What is a short film?
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature length film. It's defined as an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits.
Short films can be professional or amateur productions. They are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals and are often made by independent filmmakers for non profit, either with a low budget, no budget at all, and in very few cases big budgets. Usually short films are funded by film grants, non profit organizations, sponsor, or out of pocket funds. Such films are used by indie filmmakers to prove their talent in order to gain funding for future films from private investors, entertainment companies, or film studios.
Characters
Short films usually have about 2-3 main characters due to minimal time to introduce the characters' background therefore allowing the audience to relate easily and understand the characters in a small amount of time as there is no time to develop complex plots.
Characters are defined through their choices, actions and reactions so every character creates his or her own situations (plot) from the externalizations of his or her inner world.
Length
Short films usually last between 3-20 minutes however this can vary from as little as 1minute or up to about 40minutes
Twist
Twists are common in short films but there isn't always one.
A twist allows the film maker to tell the story in an interesting way and some shorts leave the audience guessing even after the film is over.
Plots
Storylines are kept simple and easy to follow over a short period of time.
There is usually limited dialogue and the narrative is condensed.
Budget
Budgets are quite low because they are often made by first film makers or experimental artist and film makers with no or little funding. Therefore the overall quality of the film is effected with a more home made or arty look. some films made on low budgets looks near professional.
Creativity
They will often be made up of a number of creative shots and soundtrack to make up an artistic piece.
Director/film maker are able to place their signature look on the piece as there is less pressure to make a profitable film for a large audience.
Niche Audience
Short films have a smaller niche audience than mainstream due to the length, creativity and simple storyline. Lots of people are not aware of short films which is mostly due to the popularity reducing and limited access in mainstream forms such as cinema and prime time television.
The genre for short films varies and appeals to a more specific audience.
History
Long and short films coexisted with similar popularity throughout the early days of film.
Short comedies were especially popular and typically came in a series. They were lower in status than feature films but nevertheless very popular ( comedians such as Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton all graduated from shorts to features). Virtually all major film production, companies had units assigned to develop and produce shorts, and a lot of companies especially i the silent and very early aound era roduced mostly or only short subjects.
Short films generally rely on festival exhibition to reach an audience, they can also be distributed via the internet.
There are websites which encourage the submission of user-created short films for example YouTube and Vimeo attract large numbers of artists and viewers. Other sites such as FILMS and the BBC Film Network focus on show casing curated shorts.
Short films are becoming more popular as equipment becomes cheaper and more amateurs are making movies.
Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival and is generally regarded as one of the most prestigious. It now takes place in Australia (it's birthplace), Arabia and the US originating in 1993, Tropfest is often credited as being at least partially responnsible for the recent popularity of short films internationally.
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Short Film Genres & Examples
Animation
Animated films are ones which individual drawings, paitings or illustrations are photographed frame by frame. They are not strictly genre catogory but rather a film technique although containing genre like elements.
The predecessor of early film animation was newspaper comic strips of the 1890s.
Historically the first animated film was Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) by newspaper cartoonist J-Stuart Blackton which was the first cartoon to use single frame work.
Example: Fugu by Philippe Arthur
Drama
Exhibits real life situations with realisic characters setting and stories.
The purpose of a dramatic story line is to move the audience emotionally.
The heart of drama is conflict whether inner or outer that causes struggles, depicting hardships and pain.
Music
There are 3 types of music videos:
Narrative-which tell a story with the lyrics so can therefore have a beginning middle and end.
Conceptual- where the video is based on a single concept or idea, usually filmed and edited in an unusual way.
Performance- consists of artist performing live throughout most of the video. This type can be of the artist singing, dancing or playing an instrument.
It is a good way for the artist to promote their music to their target audience as it shows their ability to perform and entertain the audience.
Example: Run Away love by Ludacris ft Mary J Blige
Comedy
Uses comical/unrealistic situations and plots with a confident cool main character. The main character is given a job to do however they are foolish and don't do it very well.
The setting consists of a location that is unusual, ironic or unrealistic to bring the audience into a different world .