If you are a female film maker then no doubt what follows is not news. The industry, it would seems, has little space for female directors. A quick perusal of the landscape unfortunately yields not too many female names at the helm of film projects.

The problem is partly sociological and societal. Historically, women’s voices and visions were neither celebrated nor promoted. They were either denigrated or just plainly ignored. As a result women have had to work firstly very hard to gain equal footing as their male counterparts. Fighting for equality had unfortunately taken away precious time and energy which would have otherwise gone towards developing the female voice in film.

But although this shows how women had to play catch up in the film industry, it does not explain why there are so few female directors in comparison to the number of female, writers, actors and producers working today. Indeed, female actors are starting to match and lately, are even beginning to outperform their male counterparts in terms of box office success. Female writers and screenwriters are present both at the studio as well as the independent level and in plentiful numbers. Female producers are some of the most formidable and successful producers in the industry. So why again has directing lagged behind?

I’m going to propose something here based on personal experience. The issue I think, finally, is prejudice.

Making films is a high risk enterprise. Given the sheer number of people and jobs and components that are all part of making a single film product, any number of things can and in fact often do go wrong. If you are in charge of producing a film therefore you naturally would want nothing but the very best players on your team. This is not a time to test the newcomer or the unproven, you want to go for what is certain, you want to go for the ones you trust will at least keep it all together when things go south.

And this is exactly when prejudice kicks in. Men are perceived to be better at leading, at keeping things under control and at maintaining disciple. As a consequence, the top job of director would be given to a male. Women in sum, do not make good directors for the same reasons that people think they do not make good CEO’s: they simply lack – or at least do not have enough – qualities such as leadership, control, discipline.

This, coupled with the lack of precedent, has contributed to women falling so behind in the directing game. It is neither lack or passion, vision, nor tenacity but rather the prejudicial preferences of those in positions of power.

Budding female film makers are presented with unique opportunities today to change this landscape. The relative ease of making short films as well as access to technology has provided women with the tools to venture into new ground. And already because of this the Independent Film sector is starting to witness a healthy stream of female directors eager to break the misconceptions and prejudices of the past. By definition, independent films are cheaper and by implication less risky to make. Therefore it is not surprising that this where the biggest shifts have started to be seen.

These women are carving new ground for us all so that one day very soon we no longer have to dedicate separate sections to sites like this to address the gender issue.

There are many reasons you should make short films if you’re interested in a film making career. (There are a few reasons not to make them but that is a topic for another discussion). Here’s just some of them:

GAINING EXPERIENCE

This one’s a no-brainer right? Even so, there is more to this than just the fact that working on your project gives you the unique opportunity to fine tune your film making skills. What people often don’t realise is that creating your own film projects exposes them to all aspects of making a film: from hiring locations, to casting, to costuming and even to organising catering for the event (you should always feed your cast & crew!). Now it is true that as you hopefully move up the ranks in the industry you won’t have worry about these aspects of film making. But the fact that you have spent years perhaps learning it all will make you a better film maker. You’ll have a better understanding of how the whole process comes together which means that you will have more control over the process. You’re exposure to the various tasks required will give you an in depth understanding into the various departments which means that you will be better at selecting and hiring others when it comes to the real thing.

ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT

At this stage of your film making you are still learning. You may or may not have gone to film school. You may or may not studied the history of film and film technique. But you will have varying degrees of talent and passion. You will have a particular story or a group of stories you want tell . But do you yet know how you can more effectively portray those ideas so that audiences can be moved, entertained or touched by them? And how do you gain this priceless knowledge?

Say you may set out to make the scariest film the world has ever seen. But how will you do that? Which camera angles will be most effective, which lighting setup should you use to create your desired mood? Should you use sweeping long shorts or quick cutaways? Should you close on the victim’s face or should you pull back?

The simple answer is practice and application. Only practice will enable you to understand what will work or what won’t and in what context and how. Practice will also reveal to your your strengths and weaknesses as a filmmaker which is the most important in your development as an artist. That is where short films come in. They are a (relatively) cheap way for you to learn your craft.

LEARNING FROM MISTAKES

This follows on from the above. Short films are the perfect place for you to make mistakes. If your short horror film wasn’t that scary after all, learn from the experience. Perhaps the story needed some fine-tuning or perhaps the staging wasn’t quite right. Whatever the mistakes you made, correct them in your next short film. It is better to make a particular mistake than to make when on your first studio funded feature. If you make a mistake then, you will be putting your career in jeopardy.

EXPOSURE

You may very well be the next Alfred Hitchcock, the next Stanley Kubrick but do we know that? Will we ever? Unfortunately, because the rewards are (at least imagined to be) so great, there is a lot of competition in this game. This means that to break into the film industry is so damn hard, and rare. But do not be discouraged. In the film industry like in all others, the cream rises to the top. Luckily there are a few different ways to get to the top (and by top I mean working in the industry). One of those ways is through making short films, and lots of them. Expose your work (hopefully it good) to as many people and audiences as you can. Show the world a glimpse of your vision in your next short and if it good, and if the world likes what they see, they’ll want to see more.