Making your Short Film Personal with Sam Baron- Part 1

Short Films, Big Questions

Sam Baron is a writer, director and actor. In 2014, Sam won the coveted Academy's Nicholl Fellowship for his script, The Science of Love, kicking off an impressive career as a screenwriter. He’s written for TV shows including the BBC’s “Chloe” and Netflix’s “Lockwood & Co”, as well as developing his own originals with Sky Comedy, Netflix and the BBC.

However, our main focal point in our conversation is about Sam's amazing short films. Specifically, a trilogy of shorts he's written and directed starring Amit Shah. He is currently busy developing one of these, "The Orgy" as a TV series with Sony Pictures.

We talk about Sam's process with actors, his approach to visuals, the value of making his short films personal, zero budget features and much more.

You can find links to Sam's trilogy of short films in full below, including his most recent, which just premiered on Short of the Week, "Tall Dark and Handsome." We encourage you to watch these to get the most out of our conversation, as we spend a lot of time discussing Sam's specific process within these projects.

This is part 1 of our conversation with Sam. In part 2, we are fortunate enough to have Sam helping us workshop our short film ideas. Stay tuned for this episode!

Links to Sam’s work:

Tall, Dark and Handsome: https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2024/02/01/tall-dark-and-handsome/

Big Ears: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RWeJTVXWqM

The Orgy: https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2021/06/07/the-orgy/

Sam’s speech accepting the Academy's Nicholl Fellowship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYr3u_SA2Rg

Website: https://www.sambaron.com/

Sam’s favourite short film (accessed via a subscription to Mubi): https://mubi.com/en/gb/films/wasp

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baronifish?igsh=MXN2amRjcGFkaGdlcw==

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