Making a great short film requires a certain kind of alchemy; because there are no hard-set rules in regards to running time, subject matter, or even medium, filmmakers traverse a tricky path on the road to festival -- and online audience -- acceptance. I was lucky enough to sit down at the San Francisco International Film Festival with a few of the shorts filmmakers that were in attendance and get insight into their process, ask what lessons they learned on their latest productions, and find out what they believe makes a good short film.