Making Money in Short Films?

This isn't a post so much as it is a question. Back when I started making short films back in 2003, there wasn't really a market for short films. The broadcasters I talked to didn't even know what to do with them. This was back when digital filmmaking was just starting to take off. So with all of the changes in digital filmmaking and websites and everything, is anyone making any money at short films? I'm not talking a couple hundred or a couple thousand dollars from film festival license fees. But is anyone making serious money off their short films? Like $30-50,000 with their shorts? And I am talking about profit not net. I have friends that have spent $30,000-50,000 on their short films that got substantial five figure license fees from broadcasters, but they still haven't broken even. Is there a market for short films or are they still used mostly as calling cards and stepping stones to make features?

I'm just wondering how much the short film market has changed in the past five years. After I did my last couple of shorts, I decided to take some time off. Now I am thinking about getting back behind the camera again but wondering what I will find once I enter that world again. For the past couple of years, I've been focused on selling and promoting other people's films.

I'll be traveling a lot over the next couple of weeks with Hong Kong Filmart and MIPTV coming up. Then a week later I head out to Palm Springs for Coachella. It's gonna be an interesting month. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures to share with you guys.

The storm cometh

Remember that storm I was talking about? Well, it's here and the reason I haven't been blogging much lately. I'm in the process of getting ready for my around the world trip in two weeks. If you want more immediate updates, I'd suggest following my twitter feeds.

You can definitely feel the effect of the world economy on the international film world. A lot of my regular buyers are deciding not to spend the money to go to the film markets. Let's hope they still have money to buy programming.

Looking forward to a boring film market. I'll be sure to bring my DS to play while I am bored.