Short of the Week

Date Posted: 2016-09-04

Short of the Week is an online channel that curates the best online films and shares them with millions of users.  Each week they showcase about an hour of new material so they are always looking for new content.  If you’ve made something you’re proud of, they could help you find your audience.

They accept about 4% of content that is sent to them and they do charge a submission fee of $29.99 so pay careful attention to their submission guidelines from their website below, and below that you’ll find our interview with Short of the Week Founder Andrew Allen.

Submission Guidelines (from Short of the Week website)

  • Length: Films need to be 40 minutes or less. We prefer most films sit on the shorter end of that spectrum—the average film we feature is 10 minutes. The longer your film (over 15 minutes), the tougher judges we tend to be.
  • Premiere Status: No premiere status is required, however, we give preference to films that haven’t yet premiered online. So, don’t wait to submit your film.
  • Rights: We require films to have all necessary rights and releases secured for us to feature them. Yes, this includes music.
  • Free to View: We only select films that are free for audiences.

 What We Look For

We look for great stories that brave new territory. We value great characters, interesting new worlds, and stories that surprise us over fancy visual effects, famous actors, or silly one-liners that often feed much of online videos. So when screening films, we tend to score them based on three attributes:

  • Head—Does it break new ground and have us thinking about something in a new way?
  • Heart—Does it stir us emotionally?
  • Hand—Does it exhibit great skill and craftsmanship?

Learn more about our submission process

Another great way to determine what we are after is to simply watch the films we have featured thus far. You can get a good sense of our taste by looking at what we have curated in the past.

What We Avoid

We have no hard and fast rules. Every film is different and there are always exceptions. In general, though, the following tend to not be a good fit for us:

  • Music videos or abstract films with no or little story
  • Abstract fashion films with no or little story
  • Films driven solely by special effects
  • Commercials or purely promotional pieces (Branded films are okay)
  • Timelapse/ travel photography films
  • Comedy sketches based on a single punchline

Comedy Crowd interview with Andrew Allen

We caught up with Andrew Allen, the Founder and Managing Director of Short of the Week, to get some exclusive insights for Comedy Crowd members.

CC: What was the motive behind starting Short of the Week?

AA: We saw the launch of YouTube and Vimeo as a watershed moment for filmmakers to get their work out into the world. At the time it was mostly silly cat videos and stunt fails, but we saw an opportunity for great films to find an audience. So we launched Short of the Week to highlight those great, early pioneers.

CC: Why do you think it has been successful when other online channels have come and gone?

AA: Many other channels focus on specific techniques, styles, or technologies. We focus on great storytelling and those who push its boundaries and constantly redefine it. We’ve been telling stories since the first campfires. Stories define our culture.

CC: You wrote back in 2011 that ‘the online video world is not a meritocracy’.  Do you think that has got better or worse?

AA: Depends on what you consider to be “better” 😉

The web is a platform like any other, so it’s going through the same stages as home video, cinema, and electricity. The Wild West days are long over and we’re well into a period of consolidation now. That means that in order to get your work seen, you need to get it into the right hands of the right curator (like Short of the Week). But don’t dismay, where we are today is miles ahead of where things were just 15 years ago when you had to win a major film festival and have an uncle in Hollywood to get your work seen.

CC: What has been the most significant change in the online film world since you started?

AA: The film industry is now turning to online channels like Short of the Week as their primary source for discovering new talent and new development projects. Over the past three years we’ve seen filmmakers whose careers we helped launch, break into directing Hollywood blockbusters, major indie features, and new series on Amazon and Hulu. You can read more about those filmmakers’ experiences in a new series we just launched called, The New Filmmaker https://www.shortoftheweek.com/news/the-new-filmmaker/

CC: How would you describe the audience for comedy on Short of the Week?

AA: Comedy does really well in short film. It can be a great way for both directors and actors to showcase their skills (Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ SUCCESSFUL ALCOHOLICS). The best comedies tend to push on something beyond being funny and touch on something deeper or darker (Nash Edgerton’s BEAR)

CC: Tell us about your favourite comedy video on Short of the Week.

AA: My favorite comedy of the moment is Jim Cummings’ THUNDER ROAD. It won the top prizes at SXSW and Sundance. Hilarious and touching. We were proud to premiere it to the world on Short of the Week.

CC: What’s the most common mistake you see in submissions?

AA: You can tell when someone is making a film because they want to make a film rather than because there’s truly a fresh story or idea they need to share. Many, many films fall into this bucket of being well-made but completely forgettable. It’s so common that we wrote a post about it https://www.shortoftheweek.com/news/greatness-why-good-isnt-good-enough/

CC: Can you give Comedy Crowd members a top tip to get into that 4% that make it onto your channel?

AA: Be notable, be brave, and surprise us. That’s always a winning combo.