Short Film Directing 101

Tips for building an awesome crew and directing a short film.

For whatever ungodly reason, the role of a film director in recent years has been evangelised, hero-worshipped and blown out of any reasonable proportion. From the outside looking in, directors are often seen as the messiah-figures of the film industry — visionaries with a veritable arsenal of equipment, personnel and financial resources at their disposal with which to craft blockbuster hits.

On many film sets, this simply isn’t true and on the set of a low-budget short film, this couldn't be more opposite.

On the set of a short film — especially a low-budget short film, nine times out of ten, the director fills more roles than just a director — they may have to be their own writer, casting-director, editor, colourist and oftentimes even their own producer. Whatsmore, they’ve likely funded the project too — which is probably why they’re sat in the director’s chair in the first place.

Such was the case with my short film ‘Siren: A Cyberpunk Story’. Siren tells the story of Emily — a disenfranchised twenty-something struggling to survive in an unfriendly near-future world after returning from a month-long clinical trial.

I wrote Siren in a month, assembled a crew for a four-day-shoot and edited the film over a six-month period. Siren is now…