Interesting, though I wish more emphasis had been put on the idea that short films are an art form unto themselves. I understand that, like the short story is not a gateway to learning how to write a novel, the short film may have limited learning potential for making a feature. However, they can be beautiful by themselves -- making them just for the sake of making them. They are their own form, just like the short story. Short films should start to be revered more as their own form. Look at Raymond Carver and the short story. He realized his true form was in the short story and never wrote a novel (though I'm sure his agent begged for one). Carver's contemporary John Cheever, another master of the short story, wrote two novels, which were mediocre at best. Short films may not be learning experiences for features nor may they be calling cards. They are, though, art forms unto themselves that can tell wonderful, funny, scary, thoughtful, and meaningful stories. And, for the fast-paced world with audiences who have less and less time to indulge, we really just need to work to make the short film more relevant beyond their programming placement in film festivals. My students aren't super familiar with shorts, but they love them when we watch them and can see, when shorts are at their best (like short stories), that they can be every bit as powerful as a feature despite their brevity.