What is a 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.

What makes a short film different to a feature length film?

The differences between short films and feature length film is a short film is made with a low budget whereas a Feature Length film is made with a massive budget- it can be up to millions of pounds. An example for this is Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End cost approximately $300 million, it was a box office success and had a gross income of nearly $965 million which is triple the amount of how much was spent and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince cost $250 million. These are commercial films with world-wide audiences therefore productions houses are able to make films that cost this much. Short films have a very low budget, an example for this is Panic Attack (also known as Ataque de Pánico) which is a Uruguayan film the film was initially given $300 to be made however there was a lot of media coverage and the film became ‘viral’ therefore it became immensely popular which lead the director being offered $30 million contract to make a feature length film. Some short film are funded by the UK film council or with special funding which helps to develop films.

Short films normally are shorter around (5-20 minutes) whereas feature length films can be up to 3 hours. This is because of the time constraints for these films to be made. An example for this is Gone Goodbye by Keith Rivers which has to be created in 100 hours to be entered into a film competition whereas main stream films can take up to a year, this is because more scenes need to be filmed, preparations during the pre-productions such as the permissions for settings and locations, the actor who may be busy with other various films and to get equipment and the funding/budget, and post production when all the footage is edited joining all the scenes.

Main stream films have well known, well trained, ‘A list’ actors who suit the character to be played. On the other hand, short film has less well known, less trained actors who are usually from local drama clubs. During the main stream films characters are well developed and we find out a lot of information about the such as their history or important information that may be relevant to the film or significant. We also find out about the characters through costumes, props and the way they behave. An example in a feature length film called Bridemaids (2011) directed by Paul Figg a character called Helen (played by Rose Byrne) is a character who is rich which is shown by her costume, hair and make-up, props and her style. As her character develops we see she is over-powering, vain, likes to be 'perfect' because of her status of being wealthy and being the boss. In short films there is not much character development because of the time constraints, for example in the short film 'Bitch' by Dom Bridges, the character is a person buying a tin of tuna who we don't know any information about- all we see is him buying a tin of tuna in a supermarket.

              
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. In general they have plots which may not be commercially accepted and have strong theme and language used. An experimental film is something like Gone Goodbye which is based on a balloon (an object or prop) which wouldn’t work out well if it had been a feature length film. A film series like Harry Potter probably would not work as well in a short film because of the complicated story line with many different/ unrestricted/ objective characters. However in some cases, films are first made like a short film to see the general look of the film, Avatar (by James Cameron) was first created as a short film then was made into a feature length film which turned out to be a huge box office success and became one of the highest grossing film in history. Main stream films have commercially acceptable films that are not to ‘strong’ for the audiences (however some independent films may have these types of themes).