Or should that be oz writers direct their own features..

The music video and tv advert angle is a different story. There are a great many filmmakers who have come from this (though citing Michael bay hardly does this pathway any credibility – the lack of ‘simple scene structures’ is evident in his non-sensical script-less films) But Niel Blomkamp of District 9 fame is an example, as is Spike Jonze. These filmmakers came from music videos and advertising. Mingella is an example of someone coming to cinema late having built a career in other mediums. But such exceptions prove the rule as people doing this kind of late career medium shift are very rare.

Certainly there are many ways to making long-form cinema (be it episodic Tv or feature length). But the most common direct pathway since the advent of the modern film-school in the 60’s has arguably been the short fiction dramatic film. But this legacy comes form a history where festivals were direct markets for selling films and broadcasters and distributers were hungry for this content and for ear-marking future filmmakers for bigger projects. This is where the market has dropped out, just as the ‘noise’ of many filmmakers on many media has risen. Supply and Demand.

This is what leads me to the question of ‘What other option aside from short-films and music videos is there to serve as viable calling card in a world were every man and his dog has a glitzy stylistic short film and audiences are far more story-savvy than they have ever been.

In part 2 I’ll get a little into how the online Web-series may be that new calling card of the future (if not the now) Thanks for reading.

cheers
Mike

http://www.mikejones.tv

Further to the idea of the ‘calling card’, many of the successful modern directors didn’t come from short films but from the commercial and music video business. The likes of Michael Bay didn’t even work in simple scene structures but in a collage of images that have no relation to the art of telling a story.

Anthony Minghella is a great example of a filmmaker who came to the film world from a more literary background. He started writing plays and radio dramas before moving into television and eventually film.

When referring to a short film are you thinking more exclusively the five or ten minute film? I have found that a twenty minute film does have enough time that you can get involved and there can be development of plot and character.