Today we’d like to introduce you to Ronald Short.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started making films when I was in middle school in Avon, Indiana and I discovered my mom and dad’s hi-8 video camera. I enlisted my little sister and some of my action figures and made my own little Godzilla short. It wasn’t even stop motion. It was just us holding the toys and speaking the lines off-camera. It was terrible, but just making that blew open my mind to new storytelling possibilities. After I finished, I immediately wanted to make another.
Luckily enough, when I got to high school, the drama club had just started a student film festival. This gave me an excuse to focus and work on something every trimester (yes, my school was weird like that). Through that, I really started honing my craft, specifically screenwriting, directing, and editing. I’m happy to say that during my time at Avon High School, I won several awards at the fest for my work.
I continued to focus on film and strengthening my storytelling as I continued on into college at Indiana State University. This was another place that had a film festival for the students every year, the Sycamore Video Expo, and I worked on new shorts for it for as long as I was in school. One of my proudest moments still was sweeping the expo my junior year, winning every category we had submitted into. In 2008, I graduated with a BS in Radio/TV/Film as an “Outstanding Senior” in my class and set my sights on the future.
Me and my wife, Ami Kane, had looked into LA and New York, but neither really clicked with us. Eventually, in 2009, we visited Austin, Texas. I had some friends down here and I knew it was a great town for filmmaking. We fell in love instantly and moved down officially in late 2009.
After moving down, we shot my first feature, Billi & Theodore, in 2011. It played some festivals and was released via The Orchard (now 1091 Pictures) in 2012. From there, we made some shorts, a web series about weekends in Austin called Weekend Plans, and in 2017, we shot our next feature Good Feels On Wheels. That film went on to screen at numerous fests across the US and won several awards, including multiple “Best Feature Audience Awards.”
I’ve used the “submit for the school festival” mindset I had in high school and carried onto college throughout my whole life. Focus on the projects, make them happen yearly if possible, and put them out into the world however you can. So far, it has worked pretty well for us.
I’m currently submitting a new comedic short, Breakfast To Go, into fests (it has already won “Best Micro Short” at the Laugh After Dark Comedy Fest in Las Vegas in October 2022), editing another short horror, and developing new scripts and projects to shoot in Austin next year.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
People warn you that getting into the film/television industry is hard. That it’s a road paved with rejection. Well, they aren’t kidding. You will hear a lot of no’s trying to make headway in this field. Like, a LOT. A lot a lot. So many no’s. Rejection is hard and unfortunately, it’s truly a part of the process.
I’ve come close to selling scripts, producing projects with big budgets, directing films for production companies, signing with a big time agency, and so on. On top of that, I’ve heard a lot of no’s from film festivals and competitions over the years. It hurts and it takes a minute to get over it, but with every passed opportunity, my determination grows.
That said, there’s been some wins, too and if it’s something you truly want, none of that rejection matters. It’s just noise. You just need to focus on your goals and making your art. That’s all that matters.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a filmmaker. Specifically, I am a writer, director, and actor. I am also sometimes a producer, director of photography, and editor. It’s all in service of my greater goal of becoming a great maker of movies and hopefully getting to the point where I can produce my projects with higher budgets.
I am pretty proud of all my work up to this point, but there are three I think to stand out. 1) Good Feels On Wheels, my 2nd feature and one we were able to raise a little money for. After I watched it for the first time, all finished in a theater with an audience, I was gobsmacked. It was a real movie! And people seemed to like it!
2) Weekend Plans. This was a web series we made in 2015. It’s about a married couple and the husband’s best friend who lives with them. It’s based on an actual period of time when my bestie moved down to Austin and needed a place to live. So, he moved in with us for six months. Needless to say, it made for some good comedy.
3) The Rink. This was a horror short we shot in 2019. This was the first project we were able to land some grants for; the Dan O’Bannon Filmmaking Grant from Other World’s Film Festival and a Cultural Grant from the City of Austin. From there, we raised a little more funds and shot this stylish little number in the Austin Roller Rink in South Austin. I think it’s creepy and fun as hell.
What sets me apart from other filmmakers is my approach to the craft. I am deadly serious about it in my head, but on set, I make sure we’re having fun. We’re making movies, for crying out loud! Some folks take themselves too seriously and you can see it on the screen with the finished product.
I’m also focused on telling stories with a diverse cast and crew. I want my films and their sets to reflect the world I see around me and that includes people of differing walks of life.
How do you think about happiness?
A lot of things. Watching movies in a theater with a packed house. Taking a swim in Barton Springs on a 100-degree day. My morning walks are where I watch old episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on my treadmill. Listening to music. Playing video games on my XBOX or Switch. Laughing with friends over board games.
That said, one thing, or should I say person, makes me the most happy and that’s my wife, Ami. We got together in high school and have somehow made it to our late 30’s together and we’re still going strong. She makes me laugh like no other and she’s been getting more and more involved in making the films, too, which is always a fun experience (even when we’re butting heads over something silly).
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shortpicturesindependent.com
- Instagram: ronaldtheshort
- Facebook: facebook.com/SPIprod
- Twitter: @SPIproductions
- Youtube: youtube.com/RonaldShort
