Short Film Making... Money?

  I've been a comedy short film maker for four years now.  I have REALLY enjoyed it!  Not in My Family was the first, followed by the Korean drama acted by white people, Love Royale then there was the tumultuous production of what was supposed to be a pilot presentation, Represent, Part 1 and Represent, Part 2  which due to a long painful list of problems, turned into a 2-part web-series.  Still pretty funny though!  And most, recently a gem of a daytime soap opera parody, The Bold and The Fuel Efficient, currently still in post-production.  My production company Hall of Shea Productions has operated under what you might generously label, a micro-budget.  Leigh Hall and I have managed to bring our funny to film, even winning the Audience Award for Love Royale at the Faux Film Festival in 2009, with the help of great friends, actors, Henry Saine, and very little cash.  So it's been lots of fun, some good exposure, great demo reel material, but... is there more?  Could there be money??  A friend and filmmaker recently shared with me that his short films are in fact raking in more cash than compliments these days.  How? Some video host websites pay royalties per view.  The catch?  The viewer has to watch a commercial before the short film.  But that doesn't seem to be stopping the viewers at www.atom.com from clicking away.  Atom.com has paid out million of dollars in royalties through their revenue sharing program by contributing Atom content everywhere — on the Web, mobile phones, iPods, Xboxes, etc.  Does it really pay?  Stay tuned!