So what is a short film?
As this is what we are creating it would be wise to know what a short film is...
"A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film.
No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits"."
No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits"."
So basically a short film is a motion picture under an hour long, anything above this time is considered to be feature film, we aren't going to be creating a short film anywhere near to 40 minutes long ours will be 5 minutes max and will be a plot of our choice.
Typically as well, short films were created by low budget independent filmmakers with no profit or little profit gained, its rare big budget filmmakers will make a short, unless of course its Pixar or Disney that were famous for their shorts, Pixar's shorts typically presented before their movie. An example I remember as a child would be "for the birds" presented before the movie "Monsters inc." This I watched as a child in Video form, before DVD was popular in my house hold.
Typically as well, short films were created by low budget independent filmmakers with no profit or little profit gained, its rare big budget filmmakers will make a short, unless of course its Pixar or Disney that were famous for their shorts, Pixar's shorts typically presented before their movie. An example I remember as a child would be "for the birds" presented before the movie "Monsters inc." This I watched as a child in Video form, before DVD was popular in my house hold.
Short film History
So where did short films come from ? who was the first one to make one?
In the beginning (1890) ALL films were short, the earliest cinema audiences may not have been particularly aware of this as they marveled at seconds-long scenes of circus performers, exotic cities, scantily clad ladies and people going about their daily business. For them, the novelty and the thrill of witnessing man’s latest technological triumph was all they cared about! But as the 20th century dawned, films began to get longer and more intricate. As technology advanced in the filming industry so did the length of films, and short films sadly died out, but a man that made them popular and enjoyable even in present day would be Charlie Chaplin!
Here watch one of his famous short films: (This was directed by himself in 1914)
Films Have changed drastically since this era, sound is now applicable instead of the classic piano playing along to the short, we now have coloured film too! which really does make all the difference. Typically because there was no sound, blank screens containing a sort of narrative to explain what's going on were displayed. This of course was still early years of the short film epidemic, feature films were about, spanning over double reals and gradually rising in the number of reels as the films got longer, but short films like charlie chaplin, newreels, animated cartoons and serials were still popular.
1930's
This year is where it all started to change for film and was known as 'The Golden age of film' for Hollywood, not only were more genres being created and discovered by film goers, but this was the decade of sound and colour revolutions, with many silent film stars not making the crossover to films with sound, this can only be because they had unattractive voices. This was also an awkward time for film producers due to the Great Depression meaning less people were going to the movies to view this new exciting change. Little did they know it could get better!
This year is where it all started to change for film and was known as 'The Golden age of film' for Hollywood, not only were more genres being created and discovered by film goers, but this was the decade of sound and colour revolutions, with many silent film stars not making the crossover to films with sound, this can only be because they had unattractive voices. This was also an awkward time for film producers due to the Great Depression meaning less people were going to the movies to view this new exciting change. Little did they know it could get better!
Now that the technical challenges of the early 30s sound era were far behind and the 1940's was upon everyone. Advances in film technology such as sound recording, lighting, special effects, cinematography and use of colour meant that films were more watchable and 'modern' but sadly this was shortly lived because by 1950's Television was the new shift, most shorts mainly animated ones were moved to television and the showing of shorts in the cinemas' was rare as feature length films were all the rave.
Animated cartoon shorts lived a longer life, lasting in popularity up until the early 70's, BUT animated shorts started to make an appearance again as we take the timeline up to modern day, an example of a favourite animated short of mine feature before a feature length animated film would be 'For the birds' displayed for you to watch below.
Animated cartoon shorts lived a longer life, lasting in popularity up until the early 70's, BUT animated shorts started to make an appearance again as we take the timeline up to modern day, an example of a favourite animated short of mine feature before a feature length animated film would be 'For the birds' displayed for you to watch below.
The codes and conventions of a short film
Length
obviously if its a SHORT film the length is going to be, wait for it..... SHORT! I know it came as a surprise to me too. In serious though a short film usually last somewhere between 3 minutes to 20 minutes, but this doesn't mean there aren't short films out there that have lasted for 40 minutes long.
Story lines
The story line will usually be simple and easy to follow and will only be based over a short period of time. There usually isn't a lot of dialogue and the narrative is explained through visual actions.
Character
Due to the length of the film, the short will usually only have 3 main characters maximum as creating back stories takes up too much time.
Twist
Including a twist in the short is usually a common convention but is not always needed, the director will do this because it means they can give less indications to the storyline ending which works well for the limited time a short has.
Budget
A short film usually doesn't have a big budget, if the production team doesn't have a big budget they are most likely to create a short film anyway.
Here are a few more examples of short films:
Another favourite Short of mine would be "lifted" by Pixar as you have guessed by now Pixar are one of the few companies that create short animations anymore to go before feature films and have success with them along with Disney too. This is peculiar for a big budget company to create a short film as this isn't part of the conventions. There is a twist in this short and there is a feel good aspect to it as well. Can you spot the twist coming?
Here's a lovely Short film created by Disney (unfortunately I couldn't find a good video apart from this one)
I especially like this Disney Short because it's almost like travelling back to the 1910's/20's with this black and white short with non-diagetic music. This is a good example of what a short would have looked like back in that era, just minus the great non-pixelated picture because their cameras and animations weren't as high spec.
I especially like this Disney Short because it's almost like travelling back to the 1910's/20's with this black and white short with non-diagetic music. This is a good example of what a short would have looked like back in that era, just minus the great non-pixelated picture because their cameras and animations weren't as high spec.
The storyline is simple in this and doesn't use any dialogue to explain the storyline, Disney did a very good example of a traditional short with this one.
Right! Now you know what a short film is, what distinguishes it and a brief history of short films, why don't we review some short films other people have made in my next post ?
