History of Short Films

Below is a prezi presentation explaining the history of short film. I really want to vary my blog posts so I will be using different types of formats to keep my blog as interesting as possible.  

Short Film

According to the Academy of Motion Arts Picture Arts and Sciences, a short film is defined as “an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits”. (Source: Wikipedia). Short films have different interpretations and different audiences view the film in different ways. In each film there is normally a moral or a message behind it. Each part of the film is carefully thought out to give it good techniques that will suit the film.

Short films are distributed through the internet with video sharing sites like YouTube and BBC Film Network, on specialist TV channels/ public service like channel 4, film festivals such as the London Film Festival and the Palm Springs International film festival. They are entered in competitions such as the film Gone Goodbye was entered in the competition to create a film in 100 hours and Veronique was entered into the Film Four competition. Some short films are made for educational purposes and so are distributed to schools to be shown (to particular- suitable) audiences in lessons. Short films are rarely profit-oriented and are often experimental. Mostly they are produced for film festivals, the self-promotion of directors or educational purposes and often convey a message. It is a way of experiencing film making.

A short film is an independent film that is made in our to either experiment/challenge the social norms of everyday life or something within today's society. They tend to range from 5-20 minutes in length and are shot on location. Shorts films do not usually have a large budget and sometimes rely on funding from film companies, for example, the UK Film Council to help produce their film. They do not intend to be profit-orientated and more for self-promotion as they are sometimes entered into film competitions like Virgin Short Films, or film festivals like London Film Week or Cannes Film Festival.

For me, short films not only challenge the conventions of social norms but they present different ways of showing an issue that it is highly regarded in today's society. They may have the money to make a high-quality film but it makes them more interesting because of the stylistic approach that they take. Feature length films tend to make an exaggeration on an aspects of social life and not go over range of different genres in order to attract wider audiences. For example, Avatar(directed by James Cameron) can attract all ages, kids because of the visuals and special effects and older audiences because of the story and the detail that it develops into.

Cameron had been waiting for more than 10 years to make the film because of the technology. But it immediately shows the difference between the purpose of short films and feature lengths. They don't have any other reason to be made than to entertain by giving people an experience, or to gain a profit. Which also highlights the change in the way film is viewed and used for in today's society.