Well, here's a question to kick off this kick ass discussion-

What is the process of selling a short film, and what happens once its sold?

I'd be interested in the process of a short film attracting a distributor. I've been told that it's best to get a distributor before chasing finance etc.
Are there people or companys that I should try first?
Do you need to be registerd as a business to produce a film? short or otherwise.
What things could I do to make what ever project I do sound more atractive to a prospective distributor? Hope to hear from someone soon.
Cheers.

I think one of the key factors here is what you hope to achieve with a short film in the first place.

Did you make the film for personal reasons? To show your skills? To get your name into festivals? To get a job through someone seeing it? For experience?

Too often I think people focus on the making of the film, and rarely on the distribution or screening of the film (beyond the premiere).

I can remember going to see feature films when they still played a short before the film, those days are definately gone from the mainstream cinema experience.

Could enthusiastic independent early career filmmakers pursuade independent cinemas to screen a short before every feature?

Here in WA, we've recently seen a number of bars beinging to screen short films from The creatures Loft in Fremantle, the Velvet Lounge in My Lawley to Bar 138 in the city.

Festivals and competitions are an obvious place for short films, so is YouTube. What about a specifi site hosting films from a region or on a similar theme though, is that an opportunity someone could take up?

How about films on airlines? or television programs such as SBS's 'Shorts on Screen'? How about Pay TV? They end up with heaps of dead space at the end of the hour cause they have less ads than free to air TV.

I think one of the biggest marketing challenges is to think beyond the film festival.