Silver Lake Shorts: the Origin Story pt. I

Let’s take it back to the beginning

You might have heard a bit of the story in passing, a pitch, or at a party… but it’s time we shared the *true* story of how Silver Lake Shorts got started straight from our co-executive directors themselves, Ben Sharpe and Jared Corwin. First, we’ll be focusing on Jared Corwin’s personal story by sharing a bit of his background and how he got involved with Silver Lake Shorts.

Corwin wrote and produced the feature film, "Audio." He also created the short film, "Time Enforcer" which was purchased by the sci-fi streaming platform, Dust, and screened to great response at film festivals such as Fantastic Fest and Hollyshorts. Jared has written/produced short animations for Bento Box and Cartuna. Jared co-created/wrote/produced the Adult Swim SMALLS series, "Mayor Mochi" which is distributed through Adult Swim's YouTube Channel. Jared first came on as the Co-Director/Curator of Silver Lake Shorts in January 2022. Since joining Silver Lake Shorts, Jared helped the screening series grow into one of the most popular festivals in Los Angeles, featuring cutting-edge indie films and animations and filling to audience capacity with 250+ people every screening.


Jared Corwin:
I got into Silver Lake Shorts initially as a Writer/Filmmaker searching for community and an avenue to screen my own work. I moved to Los Angeles in August 2014 right after I graduated from Ithaca College in Upstate NY. I moved here with aspirations of writing for TV.

I was under the impression that the way to accomplish this very lofty goal was starting on the track of being an agent’s assistant or manager’s assistant, which would then lead you into a writer’s room as writer’s room assistant and then finally, a writer. Well, I tried my hand at being an agent’s assistant, and I ended up getting fired for sending the wrong sides to a little girl who thought she was supposed to be auditioning for a role as a cheerleader on Nickelodeon’s 2015 hit ‘Bella And The Bulldogs’. She came dressed like a cheerleader for the wrong show and let’s just say that the wrath of the stage mom is real. I felt stuck. I wanted to find a stable income in Los Angeles. And I wanted to make things. But it seemed like the traditional industry path was eluding me.

I ended up getting a job as a salesperson for a cannabis company. Although that’s a story for another time, this very silly, disorganized and frustrating industry filled with eccentric stoners did give me the stability I needed to focus on my own creative pursuits. In 2018 I made a short film called “Time Enforcer” with my best friend and neighbor, Jimmy Nickerson.

The short film did well in the festival circuit and it gave us the confidence to start pursuing our big goal: making a feature film. We shot our feature film, “Audio” in February of 2019. We amassed a micro budget, a small crew, and a producer. We stole shots, traded in favors, slept very little for three full weeks, but we eventually finished production for our film.

While starting the initial post-production on the feature, I saw a flyer for Silver Lake Shorts, a totally free monthly screening series that took place at El Cid in Silver Lake. Of course I was interested in anything that’s free submission and free attendance, so I submitted “Time Enforcer.”

“Time Enforcer” got into the January 2020 Silver Lake Shorts screening, and I instantly fell in love with the environment and vibe of the show, and really connected with the host, Ben Sharpe, who also managed events for El Cid at that time. Though there were only sixty people in attendance, I felt the energy, love and earnestness of the crowd and I felt an instant sense of community. I wanted to come back every single month and really immerse myself in this screening series. And then COVID happened.

During COVID, my post-production team and I focused on our feature film. We kept viewing the completion of the film as the light at the end of the COVID tunnel. We were so certain that since we had been working on this project for five years, finishing it and releasing it into the world would be everything we’d need to do to make our careers happen. Solid plan, right? Well, when things opened up again in the Summer of 2021, we submitted “Audio” to a ton of festivals.

We spent hundreds of dollars of our limited budget on premiere festivals like Sundance and SXSW because that’s what you’re supposed to do. We had no name recognition as filmmakers. And no name recognition within the cast. It got into a few small festivals, but even the local ones it got into cost $40+ for me and my friends to go see it at venues like the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. But remember the global pandemic we were still very much in? Our friends didn’t necessarily have $40 to go see it, and we were better off watching the film for free at my apartment anyway. I tried to look into some local screenings that independent filmmakers were throwing. But it felt like the only way to screen your work in these settings were by being friends with the organizers, or having clout as a somewhat established filmmaker. It felt like many of these festivals were rackets and there wasn’t a clear pathway to meet new filmmakers and get my work out there beyond social media. Once again, I felt stuck.

I ended up reaching out to Ben Sharpe about his interest in bringing back Silver Lake Shorts for the post covid era, and it turns out he was already planning a relaunch. We hung out in December of 2021 and once again really connected. We planned to make March 2022 the date of the official return of Silver Lake Shorts. We had an open submission and also screened a few shorts of folks we were aware of who had worked on incredible films during covid, but never had the experience of screening them with an audience.

That March 2022 screening had about sixty people that came out, including a soon to be good friend of ours- Chris Rutledge. Chris is a 3D artist, animator and director and screened his Adult Swim Smalls short ‘Man’s Best Friend’ with us. He encouraged a ton of his animator friends to submit. That sixty person indoor screening then turned into a 100 person screening the next month. Word spread very quickly and soon the screenings were completely overwhelming El Cid with attendance. Because of the growing demand, we needed to expand our operations. Thanks to the idea by our Producer Hannah Ulmen, we decided to do two simultaneous projections of the line up, both inside El Cid and out on the patio, in order to accommodate the 250+ people attending every single month.

Suddenly, we were a hotbed of indie animation, genre film and comedy in Los Angeles. It turned out that just like Ben and myself, so many filmmakers in Los Angeles felt disconnected from the film industry, the festival scene and the local filmmaking community. So many talented people had completed incredible films during COVID, but had no avenue to publicly screen them. We were not only packing El Cid, but we were screening people like Haha, You Clowns creator Joe Cappa, Smiling Friends co-creator Michael Cusack, SNL digital shorts director Mike Diva, independent animator Victoria Vincent (VEWN) and all kinds of established creators alongside emerging creators like college and high school filmmakers.

Our screenings began to feel like these really organic showcases of all sorts of voices, talent, experience levels and backgrounds. And even with people from various studios and networks coming out to the show, our screenings never felt like Hollywood networking events. They felt like a party, a celebration of people’s work, and an organic, earnest filmmaking and animation community. We wanted to emphasize the importance of free screenings in elevating people’s work and building community for the sake of appreciating creative work and connecting likeminded creators. This is what we are continuing to build upon to this day, from the ground up especially as a Non-Profit. But that’s a whole other story for another day.


Thanks for reading!
<3
Karissa
& the Silver Lake Shorts Team