ABSTRACT
This chapter covers several directing career options to get people thinking outside the box. It discusses independent filmmaking, directing commercials, and directing studio-funded documentaries. The chapter presents an in-depth conversation with one of Australia's most prolific filmmakers, Gillian Armstrong, and focuses at the evolution of her career across decades. It offers an interview with Orly Ravid at The Film Collaborative, an education and advocacy organization that can help. Orly explains that short films are very hard to get distributed. Typically, though, the short film is more of a calling card and not very often a way to see robust distribution. In 1969, Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider and John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy rolled out the 'indie movement' in the United States, producing alternative feature films outside the traditional studio system. Prizes and festival screenings for short films attracted interest from local producers keen to back the graduates' first feature film.
