"A short film is defined as a motion picture that is not more than 40 minutes in running time (including all running credits)."
Short films have no precise criteria or characters they can be documentaries, animation, colour experimenting, drama, fiction, horror or art & experimental. Short film is NOT part of mainstream cinema, you can go and watch short films at film festivals, art gallery's and museums.
The first short films were due to technological restrictions "experimental sequences" for example people would go to the cinema to watch short films of something very simple like parents feeding a baby or men walking out of a factory. The Lumiere Brothers were the first commercial people involved. Cinema started in 1895 and played short films, a few of the first short films shown were, 'Workers leaving a factory- Lumiere Brothers'
and 'Journey to the moon' the first ever sci-fi film.
The Lumiere Brothers=
Auguste and Louis Lumiere were the pioneers of film making, they created the first short films in 1895. To do this they used the 'Lumiere camera' a machine for film making and development this was a box weighing 12 pounds, it functioned as a camera, projector and printer in 1 this was where the small experiments started for example, 'workers leaving the Lumiere factory'.
Short Film and Hollywood.
Going to watch short films at the cinema became very popular but Hollywood started the 1st long length films eclipsed the short film by Hollywood's dominate mode of film production. A feature length film (The classical narrative) will last 90 minutes however cinema exhibitors require films to be longer than 100 minutes as there is a business behind them, this comes from the food and drink sold before the film and the advertising.
Hollywood vs Short Film
1930's Onwards
Production of short films was a marginal activity. Hollywood no longer follows the studio system and sees short films as laboratory for experimentation and innovation at a cut price. Studios have developed a system of scouting new directorial and alert using film festivals.
For budding film makers there are loads of opportunity's for your work to be showcased for example you can submit your films to film festivals around the country or even on the Internet here are some websites I have researched,
UndergroundFilm.com
iNetFilm.com
www.brighthub.com/multimedia/video/articles.
Scorsese is now a highly respected director/producer and has made many high profile blockbuster movies like 'Goodfellas' 'Casino' and 'Taxi driver' he studied film directing at NYU in New York and here is an example of one of his first short films called 'The big shave' 1967
The film has hidden meanings relating too the Vietnam War and how pointless and stupid it was. The continuous shaving is symbol for the blood of all the people being killed in the war eg) The layers of shaving gel he keeps applying relates to the layers and layers of people involved. Also at the start there is a main focus on the bathroom and how clean and pure it is this empathises how shocking the contrast of blood as, the audience is shocked at the mans actions, the blood splattering all over the clean white sink is a symbol for the mess and destruction of the war.
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