How to Make Your Best Proof-of-Concept Short

One of a filmmaker’s greatest tools at their disposal is the proof of concept. You might have a great idea for a feature, but no backing or widespread interest. Why not try to distill the essence of that story into a quick one-off short that costs a fraction of the budget and can show the world what your perspective and potential are?

That’s definitely the case with writer/director Richard Bosner and his short Devotee, which just came off a successful run at HollyShorts Film Festival and is about to screen at Catalina Film Festival next month.

Bosner has found great success as producer, too, with films like Sundance winner Fruitvale Station and the slick thriller Black Bear. He wrote a feature, like a lot of us did, during the SAG strike, and decided to use part of it to make a short film.

We hopped on Zoom to speak with Bosner about the landscape of filmmaking currently, the making of the short, and why a proof of concept is a valuable tool.

Behind the scenes of DevoteeProvided

Editor’s note: The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

NFS: I would love to know about your background and how you came into the industry.

Bosner: I grew up in upstate New York, and both of my parents were theater directors and actors, so I spent a lot of weekends at set construction builds as a kid or doing my homework in an auditorium while my parents were directing.

I was immersed in it, and my whole upbringing was involved in that, and it was something I really loved. And then I really wanted to be basically behind the camera, watching all these behind-the-scenes featurettes. That was what really brought me into filmmaking—the process and the community of people, that it takes a village to make a movie. It’s not a singular thing. You need everybody’s involvement, and that’s really what drew me in.

NFS: I know that you’ve spoken about how you wrote this as a feature during the SAG strike, and the short is essentially the opening sequence. Did you want this to be a proof of concept? How did you turn the script into a short?

Bosner: I wrote the feature, and I had the momentum built up from it, and I just wanted to keep going. But because of the strike, it was like everything was at a total standstill. I was like, this isn’t the right time to take the feature out.

But I wanted to keep all the momentum going. The opening scene is the only part with a child in it, and it was the summertime. I was like, “Well, this is when you need to shoot with a kid, when they’re not in school.”

With SAG, any short film had the waiver to still be able to legally film. So let’s take advantage. All of my friends in the industry who are amazing creatives were available and were like, “We’re not doing anything. Whatever you want to do, let’s do it.”

I looked to cast the very best actors we could. We filmed it in Kensington, California, which is near Berkeley, and all the actors were from different places. Grant Feely was from Alabama. Ben Bladon was from Georgia, and Mackenzie Firgens was from LA. We did a really wide search across the country to find the best people and really just make it the best thing that it could be.

I always feel that with a proof of concept, or something for a feature, it has to be on the same level as the movie’s going to be. It doesn’t make sense to make a proof of concept on your iPhone, and it’s a little thing you do in your backyard. It literally has to be at the same level of what you’re going to present as a feature, so people get it, and that’s why we went full out all the way, getting the best editor, Skywalker Sound doing the audio, and Company 3 doing the color.

DevoteeProvided

NFS: I was going to ask how you landed on those collaborators. Were they people that you knew through previous projects?

Bosner: They are. I’ve been producing for over a decade, 15 years plus. And so these are all people that I’ve gathered over my span as a producer. I’ve done a lot of collaborations with Skywalker and Company 3 in the past. And Robbie Schafer, my editor, I think it’s our third project together. Robbie works with Francis Ford Coppola and does amazing work over there at Zoetrope.

It was just asking people that I’ve been friends with for a long time to come out and just do this solid, and they were all wonderful. So I’m really grateful.

NFS: Your short sets up everything very quickly, and then it lands that big moment at the end, and then it leaves us wanting more. What I see with sometimes, say, a student director is a short that is 20 or 30 minutes long and doesn’t have that pacing. Do you have any advice in terms of keeping the pace brisk?

Bosner: When I was a film student, I was definitely guilty of that kind of a thing—way too long, too many interwoven stories, and things like that. Especially in what cinema is today. You’ve got to get in and out quickly.

I feel like any really good short, it should play like a joke. It’s the setup and the punchline, and if it lands, it’s like, “Oh, that was great. And I feel really good that I spent my time watching that.”

I think especially for a proof of concept, the shorter, the better. Nobody has an attention span anymore, and if you don’t have Tom Cruise anchoring your short, I think it’s going to be hard to get people to sit through 30, 25 minutes.

I would just say again, focus on one element of the short and make it really, really good. It doesn’t need to be expansive like a feature. Just having the short is enough to prove, “I want to see this as a feature.” And that was really what I aimed to do, leaning into the horror aspects of it. I wanted to make you walk away with, “Wait a minute, I need to know more. I need to know more of what’s going to happen in this story.”

That’s really what I aim for, and I think it’s helpful. I think if filmmakers do that, it’s always good for people to start asking you, “Well, did you write a full screenplay for this? Is there a feature film to keep the conversation going?”

DevoteeProvided

NFS: What was the biggest challenge on this short for you?

Bosner: It was casting, truthfully, because I knew I was casting a child actor. It’s a pretty intense short for a kid to be in, and I looked at a lot of amazing kids, but it’s different to cast a kid that does Target ads and does Disney Channel, and then ask them to do a horror short. You really have to tap into something different.

So we looked at so many different wonderful child actors, but just not quite the right fit for horror. So landing on Grant, we were so lucky to get him, and he came with such a professionalism that’s way beyond his years and being able to tap into the terror and the horror of what we were trying to do. I was nervous because he’s the main character, but he really played it off great and did a wonderful job.

NFS: Do you have any other advice for someone wanting to do a short film?

Bosner: I think especially in filmmaking, I always tell people this. People think, “Well, I don’t have enough money. I’m not going to do it.”

I don’t think filmmaking is a money thing. It’s really a relationship-based thing, and you don’t have to live in LA to make a short film. Especially now if you have an iPhone and some people who care about you and want to help and have drive and are there to support you, that’s enough to make a really great movie. It truly is, and you don’t need even experience.

I would much rather work with people that are driven and have the heart behind it and maybe have a little bit more to learn than somebody who comes with the entitlement and seasoned experience of being in the industry, because you see what people make with passion and heart, and that really stands out to me. I really, really think it does, and I think you can be in any part of the country, anywhere in the world, and make something really incredible with friends.

NFS: Do you have any advice for beginning filmmakers and what they should do to attract producers?

Bosner: I think it’s so different now. I think social media is such a wonderful way to showcase your work and to let people see what you’re able to do. You really need to create something that you feel passionate about and not don’t always go with the trends, go outside the box.

Because now, especially now, it’s the Wild West out there in filmmaking. We’re in a really, really weird place. Nobody knows what’s about to happen, and I think we’re going to find in the next couple of years some really incredible filmmakers that just did some really wacky, weird stuff that totally breaks out and can hopefully honestly revive cinema. Because cinema needs to be revived in a major way.

We need someone to bring the paddles and bring us back to life, and that’s only going to come with really amazing creativity that comes from filmmakers and not from corporate America and studios. I’m excited, and I think the people who are in this for the right reasons, for the art and the passion and the love, and not for the fame and the paycheck and the things like that, they’re going to break through, and they’re going to get noticed.