First Steps First
by Leesa Dean
I’ve been insanely busy, prepping for a few big meetings. Animating, writing, ideating. But I took a small break to meet an old friend for coffee. He’s a wannabe tv writer who’s been thinking about writing/filming a film short and wanted to pick my brain about ultimately (meaning after he’s finished his short and, hopefully, made a little noise with it) doing a digital project. I’m thinking the sale of Twitch to Amazon for $1.1 billion made him suddenly and seriously pay attention to the digital world. He’s a gamer (as a hobby) and I think, for whatever reason, it legitimized the digital realm for him. He never really took it seriously. And truthfully, why it took him this long to drink the digital kool-aid is a mystery to me.
I told him I thought he had it backwards.
He should first start putting a few shorts online and see if they get any traction. Preferably do a web series. Then, ultimately, do a film short and submit it to film festivals. No, it’s not easy-particularly promoting them-but the one thing I’ve been observing over the past few months is exactly how much everything is bleeding together. Yes, you have to still write a ton of scripts (it’s the only way anyone will consider really working with you professionally and the only way you’ll grow as a writer.) Yes, it’s also a good idea to do a film short (or two) and submit it/them to film festivals. But I really don’t think that anybody’s going to take you seriously if you don’t have a real web presence. This is 2014. That’s what it is.