4 Tips for Directing an Ambitious Short Film

I'm a huge fan of short films. I love watching them, talking about them, and planning my own.

Sometimes I’ll read a friend’s short film script and feel some initial concern, especially from beginning writer/directors. It’s long, or complicated with multiple locations, or has a big monster and difficult VFX needs. A short film like that can be really hard to pull off independently.

But Jasper Pagan made Lure , a 22-minute period piece with stunts, underwater sequences, crowd work, and a CGI sea monster, as a student film with no budget and no professional experience. So it’s definitely possible.

A lot of student films can be bad. Everyone knows it, and Pagan knew it too. (It’s okay, we try and we learn and we get better and that’s what those early films are for.) But he and his team set out to make something that didn't look or feel like one, and they came up with a short set in 1950s Norfolk, following two brothers on a fishing trip that goes sideways when they wake up a sea monster.

Check out his video breakdown of how he did it below, and we’ll also discuss the best things we can take away as indie filmmakers.

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Tip 1: Set Goals Before You Have Ideas

Pagan's team didn't start with a story. They started with rules that included not shooting in their own city, staying in the drama genre, making it a period piece, and doing something fantastical. They wanted to avoid what he calls “student film cliches,” such as a party scene or a Guy Ritchie-style homage.

They created these rules to challenge themselves. They had only shot comedies before, and they wanted something visually distinct from what their classmates were doing.

This requires an awareness of what other filmmakers around you are doing. If you’re not in film school or never went to film school, get involved in your local filmmaking scene. Watch a ton of short films. Know what you want to do (or not do).

If you don't set parameters upfront, you might default to what's comfortable. You end up making the film that was easiest to write or shoot. The constraints also built early buy-in from the whole team, which matters more than people admit — especially on a no-budget shoot where enthusiasm is basically your only currency.

"Get you and your team excited by the challenge of making something, not just by the end result,” Pagan says.

We've written about the questions every director should answer before their first short, and most of them come back to clarity of vision, not logistics.

Tip 2: Make the Film You'd Want to Watch

You’ve probably heard this simple advice before. It’s easy to dismiss, and hard to actually follow.

Pagan's point is that passion shows up on screen, and so does its absence. A lot of first shorts are cautious because the filmmaker is quietly afraid to fail at something they actually care about. That caution produces forgettable work.

Pagan argues your taste isn't as niche as you think. If something genuinely excites you, other people probably feel that same enthusiasm.

I would add to this something else I’ve heard from other short filmmakers. Tell the actual story in your short that you want to tell. What I mean by that is, if you’re doing a proof of concept, don’t worry about “giving the end away.” Don’t hedge or hold back because your short is potentially part of a larger story—you might never get to make the feature version. Just make your short version and commit to the idea. I’m thinking of shorts like MAMA, which went on to become a feature, and it held nothing back.

As we've argued before, the best scripts come from writing the movie you actually want to see, not the one that seems most producible.

Tip 3: Write What You Know (Then Disguise It)

Again, this is probably a version of advice you’re already aware of. The emotional core of whatever story you’re telling should be personal. The packaging is what should be completely original. Your approach is what makes the project yours.

Pagan gives a personal example. He was moved by watching his brothers grow up and by sensing the inevitability of getting older and of things changing. But that’s not a story, really. It’s an emotional foundation. He filtered that feeling through 1950s Norfolk, a fishing trip, and a sea monster. The theme is universal, but the execution is his own.

Pagan says, "When you're coming up with your theme for your film, do draw from personal experiences, but try to express that in a way that you haven't seen before."

Personal doesn't have to mean literal. What's the feeling you're going for? What themes are you interested in exploring? Find a framework or setting or group of characters that earns it without spelling it out.

Ricky Gervais built a career on a version of this. We broke down _how he approaches personal storytelling_and why "write what you know" is only useful if you do something interesting with it.

Tip 4: Know How You'll Pull It Off

Pagan’s rule is go 10% further than you think you're capable of. But you have to stress-test the ambition before it's locked into your script.

His film opens on a boat at sea. Filming on the real ocean wasn't possible (or safe). As they were perfecting the scene on the page, he opened Blender and tested whether he could build a photorealistic ocean using VFX. The results weren't perfect, but he figured out the method. He knew what he was walking into.

There’s a difference between being ambitious and reckless. Ambitious means you've done the homework, know the path, and are taking an educated risk. Reckless means you wrote the scene and hoped it would work out, but did no prep and are just showing up to set. One will result in a project, and the other will give you a production in disarray. Test your hardest shots early. Have some options before you need them.

"You can achieve so much with duct tape and bits of string,” he says. “And that's what I love about filmmaking. You can turn rubbish around you into art, into beauty."

If you're figuring out how to stretch a tiny budget into something visual, this breakdown of building a full VFX world for $700 is a good place to start, and so is this piece on shooting indie sci-fi on a tight budget, which covers the same test-early tips.