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"8", Award Winning Short Film, covered in "American Cinematographer" Sept. 12

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Ignacio Aguilar

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"8", Award Winning Short Film, covered in "American Cinematographer" Sept. 12

Hello,

Here's a short film that I shot in seven days in December 2009 / January 2010. Raúl Cerezo wrote and directed it.

Shot on Red One, original M sensor, not MX, using wide-open Zeiss Standards (interiors) and Superspeed lenses (exteriors).

We went for a vintage look, mostly inspired by "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), shot by the late William A. Fraker, ASC (to whom the short is dedicated).

This is a non-dialogue piece, and one of the most succesful Spanish horror shorts ever, with 39 awards (Méliès D'Argent and Sitges among them) and more than 250 worldwide nominations.

"American Cinematographer" Magazine chose it for its "Short Takes" section for their September 2012 number.

Now "8" has already finished its commercial distribution and it's free to watch it online.

Hope you will enjoy it!

 
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Commercial distribution for a short? That's interesting, mind sharing with us how the numbers add up on such a successful production in Spain?
 
Will Keir said:
Commercial distribution for a short? That's interesting, mind sharing with us how the numbers add up on such a successful production in Spain?
Click to expand...

Hi Will, I believe it's a standard procedure not only in Spain but in Europe (for medium to high-budget shorts, ours was medium at the most) to hire a distribution company. Here there are several companies specialized in short films, and you pay them an X amount of money a month for sending DVDs, Blu-rays, etc. to Film Festivals all over the world. We call it "Commercial Distribution" for short films.

In the last couple of years the situation has changed a lot, since now it's more usual to send Vimeo videos with a password, or uploaded to a platform such as Movibeta, etc. with reduced costs in mail and copies, but three or four years ago, when we started this project, that wasn't the case. Several people still prefer to distribute their short by themselves (it requieres certain knowledge of Film Festivals, when they are open to receive and select shorts, which genre they cover, etc), but it's a very time-consuming process and professional distribution usually delivers best results and it's not very expensive if you find the right distributor.

"8" was present at several American Film Festivals, such as "Fantastic Film Fest" in Austin (TX), or "Los Angeles Fear and Fantasy Film Festival" (in which it won the Best Short Film award in 2012), all through this process.
 
I see, thank you for clarifying. So the "commercial distribution" is not selling your short for profit but rather you paying for a service to submit to the festival circuit.

It would be wonderful to get an idea of costs/profits on the business end of a successful international short. Is there any profit to be had? Only possible prize money? Or is distribution also an option? Do shorts sell?



Ignacio Aguilar said:
Hi Will, I believe it's a standard procedure not only in Spain but in Europe (for medium to high-budget shorts, ours was medium at the most) to hire a distribution company. Here there are several companies specialized in short films, and you pay them an X amount of money a month for sending DVDs, Blu-rays, etc. to Film Festivals all over the world. We call it "Commercial Distribution" for short films.

In the last couple of years the situation has changed a lot, since now it's more usual to send Vimeo videos with a password, or uploaded to a platform such as Movibeta, etc. with reduced costs in mail and copies, but three or four years ago, when we started this project, that wasn't the case. Several people still prefer to distribute their short by themselves (it requieres certain knowledge of Film Festivals, when they are open to receive and select shorts, which genre they cover, etc), but it's a very time-consuming process and professional distribution usually delivers best results and it's not very expensive if you find the right distributor.

"8" was present at several American Film Festivals, such as "Fantastic Film Fest" in Austin (TX), or "Los Angeles Fear and Fantasy Film Festival" (in which it won the Best Short Film award in 2012), all through this process.
Click to expand...
 
We could have sold our short film (I was the cinematographer, but also one of the producers) to several Internet platforms while we were distributing it, but free online showings or even TV showings can hurt its career at the Festival Circuit (one of the purposes of these Film Festivals is showing unknown work from new talents, and if's made public, it looses appeal). So we sold the rights for only certain local TVs while we were distributing it, and only to the public Spanish television after its commercial career was over. "8" in particular won about 40 International Awards, but with the crisis it has been very difficult to recover costs for any short, not even for the most succesful ones. If you make a short, at least here in Spain, you just make it to show your skills and what you're capable of (in my case, handle a production and photographing it), and that's your return of money investment. After you've finished the Festival Circuit, and hopefully you've won several awards and have been present at many prestigious Festivals, then you launch your piece for the general public.

But as I said, that's the standard procedure here in Spain, and I've been told that in another countries they work in a different way, focusing more on public Internet instead of Film Festivals all over the world.
 
Thank you Ignacio!

Ignacio Aguilar said:
We could have sold our short film (I was the cinematographer, but also one of the producers) to several Internet platforms while we were distributing it, but free online showings or even TV showings can hurt its career at the Festival Circuit (one of the purposes of these Film Festivals is showing unknown work from new talents, and if's made public, it looses appeal). So we sold the rights for only certain local TVs while we were distributing it, and only to the public Spanish television after its commercial career was over. "8" in particular won about 40 International Awards, but with the crisis it has been very difficult to recover costs for any short, not even for the most succesful ones. If you make a short, at least here in Spain, you just make it to show your skills and what you're capable of (in my case, handle a production and photographing it), and that's your return of money investment. After you've finished the Festival Circuit, and hopefully you've won several awards and have been present at many prestigious Festivals, then you launch your piece for the general public.

But as I said, that's the standard procedure here in Spain, and I've been told that in another countries they work in a different way, focusing more on public Internet instead of Film Festivals all over the world.
Click to expand...
 
Beautifully done Ignacio!

the atmosphere and the suspense is cleverly maintained during the whole film and those many details give it a very special after taste. Bravo.
 
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