Here’s how to distribute and actually monetise your short films
A lot of filmmakers around the world typically state of short films being nothing more than calling cards to showcase potential producers/studios on what your skills are as a filmmaker. I can’t blame them fully as generally, we weren’t educated on recent and ever growing platforms either dedicated to shorts/videos beyond just YouTube and Vimeo… and only educated in film schools that the only way to earn any money is from private premiers and hopefully win prize money from film festivals.
And before you go ahead and say “But surely distributors can grab my film from me and put it out there on NETFLIX and Amazon prime and such…” Oh you sweet yet naive idiot.
Firstly, notable and underground distributors generally don’t take shorts unless its made from Pixar or a famous director or something since they get as much eyeballs as much compared to features and documentaries.
Secondly, Most popular streaming services as a rule of thumb don’t insert shorts into their catalogues. Not many people watch as much shorts in the same way we watch features or doco’s, therefore, they would consider it a waste of money for streaming services to acquisition into their catalogues if not many people by design are going to watch them frequently.
But that’s not to say its all doom and gloom with no way to earn something from your shorts. Luckily, upon during my research on film distribution whilst making my first short outside of film school “FULL CIRCLE” I would like to shed some hopeful light on new filmmakers out there that have just created a short and clueless with what do do with them more than just slot them into your showreel or film festivals. Here are the tips, ideas and platforms you can submit and monetise your shorts;
Theatrical releases = You can contact a local cinema to hire a cinema hall for you to showcase your short film on a certain date and create a ticked screening event. If their quotes aren’t listed on their websites, you can ask for a quote to help calculate costs (including marketing & DCP testing). It would be wise to contact and network with local filmmakers where you can showcase other filmmakers shorts to aid with splitting the screening hire costs. In exchange you can offer a profit share system with all involved. Make sure you invest into marketing your event locally via word of mouth and social media’s to get bums on seats. You can also offer mercy to throw into the mix like posters, t shirts, USB’ etc… if done right, this can be a potential source of income from your short film.
Website = You can create a filmmakers website to showcase and sell your shorts directly from your followers and customers. The price is up to you and can create one via Wix, square space, Shopify etc…
Shortly = Shortly is a platform/App with the intent of exclusively streaming short films around the world. It’s a Combination of SVOD/AVOD options for filmmakers to monetise their shorts when they submit here. It’s a relatively new platform but its gaining traction amongst new filmmakers and new streamers.
Vidiverse = founded by Notable Director Alex Proyas (The Crow, iRobot, Gods of Egypt), Vidiverse was created with the intention of kickstarting the commerciality of shorts in both auteur and non auteur style shorts. Shorts there can be viewed via a transaction or through a subscription. There are a few originals along with being able to directly submit your short here.
INDIEFLIX = IndieFlix takes almost any bit of video content independently made from shorts to features to series to documentaries. They do a 50/50 split of the total generated revenue of the platform as a whole with the platforms and filmmakers.
Film hub = (kanopy, slash shorts) A platform where filmmakers big and small can self upload almost any form of content wether they are Features, shorts, Documentaries or music videos. They’ll be forwarded to all the streaming platforms under their belt that accept your content and have some big streaming companies like Amazon prime, Apple TV and Hulu etc… Their primary methods of earning money are TVOD, SVOD and AVOD. Ther’es no upfront fees to upload your shorts but they do take 20% of total revenue made monthly or quarterly.
Cineshort = An app platform where they showcase short films around the world both old titles to award winning festival run shorts. Their primary method of earning money are TVOD, SVOD and AVOD
WeShorts = A short film streaming platform based in Italy but they accept shorts that contain any language. They're an SVOD based platform.
Facebook watch = This one goes without saying but for those living under a rock for a few years, you can upload and monetise all kinds of video content on facebook watch. As long as you have a facebook account/page, you’re good. They operate and monetise on via ads per certain views (they fluctuate and very due to type of content and from location to location). This seems to be an ever growing platform for short form content.
Twitter/X = Thanks to their recent ad revenue share program, you can upload your short film and posts related to your content in general and start earning even use from ads and sponsors.. There are some conditions you must follow through however to be eligible, like having a premium account, min 500 followers and at least 5M organic impressions within 3 months, so try to drive as much traffic as you possibly can to achieve this creatori to start making money on twitter.
FENIX360 = A growing TVOD platform dedicated to artists and creators as a marketplace for them to sell their content. These range from pre ticket releases to mercy to videos to even NFT’s. You can manually set the price on your short film to any amount desired during the upload process.
Instagram reel/TikTok = cmon, you don’t really need me to let you know this is a good way right? You can re export your shorts into vertical aspect ratio along with cutting them into bite size chunks in top multiple parters and release them accordingly. They can be monetised via their creator programs where and add may show on a previous reel and earn a portion of the ad revenue from that.
Argo media = an established streaming service that’s dedicate to showing shorts from first releases to award winning shorts straight from Sundance. There are some shorts there with now prolific talent like Benedict Cumberbatch. Who would’ve thought?
Dailymotion = Another form of YouTube that operates on the same basis but doesn’t seem to be as popular compared to YouTube for some reason. Their CPM seems quite alright being $75 per hour played on your videos per 1000 views, regardless of the type of content. If you can market your short well to draw people in to Dailymotion, you’d be making a good move I believe.
Bitchute = A version of YouTube that’s more aligned with non fiction content, however you’re still at liberty to upload fictional shorts and such. This would seem like an ideal platform for short videos/documentaries. They’re operated and monetised via a shared AVOD scheme akin to twitters new scheme.
Indie shorts = An app platform specifically for indie short films. They showcase shorts from no budget to relatively high budget shorts in any genre. They operate and monetised via AVOD.
Shorts TV = A very notable platform tailored for shorts that has been going on for a while now. Most of their viewers stem from the UK and Europe but are growing to a global scale. They operate and monetised via AVOD and SVOD methods.
Shortindies = ShortIndies is…you guessed it, another exclusively short film streaming platforms primarily popular in Europe. They’re a combo of SVOD and AVOD options.
Minute shorts = This is an OTT platform for short from India. However, they alo include western short films. Primarily AVOD based structure
Vimeo/Vimeo OTT = This one is pretty known in the filmmaker circles. Think of it as YouTube for creatives. You can see content ranging from music videos to feature length films. They can operate and monetise via TVOD and AVOD methods. You can either set a custom price for people to directly buy or just place ads before hand for free for people to enjoy.
YouTube = This is an obvious one. If for some reason you don’t know what this platforms , its the biggest online video platform to date. You can earn money from uploading your short film onto here. It’s a 55/45 split with average CPM being $18-36 per 1000 views (at least in Australia, rates vary from location to location) but can generally earn a bigger CPM if your short is longer than 10 minutes
Patreon = A platforms where you can connect a YouTube account with and get people to donate to your channel for exclusive perks that you can custom create for your donors. You can control donation amount and different level of perks per subscription.
Buy me a coffee = Basically a newer alternate version of Patreon. Similar details as written above for Patreon.
Crypt TV = a network for short form content where they’re open to other filmmakers to submit your shorts onto their platform for an agreed upon cut per frequency of time.
Rooster Teeth TV = A well known production company with their own platform beyond just their youtube channel. They’ve been going on for years and are know willing to take your shorts to put onto their established channels only for a 10-20% cut per quarter. Not that bad compared to other alternatives distribution wise.
Gumroad = Just like FENIX360. Gumroad is a reputable TVOD platform dedicated to artists and creators as a marketplace for them to sell their content. These range from e-books to merch to videos. You can manually set the price on your short film to any amount desired during the upload process.
Payhip = Just like FENIX360 and Gumroad, Payhip is a growing yet still reputable TVOD platform dedicated to artists and creators as a marketplace for them to sell their content. These range from e-books to merch to videos. You can manually set the price on your short film to any amount desired during the upload process.
Koji = Komi seems to the creators content website that has it all. It’s the most perfect combination of Patreon, Gumroad and facebook rolled into 1 site. You can manage social media’s to posting content, especially shorts and can place/adjust the format and pricing in any way you choose to sell to your audience and followers.
Omeleto = A YouTube channel dedicated to showing sci-fi shorts from numerous directors and the filmmakers get a major cut of the revenue when submitted, approved and uploaded onto their channel. They have a noticeably big and loyal amount of subscribers with consistently large amount of views per video.
ALTAVOD = This is another VOD platform specifically catered to indie filmmakers to upload their films onto. This was also created by Robert Schwartzen (relative of Jason schwartzen, tali’s shire and Francis ford Coppola) and is primarily TVOD and is a standard 90/10 split between the filmmakers and the platform.
Cubestream = Cubestream is another quite recent platform for filmmakers to upload their content onto. The unique thing about this one is it’s based on the crypto blockchain system.
Rumble = Ruble is an aleternative to YouTube where creators can upload their content too besides just YouTube. It’s just gaining traction as more youth ears are also using the platform.
GUDSHO = this is a relatively new platform that filmmakers can upload their shorts onto. It has a TVOD and SVOD system along with donations possible like Patreon.
Shortfundly = Shortfundly is an OTT marketplace platform based in India that you can upload your short film to and earn revenue via SVOD & AVOD.
Stock video websites: Depending on the nature of your short, you can either submit your whole short if its under a minute or edit and cut bite size chunks of your short film, then submit those clips onto various stock video sites for extra revenue for either commercial/editorial use. If your smart, you can even isolate and export some B-roll or BTS clips or even some 2nd unit backdrop clips as seperate videos to submit. Here are the well known primary stock video website i know and use;
- Adobe stock
- Pond 5
- Nimia.com
- Dissolve
- Artgrid
- Alamy
- Storyblocks
- Bigstock
- 123RF
- Dreamstime
- Getty images
- Istock
Stock photo websites = Same principle as with stock footage liste above but with still images. Find and screenshot the best stills within your short and sell them as stock photos. Here are the well known primary stock photo websites i know and use;
- Adobe stock
- Pond 5
- 500px
- Clickasnap
- Bigstock
- IStock
- Alamy
- Getty images
- Dreamstime
- 123RF
I hope these platforms and ideas help you immensely with your short films. Keep trying and keep making films as i wish all you indie filmmakers prosperopus endeavors.
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