You know how Michael Benjamin Bay got his start? He made a short film about a helicopter flying into the sunset:
Which he parlayed into multi-million dollar box office smashes. This is how it works, fledgling film directors. You make a kick-ass short. People take notice.
That's why you should enter the Miami International Film Festival's first annual Online Shorts Competition, presented in conjunction with Diesel. (The jeans company, not Vin.)
From now until midnight on January 16, 2010, submit a film that's shorter than ten minutes in Quicktime or MPEG-4 format to the contest website. Finalists will have their films shown at the Miami International Film Festival in March and a lucky one or two will win Jury and Audience awards. Because the fest is in Miami, and Michael Bay is Miami (scientific studies have shown that destroying one, destroys the other), there's always a chance that the Man Himself will be in the audience, see your film, invite you back to his house, finance your feature debut, and hook you up with Megan Fox.
But only if your film is as awesome as...