Short films written by Amber

Short films remain an important medium for established and aspiring filmmakers. The short film is shorter in time, but in today’s market it can be just as important as feature films, especially in the independent market. The short film is a great way to show talent’s and works of filmmakers and actors. The movie, Napolean Dynamite, was based on the filmmakers Jared Hess’s earlier short film Peluca. Another example is the film “Hustle and Flow” which was also financed as a result of filmmaker Craig Brewer’s earlier short film “Poor and Hungry”. Short films are an excellent way to “be discovered” by Hollywood’s power players. For up and coming filmmakers showing short films shows an opportunity that may have not been secured before, therefore the short film is incredibly significant in the media of film.

There are hundreds of short film festivals around the globe today. Maybe even thousands. The short film market today is thriving as hundreds of hopeful, and often talented, filmmakers submit short’s displaying their talents.

Short films started in the early days of moving pictures. In the beginning of film history most American films were short. Films cost about a nickel and lasted about a minute. They eventually got longer and longer, but the history of the short film is significant.
Between 1908 and 1913, lengendary filmmaker D.W. Griffith produced “450 short films, an enourmous number”. This gave the filmmaker a great chance to improve his craft by experimenting with camera movements, close ups and actors performances. When talk’s of making longer films was first brought up, one of Hollywood’s first actresses, Lillian Gish thought that “a movie that long would hurt (the audience’s) eyes”. He later went on to make Judith of Bethulia (1914) and The Birth of a Nation (1915) which lasted over two hours. It was the effect of working on short films, that resulted in a timeless, and controversial career in film for Griffith. This set in motion of starting with short film, before moving on to feature length films.

During the great depression people were’nt thinking about movies so much as they were keeping their jobs or their homes. Theatres looked for ways to keep people coming to movies so movie studio’s began looking for shorter subjects to show. There was less risk of boring the audience. Sound was still a new addition to film during the early days, and so musical entertainers were added to make sound while the short’s were rolling.

The market for short films today is becoming even broader through modern technology. Short films are shown on computers, and websites such as Youtube, and now even on cell phones. Filmmaker Frank Chindamo, CEO of company “Funlittlemovies” has shown that there is a huge market for short films ranging in subjects exploring modern mishaps related to such subjects as phone sex, radio psychiatry, jelly doughnuts, styling mousse, angry cats, blind dates, bondage, or even Gilbert Gottfried with x-ray vision.