Katie Ranns

PART 1 - CONTEXT

WHY DO PEOPLE MAKE SHORT FILMS?Some of the reasons as to why people go to the trouble of making a short film is largely due to the fact that they were attending university and therefore this creation could have been part of a project. Other reasons involve the experimentation of new materials and tapping into the new possibilities of 21st century filming.

On the other hand, artistic film makers see short films as their own art form and a way of expressing their own artistic freedom. This applies to passionate participants of the film industry who live and breathe film.

Shorts can help identify talented new film makers as well as help those new to the industry gain experience and develop on a variety of skills, not only in film technicality but also in time-management, budgeting and business decisions which can build upon an industry profile. Also, shorts are not as long lasting as feature lengths, given that the human attention span is decreasing and an increase in thirst for entertainment and information, shorts have more of a chance to go viral and gain a much wider audience which can not only add to your industry profile but is a much more effective way of exhibiting your ideas to the world.

WHAT KEY CHANGES HAVE THERE BEEN IN THE PAST DECADE FOR THE SHORT FORMAT?

The most important key change to note is the digitalisation of the film industry. A rapid increase in technology has changed the traditional methods of film production, exhibition, marketing, distribution etc. This has decreased the cost of a production, making shorts, or even films, potentially free to make. With easy access to production material, the barriers to becoming a film maker have been eliminated. Likewise, the internet has helped create boundless opportunities for film maker and audience alike: it is extremely effective for exhibition and marketing, making it easier for the audience to receive and discover the productions.Furthermore, short film has also been reignited in the form of dramatised music videos: many artists and musicians have indulged in the short format to display their musical style in elongated videos, portraying stories within their songs.

THE STRENGTHS AND ADVANTAGES OF THE SHORT FORMAT

A huge advantage of shorts is that you are able to produce them for almost no-budget whilst still displaying your artistic ideas to your audience. Shorts are also great because people tend to want quick fixes of entertainment rather than sit through a 90 minute or so feature as they can be very time consuming for todays demanding generation.Shorts are easier to craft than a feature so you can gain a lot of practice and experience in preparation for future productions.As shorts are regarded as less than feature lengths by the big film industry moguls, if you’re able to create your short for less than the estimated budget, these moguls are likely to grant you better budgets for possible feature lengths as you have displayed skills with money. A strength of the short format is its power to condense so many ideas, philosophies and artistic expression from its creators into such a small amount of time – it can be inspiring.

THE WEAKNESSES AND LIMITATIONS OF THE SHORT FORMAT

A large weakness of the short format is that short films are usually absent from commercial cinema due to the popularity of longer lasting films. However, some shorts feature in commercial cinemas only because they fit between a certain time duration (e.g. 2-5 minutes), otherwise they would not be able to be played before the film being screened.Another point is that shorts are frequently dark and involved in its own serious nature for audiences to enjoy and become a fan of the short format. Moreover, shorts require the condensing of character, setting and story into a very small time frame in comparison to feature lengths, so is considered much more difficult to be successful.

WHAT INGREDIENTS MAKE A REALLY SUCCESSFUL SHORT FILM?

Successful shorts are said to be those bursting with visual and auditory pleasure which have been victim to intense focus by the film maker.Other great qualities to consider are having a crisp yet sweet edge, to be fresh and off beat with the ability to genuinely surprise. Shorts don’t have to be gritty, dark and realistic to be taken seriously, they can be sharp and comical.

WHO ARE THE AUDIENCES AND HOW DO THEY CONSUME THE SHORT FORMAT?

The short format is likely to be consumed by internet and technology users due to its compatibility and easy access via computer operators. Not only this, but shorts are often known or discovered because of social media and the fact that it has become a viral phenomenon, increasing the likelihood of its audience or consumer being familiar with technology.

THE SITUATION OF SHORT FILM IN THE UK, ACCORDING TO VARIOUS ARTICLES

It is believed that short films have not always had enough support by the film industry but with the new technology has made production and gathering funding much easier so the support for shorts has risen.Shorts are seen as the key to having a successful career as they allow a wide array of skills to develop, ready for future, possibly larger, projects.It is thought that shorts are unlikely to make a comeback into commercial cinema but due to their increasing popularity for a variety of reasons, including an information-starved generation, this soar in popularity is what’s going to keep shorts afloat for a long time. What's more is that the short format is reported to be reaching a wide an audience as it ever has. With this in mind, there is also the concern that today’s film makers and students are in need of practice and experimentation.

Katie Ranns

ARTICLE NOTES:

HTTP://OLD.BFI.ORG.UK/SIGHTANDSOUND/FEATURE/237

Publish Date: May 2004

Artistic film-makers see short films as its own art form. However, they can be seen by the film industry and the media as used for personal advertisement for potential stand-out talent film-makers or directors etc.

There were very limited opportunities in the 90’s to be able to get healthy funding for shorts. The emergence of DV has helped secure better funding, thus allowing more shorts to be made even though digital has been seen as a restrictive format. On the other hand, it has also been seen as liberating.

An advantage of making shorts would be the availability of low priced equipment, including cameras and editing software, which has made shooting a no-budget short possible with the only funding needed be for marketing, exhibition or distribution. As for this, DVD and web-streaming have also become more accessible, prolonging the lifespan of shorts. There has been the introduction of exhibiting shorts alongside feature films as a form of cinematic exhibition. You are able to express your artistic ideas through a much cheaper, smaller time frame.

There are problems with co-exhibiting shorts alongside feature films as the length of the short is limited to under 10 minutes if it is a 90 minute feature. This has been criticized as restricting the artistic vision of would-be film makers, with short shorts being merely little more than a quirky idea.

It is said that successful shorts are those that require intense focus, bursting with visual and auditory pleasure.

At the time of this article, the writer has the perspective that short films do not have enough support by the film industry. However, due to technical breakthroughs shorts are going to become much easier to produce and gather funding for and so there will be more support.

HTTP://WWW.BBC.CO.UK/FILMNETWORK/FILMMAKING/GUIDE/INTRODUCTION/WHY-MAKE-A-SHORT

This website proposes many reasons as to why anybody would go to the trouble of making a short film. The list goes as following: experience, a show reel, partnerships, to elevate your own industry profile or to test out your own ideas on a smaller scale.

There has been an increase in the possible ways you can exhibit and show your short films, including the internet, television and cinema. They have become much more accessible in the previous years. The digitization of practically everything has decreased prices of equipment substantially and therefore shorts can be created for almost no budget.

The strengths with shorts is that they are extremely cheap and can be used as preparation for features you’re thinking of creating. They can also be shown to family and friends without loss of interest when expressing your potential ideas and messages for the feature you have in mind. Also, there are many people willing to work at a low rate just because they like your idea.

HTTP://WWW.RAINDANCE.ORG/SITE/INDEX.PHP?ID=479%2C9358%2C0%2C0%2C1%2C0

Publish Date: 2003, by Ross Baron

This entire article is based a few principles as to why any such person would create a short:

1. Artistic freedom is a major factor, being that there is not a specific time frame of 60-90 minutes that makes a feature, but shorts allow you to set free ones artistic nature and passion.

2. This artistic freedom relates to the sites 2nd point; shorts allow people to practice riskier, more original ideas and create more innovative shorts than if there were limitations placed upon them, such as that of feature films. It is this freedom that maintains an artistic practice which gradually hone the skills needed to make larger projects of the same artistic freedom.

3. Due to a shorter length of production, your time isn’t as consumed as it would be if producing a feature length. In the post-production of a short, you are able to spend your time far more efficiently pouring over every individual frame intensely over and over again until you feel it’s right, thus also increasing your post-production abilities.

4. Based on Elliot Groves belief that because the film industry is obsessed with money, if you’re able to formulate a realistic budget for your short and then make it for less than that, the industry will deem you talented and therefore grant you many more opportunities. Shorts allow you to refine your budgeting skills.

5. Another reason given is the fact that a short film can go viral: feature lengths are too long and online users are more likely to watch something quick and easy yet simultaneously entertaining or inspiring. The short can be submitted to the same festivals and just as easily posted on any social media network. The marketing for a short is practically limitless and can provide the breakthroughs essential to your career.

6. Being that human attention spans appear to be decreasing, the market for short films are on the rise. The opportunities shorts give people in this digital age is endless, but mostly allows people to view a much wider variety of original, innovative artwork and entertainment from all over the world anywhere in the world. Shorts are a chance to exchange culture, ideas and messages in exciting new ways.

It points out several times that technology has been the greatest change to the film industry and that digitalisation has been a great benefit for any budding film makers. The untapped market of the world wide web and the potentiality of going viral has helped the short format massively.

Advantages of shorts would be that it is the perfect way to practice and develop your skills as a film-maker or artist. Shorts provide a doorway to the film or art industry – it may be a small door but it’s a doorway after all. They can help you decide if the career is for you and if you’d like to continue on the path you’ve chosen. Also, it’s been said that human attention spans are decreasing and so that means shorts are likely to become a popular marketplace, giving them the upper hand to features of all sorts.

What’s bad about the short format is that they’re not usually exhibited in your local cinema.

It has been highlighted that for a short to be successful it must be crisp and sweet, but most notably, how to fabricate methods that is likely to make the short go viral.

The article pinpoints that the most likely audience of a short would be internet users since online marketing is extremely popular.

The writer believes short film is crucial to a successful career in the film, and possibly, the art industry.

HTTP://WWW.RAINDANCE.ORG/SITE/INDEX.PHP?ID=479%2C9358%2C0%2C0%2C1%2C0

HTTP://WWW.TELEGRAPH.CO.UK/CULTURE/FILM/FILM-LIFE/7593291/THE-LONG-HISTORY-OF-SHORT-FILMS.HTML

Publish Date: 18th April 2010

This article has underlined that shorts were once used as a form of propaganda during the World Wars but more importantly is that everything began as shorts that had audiences gasping at it’s technological breakthroughs.

It is said that the 90s was a landmark decade for the introduction of digital as an extremely affordable way of production. Nowadays, short film culture is very much alive within the music industry, cloaked in the form of music videos. The new approaches of producing, marketing and exhibiting shorts have become easier and cheaper, making them much more popular than what they once were.

A strength of the short film format would be that they are incredibly adaptable due to its length and production time: short film isn’t strictly for the film industry, but can be used in advertisement and music.

A limit would be that shorts are no longer shown in commercial cinemas. However, there are still occasional cute Pixar shorts before a children's movie.

The writer is convinced that although shorts are unlikely to return to commercial cinema, their current popularity is expected to keep shorts a-float for a long time.

HTTP://WWW.TELEGRAPH.CO.UK/CULTURE/FILM/FILM-LIFE/7593767/SHORT-FILMS-THAT-LAUNCHED-BIG-NAMES.HTML

Publish Date: 19th April 2010

Some shorts were made by students attending university so its possible that the shorts were created as part of an assignment. Others were fashioned because they needed artistic release, such as that of Tim Burton with Frankenweenie. Additional reasons for crafting shorts were that they were sometimes used to show what a company was capable of and how far their technology could go. This is evident in ‘Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’, where Conran largely done it as a form of experimentation of animation and live photography. A bonus reason for creating shorts is that they have an intense passion, where they “live and breathe film”.

A major strength of the short format is that they are (surprise-surprise) short, whereby you can squeeze one in before a feature; if the feature is a flop, at least the audience may have enjoyed the short. Likewise, the popularity and critique of the short may also lead film-makers to extend it into a full length feature (e.g. Machete) and therefore help if you’re unsure on your next project. Furthermore, given the right circumstances, a simple short you decided to make in your spare time could be discovered by vital personnel in the industry, and what was once a bit of fun became a successful career.

The article features the point that for a short to be successful it must include some kind of unique flare – like that of Burton’s ‘Frankenweenie’ or Stone and Parkers construction paper short. But there is also the fact that cutting-edge experimentation can also grant a successful short (e.g. Conran, ‘Sky Captain of the World of Tomorrow).

HTTP://WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM/FILM/FILMBLOG/2011/JAN/14/BEST-SHORT-FILMS-LONDON-FESTIVAL

Publish Date: Friday 14th January, 2011

The entire article comments on the shorts shown at a London Film Festival. The writer highlights that a weakness of the short format is many tend to be too dark for in-depth enjoyment and that there are not enough sweet and funny shorts to keep audiences happy or more interested in the short film culture.

The writer believes that for a short to be successful, at least in his eyes, it can be fresh and offbeat, but the best components for a short to be sharp, comical or genuinely surprising.

The overall assumption of the writer that he is convinced that the short format doesn’t have to be dark, gritting and depressive to be taken serious or successfully. There is need for lighthearted humourous shorts in the industry.

HTTP://WWW.INDEPENDENT.CO.UK/ARTS-ENTERTAINMENT/FILMS/NEWS/BRITAIN-ENTERS-A-GOLDEN-ERA-OF-THE-SHORT-FILM-

7179535.HTML

Publish Date: Sunday 19 February 2012

The increase of interest in the film industry for shorts are said to be down to the advances in technology and growth of the internet. But what’s more notable is that short film is able to succinctly deliver ideas in an increasingly time-constrained, information-starved generation.

The most important key differences to note are most definitely the advances in technology, especially the upsurge in internet usage.

A strength of the short format include its power to condense the concepts and notions of a film-maker/producer into short burst of information that feed the jaded yet entertainment-hungry generation of today.

The article reports that British shorts are reaching as wide an audience as it ever has before.

HTTP://WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM/FILM/FILMBLOG/2013/APR/08/SHORT-FILM-MAKERS-LONG-STORY

Publish Date: Monday 8 April 2013

What has changed in the past decade is the entry barriers to film-making, they’ve disappeared. Anybody who has any sort of recording device and access to the internet is able to upload a film/short film to any possible media outlets, immediately forming themselves an audience – “No talent need go unrealised”.

The article points out that the short format used to lack an audience because of the “conformity explanation” that the accessibility to shorts were limited. However, in the modern age where there are enormous advances in affordable, transportable technology that allows you to explore anything anywhere, why do shorts still lack an audience? Its possible that the writer believes this is down to the fact that condensing setting and character into a eloquent tale is much harder than writing a simple novel.

The writer bitterly concludes that film-makers and students alike are in need of practice and experimentation.