ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how the contemporary landscape can inform how a filmmaker approaches their work at the outset, and ways in which they might push the envelope. Beginning with a study of Aidan McAteer’s success through the online micro-short competition DepicT! in which the inherent limitations of the platform guided him creatively in the making of The Gentleman’s Guide to Villainy. Group Effort looks at the concept of the “AniJam” (in which multiple artists approach a single project with a conceptual throughline in mind) through the case studies Yellow Sticky Notes: Canadian AniJam helmed by Jeff Chiba Stearns and Bill Plympton’s Guard Dog Global Jam. New Perspectives examines Sam Taylor and Bjørn-Erik Aschim’s Everything I Can See From Here – which takes on the contemporary approach of being formatted for mobile devices, and how social media in turn can have a positive effect on short film development and personal motivation – and Greg McLeod’s 365, a comedically experimental film progressed by one-second per day for the span of a year.
