Week 4 - Short Films

The short film sometimes gets overlooked in screen production, distribution and exhibition circles with feature filmmaking taking focus. However, the short film provides a number of interesting avenues for both emerging and established filmmakers including visual and narrative experimentation as well as finding niche and varied audiences through distribution and exhibition on non-traditional platforms.

In this topic, we will look at:

· The form of short films

· A brief history of short film production

· The production, distribution and exhibition of short films

Form and structure

Defining the short film these days can be difficult with the emergence of online streaming and multiplatform exhibition that allows for a multitude of different kinds of short video productions. Industry bodies generally stipulate the duration of what is considered “short” in their various guidelines (e.g. funding, exhibition). For example, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars.org, 2018) defines a short film “as an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits”. In Australia, the national film body Screen Australia (2019) stipulates in their funding programs that short films can be dramas (a word they use for fiction films) under 60 minutes and documentaries under 23 minutes in duration. Concentrating on the live-action short, author of Discovering Short Films Cynthia Felando (2015, p. 1) notes that in general, short film includes “meticulous narrative compression, [a] preference for intense endings, and [a] knack for flouting feature film conventions”. This suggests a distinctive structure and style that distinguishes it from longer form screen productions.

As suggested above, short film is a form of cinema that is ‘shorter’ than a feature film and subsequently contains its own kind of structure. It can take a vast number of forms and styles from naturalistic dramas and genre pieces to animated, experimental and nonfiction films. Music videos (and perhaps corporate video and ads) can also be considered here, even though these are specifically excluded from Screen Australia’s short film funding guidelines, mainly due to their commercial nature. In future topics, we will be looking at some of these kinds of short films. For example, some early avant-garde filmmaking establishes short experimentations that influence later experimental filmmaking and music video production.

A brief history

As we have already seen in this module, the first films in the days of Edison, the Lumière Brothers and beyond, were short films. The films played by the Lumiere Brothers in their first exhibition at the Grand Café in Paris ran for around 38–49 seconds each with shorts eventually getting minutes longer moving into the 1900s and early-1910s, as filmmakers began exploring fictional narratives and visual representations.

For example, French filmmaker, George Meliés, experimented with early special effects within his fantastical narrative productions, combining his passion for stage design, magic and filmmaking.

Image: A Trip to the Moon (Meliés, 1902) — early science fiction.

With the first documented feature film made by the Tait Brothers in 1906 — The Story of Kelly Gang — in Australia, originally running at around 70 minutes, feature-length filmmaking eventually superseded the short film by the mid-1910s. This is especially so with the first epic films being produced by filmmakers such as Abel Gance in France and D.W. Griffith in the US in this era. Films like the controversial Birth of a Nation (Griffith, 1915) ran with a screen duration 3hrs plus depending on the cut being exhibited. Once feature films became popular for filmmakers, studios and audiences, the short film was relegated to being screened before a feature (the main event for a night out) before disappearing from commercial theatres altogether, with the exception of film festival screenings.

The tradition of short film production did continue in non-commerical areas, such as early avant-garde film (e.g. Surrealism), animation (e.g. early Disney, European and Asian animation) and experimental film (e.g. Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage). These movements and styles provide the threads for contemporary short film’s position as an independent and experimental form of filmmaking.

Below is an experimental short film, Mothlight, by Stan Brakhage from 1963 where he treats the celluloid as an artistic material, sticking bits of moth, leaves and flowers and exposing it to light. The result is an exploration of film’s conventions and materials and provides an example of earlier non-narrative, highly experimental, short film making.

Industry Perspectives and Debates

There is debate around the current purpose of short films within the screen industry. Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) lecturer, Mike Jones (2010), argues that there are only two reasons to produce short films — the learning experience and the calling card — and that contemporary short film is failing at both. According to Jones, the learning experience refers to the ability to produce a film with a low to no budget and little resources. The calling card short “aims to serve as a demonstration of a filmmaker’s abilities” in order to “convince financiers and funding bodies of the filmmaker’s worthiness of trust to make a longer project” (Jones, 2010).

FUN FACT: The concept of calling card is quite old and comes from literal cards that were used primarily between the 18th and 20th centuries and served many social purposes — “as a means of introduction, to further acquaintanceship, to express congratulations or condolences and to provide notices of arrival or departure” (American Stationary, N.D).

For Jones, making short films doesn’t teach the film student how to structure feature narratives, nor does it instil trust that a filmmaker can sustain longer character arcs needed for feature films. However, this suggests that the purpose of short films is only to train early-career filmmakers for future feature filmmaking, therefore dismissing the art of short film production and their own specific formal and narrative conventions.

Moreover, there is also the argument that short film production does provide a productive training ground for filmmakers that goes beyond the narrative structural concerns of Jones and into other important aspects of filmmaking. Going through the experience of the production process, from pre-production to post-production, can be less daunting with a short and subsequently provide space for filmmakers at all levels of experience to practice techniques, explore different creative roles, learn more about their collaboration style, and continue to have a creative outlet when resources may be at a minimum.

Film festivals, including prestigious festivals like Cannes and Sundance, place emphasis on the importance of short films for discovering new talent and showcasing stories that can push the boundaries of visual and narrative experimentation and social/political impact, due to their mostly independent production. For example, this short film by Lynne Ramsay called Small Deaths (1996) shows her experimenting with a more poetic style rather than focusing on narrative and we can see the beginnings of her visual approach that are evident in her later feature films like Ratcatcher (1999) and We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011).

Case Study: Calling card or short film as an art form?

Monster (Jennifer Kent, 2005)

Monster is a short horror film written and directed by Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent, released in 2005. Running at a duration of just over 10 minutes, the contains the initial idea that Kent eventually developed into her debut feature film, The Babadook (2014). Kent (cited in George, 2014) explains her learning experience in making the short:

Monster taught me to be stubborn in the best possible way. You need to listen to people when you’re developing a film because there are always things you need to hear but you can’t take on all the feedback without your film becoming a mess. Within its 10-minute run time, Monster contains the seed of The Babadook. It is a baby Babadook if you like!

Take a look at Monster below and think about:

• Does it contain a short narrative structure that feels complete or does it feel like an abbreviated feature film?

If you have seen The Babadook, you may also like to consider how the story, tone and mood develop across the two films.

You can also discuss this example and your thoughts in class this week along with your own ideas on what the purpose and place of short film is. Is it:

• A learning experience

• A calling card

• An artform with its own structure and form

Short film and audiences

Finally, the rise of online technologies and streaming capabilities has seen short film flourish in new and innovative ways, as well as helping creators find new audiences across the world. Traditionally, film festivals have been the go-to exhibition space for short films screened in front of features or in their own dedicated sessions. Subsequently, to see a short film or to find an audience as a short filmmaker, you would need to be aware of and participate in these festivals.

Film festivals are still a viable outlet for short film but as the “availability to view shorts films is getting easier through online platforms— critics are calling this time a ‘renaissance’ for short film making and viewing” (Felando, 1). There are dedicated sites for short films that fans and cinephiles can watch whenever they like. For example, “Short of the Week” (https://www.shortoftheweek.com/) contains curated channels of short films in categories such as documentaries, animations and different genres.

Film festivals are also utilising streaming to showcase the films that would otherwise only be seen in their venues. For example, Cannes (https://vimeo.com/channels/cannesfilmfest) has a Vimeo channel for short films that have been screened at the festival. Australian festival Tropfest has also started live streaming their festival of the final 16 films using Facebook Watch, as well as interviews with filmmakers, the awards jury and the winners on Facebook called Tropfest All Access.

The expanding definition of short film due to these technologies also manifests itself in the web series. While part short / part serial, the web series provides yet another way for screen creatives to work outside feature filmmaking using online technologies. Episodes are generally much shorter than traditional television and definitely shorter than shows labelled ‘quality TV’, shows on subscription services like HBO, Amazon Prime and Netflix that have episodes which could run over 50 minutes. Once again, the web series provides a short form of serial production that can experiment with form, genre and structure in different ways.

Below is an example of an Australia web series, Sarah's Channel (Nick Coyle, 2019), which received funding from Screen Australia. The entire series can be found on ABC iView as well as YouTube. Here's the first episode:

References

American Stationery. (n.d.). The History of the Calling Card. Retrieved 4th March 2019 from https://www.americanstationery.com/blog/the-history-of-the-calling-card/

Felando, C. (2015). Discovering Short Films: The History and Style of Live-Action Fiction Shorts. New York, USA: Palgrave Macmillan.

George, S. (2014). How Jennifer Kent made The Babadook. Retrieved 4th March 2019 from https://www.sbs.com.au/movies/article/2014/05/21/how-jennifer-kent-made-babadook.

Jones, M. (2010). The Short Film is Dead: Time for the Emerging Filmmaker to Get a New Calling Card. Retrieved 4th March 2019 from https://nofilmschool.com/2010/07/the-short-film-is-dead-time-for-the-emerging-filmmaker-to-get-a-new-calling-card.

Oscars.org. (2018). 91st Academy Awards Special Rules For The Short Film Awards. Retrieved 26th February 2019 from https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/91aa_short_films.pdf.

Screen Australia. (2019). Shorts. Retrieved 26th February 2019 from https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/funding-and-support/shorts.