Why a 2 Minute Short Can Beat a 40 Page Script
For a long time, I assumed the path to a pitch meeting started with a script. I would write the thing, send the PDF into the...
For a long time, I thought pitch meetings would happen one way.
I would write a script.
I would reach out to producers.
I would beg, politely and professionally of course, for someone to please read my beautiful little PDF.
Then eventually someone would read it, realize I was clearly the greatest comedy writer in the northern European region of my apartment, and invite me into a pitch meeting.
That is more or less how I imagined it.
Very humble.
Very realistic.
Very normal.
But that is not how my first pitch meetings happened.
The pitch meetings I have had so far came from producers reaching out to me because they had seen the animated comedy shorts I made.
That was honestly kind of unbelievable to me.
But in those cases, the work had already done some of the convincing before I even spoke to them.
That changed how I think about writing, producing, and trying to get attention in film and TV.
A script is still invisible until someone reads it
I obviously believe in writing scripts.
I write half hour comedy scripts.
So this is not me pretending scripts do not matter.
Scripts matter a lot.
But the annoying thing about a script is that someone has to read it.
Deep insight.
Groundbreaking stuff.
I know.
But it matters.
If I put a script on my website, most people are probably not going to sit down and read 30 or 40 pages.
And I get it.
Reading a script takes effort.
It takes focus.
It takes time.
It requires someone to imagine the pacing, the performances, the timing, the tone, the visuals, the comedy, the world, the whole thing.
That is a lot to ask from someone who does not know me yet.
Especially if they are busy.
And people in the industry seem pretty freaking busy.
A short gives people something to see
Producing animated shorts changed something for me because it gave people something they could actually watch.
With a short, someone can see the tone.
They can hear the jokes.
They can understand the pace.
They can see the characters.
They can get a feeling for the kind of comedy I am trying to make.
They still might hate it.
That is always an option.
Beautiful.
Lovely.
Terrifying.
But at least they can react to something finished.
That is what I like about making shorts.
A short puts the idea into the world.
It gives the project a body.
It is no longer just a script sitting in a folder somewhere, quietly waiting to be loved like a sad little Word document.
It exists.
And once it exists, people can judge it, share it, ignore it, laugh at it, dislike it, remember it, or send it to someone else.
That feels powerful.
A 1 to 2 minute short is easier to give a chance
This is probably the biggest practical reason I believe in producing short work.
A 1 to 2 minute comedy short is a much easier ask than a 30 to 40 page script.
If someone does not know me, asking them to read a full script is a pretty big ask.
Asking them to watch something for 90 seconds is much smaller.
And when the barrier is lower, I think the chances go up.
And if the short works, it gives people proof that I can do more than write an idea down.
Producing shows capability
This is the biggest shift for me.
When I only write scripts, people can see that I write.
If they read the script.
When I produce something, people can see that I can take an idea and push it into the real world.
That matters to me.
Because I am not only trying to write.
I want to make shows.
I want to build worlds, characters, and things people can actually watch.
So producing shorts feels much closer to the thing I am actually trying to do.
It forces me to think about more than the page.
Producing also makes writing feel more real
One of the most fulfilling parts of producing animated shorts is seeing something I wrote actually become something.
That is the reason I am in this game.
I am not here to only write words that sit on my computer forever.
I want to see the stuff made.
There is something very different about watching a finished piece and realizing:
Oh.
That used to just be a stupid little idea in my head.
Now it exists.
Even when the final thing is imperfect, it gives me energy.
It makes the whole process feel less theoretical.
And honestly, I need that.
Writing can become very lonely and abstract.
Producing gives me something tangible.
It gives me momentum.
It gives me a thing to point to.
It gives me evidence that I am not just thinking about doing this.
I am doing it.
What this changed in my process
For a while, my life was basically writing and networking every day.
Then I started producing animated shorts too.
Eventually, I began alternating between writing scripts and producing shorts.
When I finished a script, I would send it to friends or acquaintances in my network for feedback.
While they were reading it, I would use that waiting period to produce an animated short.
That made a lot of sense to me.
Instead of sitting around waiting for notes, I could make something.
Instead of letting the script disappear into feedback limbo, I could keep moving.
That became a very useful rhythm.
Write the script.
Send it out.
Produce something else.
Get feedback.
Rewrite.
Badabing badaboom.
Very scientific.
Final thought
I still believe scripts matter.
A lot.
I still need to become a much better writer.
I still need to write stronger stories, better characters, sharper jokes, cleaner structure, all of it.
But I also believe producing my own work has been one of the highest leverage things I have done.
The animated shorts gave people something to see.
They helped producers understand what I was capable of.
They made it easier for someone to give my work a chance.
And in some cases, they led to conversations I did not think I would be having yet.
A 1 to 2 minute short can travel much faster than a 40 page script.
And right now, that feels like a pretty good reason to keep producing.
