Short films that became TV series
Industry Centre > Blogs > Short films that became TV series
Posted by Kellie Ann Benz
on Tuesday, July 27, 2010.
Categories: Film, Television
Short films are just practise. Calling cards. Expensive hobbies. The pure unobstructed vision of an auteur. The work of idle minds with tons of time and a little bit of money. True, true true and totally true.
And sometimes, they’re the beginnings of something. Like a TV series.
Meet Lee Friedlander and Michelle Paradise, Jean-François Asselin, and NSI alum Craig David Wallace – four television creators whose series were born from the short films they made.
Lee and Michelle’s popular series Exes and Ohs on MTV’s specialty network Logo came out of a chance viewing of Lee’s directing reel. A development exec fell for their very popular short film The Ten Rules: A Lesbian Survival Guide written by, and starring, Michelle and directed by Lee. So he called them in for a meeting.
An early key to their success was locking in experienced showrunner Bill Grundfest (Mad About You) who was able to help Michelle finesse the short’s ideas into a series concept.
"Logo initially responded to the short’s characters, tone and style, so we kept all of those,” Michelle explained.
"For the purpose of the series, however, we focused on fewer ‘rules’ per episode. At the end of the day there really wasn’t anything major from the short that we had to eliminate. I think that says a lot about what the network execs saw in the short film, and why the series ultimately got a greenlight."
Jean-Francois’ series François en série, which aired on Quebec’s Astral-Media-owned Series Plus channel, was born from the 21 minute short film Déformation Personnelle (Personal Distortion).
For Jean-Francois it was a pitch to Locomotion Films in Montreal which lead to a network pitch that allowed him to keep most of his short in the series.
"Almost all of the scenes in the short film are in the two first episodes. The two principals are played by the same actor and a lot of the other actors are in the series as well," Jean-Francois confirmed.
Jean-Francois took the reins as showrunner, as well as directing every episode, but he shared the writing with a partner.
Probably the best known of all these success stories is NSI alum Craig David Wallace who first created his short Todd and the Book of Pure Evil through the Canadian Film Centre’s shorts program, then used that to get into NSI Totally Television where he and his producing team pitched the series concept, based on the short, to networks.
The series Todd and the Book of Pure Evil premieres on SPACE this year. If you’re flying on Air Canada this summer, scroll through the media options for the original short.
Like Jean-Francois, Craig David also showran his own show explaining, "It was a long and twisty road to get there." The series retains the basic characters and premise, but "... it's much, much bigger and crazier than the short film."
It goes without saying that each one of these short filmmakers learned 17 times what they teach you in film school, so what were their top lessons?
Jean-Francois reminds everyone that television reaches into a lot of homes, shoot fast and never forget your audience.
Lee points out that "... network has the final say. So be ready to be malleable and make sure you have strong representation."
Michelle counsels to hire smart people, delegate and be good to your beloved crew, they’ll work harder for you.
Finally, Craig David advises not to hold back. Know that "... nobody knows anything for sure and that the only rule is whatever you can get away with."
So, calling card schmalling schmard. Dust off those old shorts and see if there might be a series idea inside.
- Kellie
Ann
Benz is a columnist who writes about short film on the
NSI
website and also runs her own blog The Shorts
Report -
NSI on the web
Views expressed here are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI).
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The views expressed here are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI).