Learn How to Make and Market a Film with DC Shorts

The DC Shorts Film Festival has a great new tagline:

DC Shorts champions short filmmaking.

Marketing taglines are a lot of times so much fluff, filled with words like “leveraging” and “cross-platform” and other tired buzzwords.

But “DC Shorts champions short filmmaking” really communicates what the festival is all about – it’s a celebration of short film and filmmakers.

And now the festival is trying something new: DC Mentors. Taught by film professionals and peers, these interactive sessions are designed to build upon one another, creating skills needed to better compete in the festival circuit. Over four weekends in DC you can learn how to write a script, find actors, shoot your film and then market it to film festivals – you can sign up for the whole program or just take individual classes. And at $160 for seven classes, it’s literally .01% the cost of film school.

And I’ll be one of the writer-mentors for the March 3 class on storytelling. I’m a writer who won the Film DC Screenplay Competition and has been a judge for DC Shorts and other local festivals. I like helping writers. There’s so much “fear to start” among new writers that can be overcome with a little bit of encouragement and practical advice. I can provide that.

Sign-up for DC Mentors and learn filmmaking over four weekends in spring.

Author: Joe Flood

Joe Flood is a writer, photographer and web person from Washington, DC. The author of several novels, Joe won the City Paper Fiction Competition in 2020. In his free time, he enjoys wandering about the city taking photos.

2 thoughts on “Learn How to Make and Market a Film with DC Shorts”

  1. Hello Joe,
    My screenplay aims to expose what happens when attorney’s run for political office. It’s good political satire.
    I have registered my work with WGA, and have a registration number. I am pretty new at this and could use some help. Where do I go from here?
    ( I am right over here in Ellicott City). Thanks very much
    Chris

  2. Hi Chris,
    Sounds like you’ve done all the right things. I’d look at reputable contests like Sundance and Austin to try to attract some attention to your script. Good luck!
    Joe

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