be easily distinguishable from others
just due to its creation and the journey of the project.
And that, my friends, is worth $50K.