No Country for Influencer Studs

Author

Jason Sondhi
August 02, 2024

Titles are hard! This week’s is a mashup of a couple of our feature shorts this week so don’t read too much into it. If there is any theme to this dispatch it would probably be animation, which features prominently throughout the following sections where we will be…

  • Providing fresh links in our 10 Things We’re Paying Attention section

  • Filling you in on the week’s Short of the Week Picks

  • Reminding you of your last chance for a cool grant opp from Black Film Space

  • Running down the best shorts of July on Shortverse

Let’s begin!

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To

  1. The status of Scavengers Reign is still up in the air, but Joe Bennett’s next show drops its first teaser.

  2. Why is the science of movie recommendations so complicated?

  3. Michael Bay looks to a popular YouTube for his next big IP. You’re not going to believe what it’s about though…

  4. Tik Tok made videos short. But are long videos the next YouTube trend?

  5. Are people actually watching AI short films?

  6. Help support S/W alum Aisha Amin as she crowdfunds her new film.

  7. Selling indie TV shows is still an inexact science. Mark Duplass delivers advice in a panel from this year’s SeriesFest.

  8. In the ‘90s there was an American neo-noir anthology show (basically 30min short films) with episodes directed by Cuaron, Soderbergh, Tom Hanks, and even Tom Cruise(!). How the hell had I never heard of this!?

  9. SIGGRAPH wrapped up in Denver, CO. Congrats to the winners!

  10. Jazzed for UK animation outfit The Line, which announced they are making a feature film based on their 2019 short The Mighty Grand Piton. Here’s their IG post with the announcement, and watch the original short here.

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

The Influencer by Lael Rogers

A social media influencer describes her perfect day harvesting the eyes and minds of her followers to achieve immortality.

Romance Package for Two by Carlen May-Mann

The monotonous life of Cleo and Judy, a queer couple who run a kitschy love motel, is thrown into disarray when Cleo falls for a visiting dominatrix.

Stud Country by Alexandra Kern & Lina Abascal

Stud Country, the largest queer country western line dancing event in America, was created to preserve Los Angeles' little-known 50+ year queer line dancing tradition.

Best of the Month: July 2024

Short films from Chaerin Im, Pien Van Grinsven & Carlen May-Mann feature in Short of the Week's Best of the Month picks for July 2024.

🤝 Partner Message

Black Film Space and cliveRd. are partnering for a second year in a row with another proof of concept short film grant opportunity! cliveRd. is an agile startup studio focused on producing and building projects focused on futurism.

The Proof of Concept Short Film Grant is seeking one short film script under 15 minutes/pages that aims to serve as a preview for a feature film or episodic series. The grant total is $10,000.

🪐 Shortverse Collections

This month that was saw a ton of good shorts added to Shortverse. Rob gathers 12 of them, including a disorienting vision of Japanese salaryman culture, discovering your creativity with the help of a talking fish, and a viral Alien-franchise fan film with impeccable art.

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