A few years back there was a lively debate on the filmmaking site
https://www.stage32.com/home about whether short films could make money, then shifted to if there they were even worthwhile.... Actually, it's not a matter of debate or opinion, it's an etched- in- stone- fact short films can make money. I've had 3 short films make money. There are countless other examples of shorts that made money, quite a bit of money actually, like the short by Peter Sollet
5 Feet High & Rising which became
Raising Victor Vargas. In the book '
Swimming Upstream: A Lifesaving Guide to Short Film Distribution' Sollet said his 20K short turned a profit, but years back I read an article that stated because of the healthy short film market he accessed via Clermont-Ferrand & having a sales rep he made several hundred grand selling to various Euro TV outlets that paid by the minute, he used it as seed money for
Raising Victor Vargas. It's alluded to here in the forward to former Sundance shorts programmer Roberta Munroe's book
How Not to Make A Short Film, "
5 Feet High & Rising became
Raising Victor Vargas, Cashback became cash- back." Yes, it's fair to say examples like this are a tad dated, this was in the days before streaming & when many Foreign Cable/TV outlets were hungry for films & particularly shorts. That's not necessarily the same dynamic today, but consider a short like
Thunder Road by Jim Cummings in 2016: it lead to a deal to direct several one take shorts for Vimeo as well as his feature film of the same name. (And, lead to a pro writing gig.) I believe Cummings was precluded from making money on the film because he had the Springsteen song, but it certainly opened many doors... My pal
Leon Corcos made a how- to short doc about the ins & outs of being a new parent that was financially the most successful thing he'd done.
I can't detail all the behind the scenes machinations of the aforementioned films, but I can detail the ways my own shorts became profitable (and led to writing work.) I'll start w/ the first:
Back Home Years Ago: The Real Casino.
http://jfafilms.com/films_therealcasino.html As you'd guess it's about the real wiseguys from Chicago who were the basis for the Scorsese mob epic,
Casino. It started as a short 7 min piece of John & Janet Pierson's (she runs SxSW now) old show
Split Screen which was on IFC/Bravo. They gave me most of money to shoot the film (and I used a small amount of my own,) but the story clearly was more involved than just a 7 min short. The longest version lives here on Amazon Prime, as well as some other paltforms I'll get into later
http://www.amazon.com/Real-CASINO-Special-Bonus/dp/B008PBCT0A & Fandor.
https://www.fandor.com/films/back_home_years_ago
After it aired on IFC, I cut an initial 30 min version which screened at New Filmmakers-Anthology Film Archives, NYC, then trimmed it down to a 24 min version for the Chicago PBS affiliate WTTW. (There was a short section on Milwaukee mob boss Frank Balistrieri they wanted excised to focus soley on Chicago.) Then I cut a more web friendly 14 min version that got bought by a shorts company called Hypnotic (then owned by Universal) and streamed online, sold to Euro cable, Airlines, etc. Hypnotic sold their library of shorts to WellSpring Media (Steve Bannon owned it at the time, go figure:)UK based Shorts International bought the library, gave me more money for an advance and sold it on their various ShortsHD
https://shorts.tv/en/ channels, etc. Because I'd cut so many versions and had a lot of out takes, etc. I had enough material to release a DVD that eventually got onto Netflix. In addition, the 14 min version was bought by TF 1 for the French release of Casino.
http://www.commeaucinema.com/dvd/casino1725 Then of course the DVD itself sells on Amazon and as well as downloads, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00013RBPI/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_ME3Fzb6W8MYPR
Overall, I'd say I've made 4 to 5 times the budget over the years and money comes in still both monthly & quarterly from various deals. True, it's a unique situation, but it's a short that's def made a nice amount of $ (low to mid 5 figures.) But most importantly, the doc lead to a relationship w/ Writer/Director Joe Carnahan that in turn lead to a low six figure writing deal & membership w the WGAw, everything you'd want a short film to do for your career. (I flipped some of that money into the feature version of
Warriors of the Discotheque, which also started as a short that made $.) Keep in mind, flexibility, and especially persistence, were key here. I could've easily just done the 7 min version for
Split Screen & called it a day, but instead, I kept cutting new versions to suit the market opportunities.... The original Split Screen/Criterion Channel version screened in Las Vegas at the Silver State Film Festival Sept. 5-8 2019, as well as a slew of other International Fests, and achived what one has to say every filmmaker's dream: that is to one day get the 'Criterion' treatment... And, as part of the legendary, groundbreaking series
Split Screen, we did just that... Now on the
Criterion Channel on you can stream Season 4, Episode 3 here
https://www.criterionchannel.com/split-screen-season-four-1/season:1/videos/split-screen-s4-e3-all-that-kc-jazz (originally Episode 18 on the initial IFC Show.) The final 40 minute version lives here on
Plex,
XumoTV,
Amazon, ZuZu in Canada, & Social Club TV. Also here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhMnfaZ2hBk&t=180s Most importantly, as mentioned prior, not only did it lead directly to studio gig for Joe Carnahan but also a script that was loosely based on making of said doc & has been my calling card script for other work.
In terms of parlaying this short into a Hollywood writing job, it was not quite a marathon, but far from a sprint. I ended up meeting Joe Carnahan indirectly through Peter Broderick who ran Next Wave Films for IFC which provided the finishing funds for Joe's first feature
Blood, Guts, Bullets, & Octane. I was able to stay in touch with Joe as I moved to Northern Cali not long after doing
The Real Casino, and I found myself on the
Casino DVD in France & getting a separate DVD release which Joe took note of. Of course, he was at a much higher level as he was negotiating the success of
Narc & choosing his follow up... I had done another low budget feature called
Into The Chasm that he was a fan of and sent him a few of my scripts. As he was prepping
Smokin' Aces he jumped into a new project (the details are here:
https://variety.com/2005/film/markets-festivals/helmer-high-on-drug-pic-1117930524/ ) about a young kid who was a drug dealer in high school up in Blaine, WA. He needed someone to knock out a first draft and even though it never saw the light of day, it did lead to other opportunities. (Including paying for
The Starck Doc & indirectly
The Early Inauguration, having that synergistic effect.) I'd say now more than ever, ya need to show people something other than just a deck or sizzle reel. These docs demonstrate an understanding of a world I usually get hired to write (just started a gig few week back as of this update August, '21
The Real Casino got me) that in many cases do more for me than my spec scripts. The point is, you have to nurture relationships without question, but you also have to keep doing the work!!! Had I not continued along in the process of writing & directing, there would be little reason for Joe to track my progress.
Next,
Warriors of the Discotheque: The Starck Club Documentary short version (which became a feature)
http://jfafilms.com/films_warriors_of_the_discotheque.html. It too had a built in advantage 'cause it had a pre-existing avid fan base. The Starck Club was a super hot Club in the 80's in Dallas that was legendary designer Philippe Starck's first foray in the US and it was actually legal to buy MDMA aka ecstasy there, people would put it on their credit cards. The DEA stepped in and made it a category 1 drug on July 1, 1985. This, despite NOT really understanding anything about MDMA... It wouldn't be an understatement to say The Starck Club was not only ground zero for the popularization of ecstasy, the whole rave scene, but even lit the fuse for the entire Billion dollar, DJ driven, EDM (Electronic Dance Music) scene.
The short traveled the Fest circuit including the premiere at the USA Film Festival in Dallas, HollyShorts, (both Academy accredited), New Filmmakers- Anthology Film Archives- NYC and a slew of many others. While the short did make money, it's most important purpose was to be a testing ground for the feature. At the short's preem at USA FF, the theater was literally packed after a lengthy front page piece in the Dallas Morning News. Had I been properly prepared, I could've made a small fortune then & there w/ DVDs, T-Shirts, Posters, etc. (When I preemed the feature at USA I was very well prepared getting back a significant chunk of my budget the first week, in person & online.)
As it was w/ the short, I sold many DVD's online and via amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002OSWUA4/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_3N3FzbA9MMNRA as well as VOD
https://www.amazon.com/Warriors-Discotheque-Starck-Club-Documentary/dp/B...
I basically doubled the initial investment and used screenwriting money to finance the Feature which lives here on Amazon Prime:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07W718LJN/ref=cm_sw_tw_r_pv_wb_z9PVFbo9VhvZn and here
http://www.fandor.com/films/warriors_of_the_discotheque as well as being newly released on a slew of other platforms, as well as various countries. Again, I admit it's a unique case in which the built-in audience has made both short and feature pretty successful. At this point, the feature has made 3/4 times it's budget and still coming in monthly due to Prime,
Plex,
XumoTV,Tubi,and Fandor. The short sells once in a while but is included on the DVD too, so that pretty much negates a lot of new sales... But, it does sell here on
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/rollininbigd 
The last film,
The Early Inauguration, you can find here
http://jfafilms.com/films_shorts.html and
here
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HST08VG#_swftext_Swf and here
on streamer Filmzie Now, on this one, I made money essentially by having spent nothing on the short 'cause Fandor helped raise money for it via it's KS page (scroll down) here
https://www.kickstarter.com/pages/Fandor here
https://www.fandor.com/filmmakers/director-joseph-alexandre-1671 But, it was easily the most miserable experience I've had in filmmaking. I despise these campaigns, the web equivalent of banging around w/ a tin cup. (I know some folks are able to make it all exciting and inclusive, but despite my best efforts it just felt like begging:) If I'd been part off this collective
http://filmmakermagazine.com/93448-fandor-to-finance-original-shorts-pro... I'd have really made a lot more $. By the looks of one film, one of the filmmakers spent about $2500 on the film and pocketed 8K. There are still a few deals on the horizon, one of which is a deal I signed w/ Shorts International &
https://shorts.tv/en/ for broadcast on ShortsHD- Home of the Oscar Shorts (Channel 573 on DirectTV) in the US as well as AT&T U-Verse (Channel 1789) US Sonet (Channel 292) CenturyLink (Channel 1789) Frontier Communications (Channel 1789) Google Fiber (Channel 603.) The money from ShortsTV was almost the entire budget and w Amazon Prime the film would be in the black even if I would have financed the film out of pocket....
In short, no pun intended, there are an amalgam of factors one has to consider when embarking upon a short. Most important, one has to pursue a project that you have genuine interest in, but it doesn't hurt to consider if there is a niche audience or built in following so to speak... Or some sort of wider draw, for instance with a film like
The Early Inauguration, one could make the case it'd be relevant every two years, during a Presidential election year, of course, but also a mid term year as well. You can also see
TEI here as well as here
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/teipoliticalpack as a double header to my newest short
Ralphie's 'Blue'. I consider
Ralphie's 'Blue' a companion piece to
'The Early Inauguration' in which TEI was the 'raison d'etre' for Donald Trump's campaign as he was going to 'drain the swamp' & fix the 'rigged' system. Wherein,
Ralphie's 'Blue' is the end result of those 4 years culminating in the January 6th insurrection... The 2 shorts should absolutely be watched back to back.
More pointedly, I'd wanted to do a project on the infamous Starck Club for some time but most likely a feature script. I realized a doc (short one at first) might be perfect when I saw all the sites online devoted to the club. Obviously, these examples are one offs, like almost every story in Cinema no two paths are the same: which is why it's so perplexing to so many newbies to find their path in the Entertainment Business (there is NO formula) & why a whole cottage industry has sprung up on 'how to succeed' and so forth. (Most of these ‘gurus’ make more money from guru’ing than actually as a screenwriter or filmmaker.) What works for some won't work for others, but just know that short films are not a waste of one's time. They've helped create a path to features for many and been a source sustenance for others.
And even more importantly, what all these projects have in common is the long haul. It's not as if a mother has a child and just throws it out after a year or two if the youngster doesn't show immediate progress. I'm being cheeky here, but the truth is far too many filmmakers are in such a rush to move on to the next one that they miss an opportunity to fully exploit and take advantage of the possibilities right in front of them. Of course, in many instances a short can be just a learning experience and hidden in the closet on that random hard drive. But, I can't tell you how many times I've seen an interesting film (short or feature) at a legit film festival or screening and then you can't find the film anywhere. It's inexcusable in this day and age with all the platforms available not to finish the job....
Good luck & plan well!!
