Starting Your First Short Film “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds…Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul…always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said. ‘It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.’ – Jim Jarmusch Filmmakers, much like novelists or composers, bear their souls within their films, especially in the earliest stages of filmmaking, before the lights of Hollywood dazzle them with wealth and fame. Yet, to be successful in film/media/video production, there is a combination of inspiration and sheer grit. You have to know how to create something incredible within a deadline, with a tight budget, with that actress that can’t seem to remember her lines but can’t be fired because she contracted t...