Filmwaves: What is the SFB?
Matt Boysons: The Short Film Bureau was started by Kim Leggatt and Doug Miller at the end of 1997 after Kim had spent a frenetic and fruitful year promoting her short film Princess. Kim's success culminated with her being invited to sit on a panel at the Lottery and Short Film Conference during the 1997 Brief Encounters festival in Bristol. The problem discussed by this particular panel was the difficulty of distributing a short film once it has been finished. In that there is almost no infrastructure for the distribution of short films in the UK there was little advice that could be offered and hence the SFB was started in an attempt to put this to rights.
One of our principle goals has been to get short films back into mainstream cinemas and not just the independents, who have till now offered the best opportunity for shorts to be seen by the general public on the big screen.

FW: Do the SFB feel there is a large enough demand to warrant cinemas showing shorts?
MB: As we progressed from the original idea it became obvious that the biggest obstacle we were facing was that there is only a limited market for films to be fed into. There is no doubt that demand currently is not great enough for cinemas to gravitate towards showing short films without there being some outside encouragement. We feel that the lack of demand is principally due to the viewing publics' illiteracy concerning the medium, there is certainly no depth of understanding as would be the case, say with features, TV drama, sitcoms and soaps. It is fair to say that people generally don't want what they have not already been exposed to. We therefore started to explore as wide a variety of outlets as possible to get shorts into the public domain. Currently the potential outlets approached include television, cable TV, in-flight entertainment, ferries, trains, coaches and catering. As a support to the cinema program we shall propose to the distributors that they should be including short films onto the beginning of video releases.

FW: How is this progressing?
MB: The ground work that we have been laying down during the past four months is now starting to pay off. We have recently started supplying airlines with short films to show as part of their in-flight entertainment. This is proving to be very successful. We have also begun showing short films on UK cable & satellite stations who see this as a new and exciting way to entertain their audiences. Short films have amazing viewing potential and television stations are beginning to realise this...

Do you see your role to solely provide an income for short film makers?...
Are there any other charities you are offering your time to?...
What role does the internet play in The Short Film Bureau's plans ?...
Earlier you mentioned attaching short films to video releases, what other plans do you have for the video rental market?...
What is the state of the international short film market?...
So, finally how do you perceive the future of short films?...

You can contact Matt Boysons at The Short Film Bureau at:
68 Middle Street
Brighton
East Sussex BN1 1AL, UK
Tel: + 44 01273 235524
Fax:+ 44 01273 235528
http://www.shortfilmbureau.com
e-mail: matt@shortfilmbureau.com