Short films

The History of Short Film

All films used to be short before the 20th century came around. The first films were mere seconds long and were of circus performers, exotic cities, scantily clad ladies and people going about their daily business. Seemingly boring to us now, however these were the very first of their kind and mankind marvelled at the latest technological triumph. The very first films were presented to the public in 1894 they were shown through the great Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope, allowing an individual to peer in and watch. Projected films followed and replaced these first films.

In the early 1900s things changed in the film industry and this was because there were many improvements in recording and editing technology which in turn allowed film makers to produce longer films. Some of the most popular longer short films from the pre-features era are Georges Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon (1902) and Edwin S Porter’s The Great Train Robbery (1903). From 1910 onwards audiences were so enraptured with the fascinating world of film that they alongside studios demanded that film makers make even longer films and out of this the first features were created.

Both projected films and films shown through the kinetoscope were often one-shot films depicting scenes from everyday and the latest celebrity. One of the best know films from this early time period is The Lumiere Brothers Arrival of a train at La Ciotat (1895) a simple 50 second long film stopping at a train station, this films shocked audiences and caused terror as the train came “hurtling towards them”. Films were a deep change in the fabric of society as before outlets for entertainment were few such as “music halls and fairgrounds, where programmes were made up of a variety of different acts lasting 20 minutes.”

Short films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals and made by independent filmmakers for non profit, either with a low budget or no budget at all. They are usually funded by film grants, non profit organizations, sponsor, or personal funds. Short films are generally used by filmmakers to gain experience and/or prove their talent in order to gain funding for future films from private investors, entertainment companies, or film studios.

Short films in the modern world

Animated shorts continue within mainstream commercial distribution. Pixar has created a short along with each of its feature films since its initial theatrical run which started in 1995, however they have been producing shorts permanently since 2001. Disney acquired Pixar in 2006, which caused Disney to also produce animated shorts since 2007, this started with the Goofy short, How to Hook Up Your Home Theatre, they also produced a series of live action films featuring The Muppets which were uploaded to YouTube as viral videos to promote the 2011 movie.

DreamWorks Animation also often produces a short sequel that accompanies each movie and is released in the special edition dvd, and are typically of a sufficient length to be broadcast as a TV special. Warner Brothers often includes old animated shorts from its library. In 2010 and 2012 Warners also started to release new Looney Tunes cartoons before family films.

Shorts International and Magnolia Pictures organize an annual release of Academy Award nominated short films in theatres across the US, UK, Canada and Mexico throughout February and March. Short films generally rely on festival exhibition to reach an audience. Such movies can also be distributed via the Internet. Certain websites which encourage the submission of user-created short films, such as YouTube, Short of the week and Vimeo have attracted large communities of artists and viewers.