Short Films Find New Fans
On the Lot Television Series Generated Interest in Shorter Movies
With their increased exposure on the Fox television reality series, short films are enjoying increased popularity.
The short-lived reality series On the Lot, executive produced by Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg and featuring filmmakers’ short films in competition for a $1 million development deal, introduced these mini masterpieces to the general public. While nothing can replace feature-length films of sixty to ninety minutes, high-quality shorts (and the people who create them) are becoming more in demand each year.
Film Festival Shorts
At film festivals, shorts may precede features (under ninety minutes) or be grouped into programs devoted exclusively to shorter films. With shorts programs, audiences sample a variety of cinematic styles and stories based around a similar theme, such as love, death, lust, crime, or some other broad topic. On cable television channels, short films are sometimes used as fillers when movies don’t quite fill the time slot. Some of the best shorts head straight from the festival circuit to cable television. You also can find short films on PBS and online competitions/outlets.
“Audiences love shorts programs because they are less likely to see these films again anywhere else,” says Matthew Curtis, programming director of the Florida Film Festival. “Where else but a film festival can you see sixty incredible short pieces with a variety of talent and an assortment of styles and genres? Filmmakers also love them because they don't cost as much to make as features and they are often stepping stones to other projects.”
The Short Film Empty
An eye-popping, risk-taking, award-winning short film keeps working for filmmakers long after its completion. Los Angeles filmmaker Jared Micah Herman used stories from his grandmother's ordeal as a Holocaust survivor for thematic elements in his 23-minute, black-and-white narrative short film Empty (2002). With help from a scholarship and a Warner Brothers Post Production Grant, Herman wrote and directed Empty on a $45,000 budget while earning his undergraduate degree at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
“This was the only film I could have made at the time...emotionally,” he says. “It deals with the empty concentration camps at the end of World War II, the empty mental state of the survivors whose family members were dead or missing, and the empty landscape into which the two boys escape from the death marches.”
Among its many awards, Empty claimed the Wasserman Award at NYU First Run Festival, Best Narrative Short at Cinequest Film Festival, Commendation for Outstanding Cinematography from American Society of Cinematographers, and a Student Emmy Award from the College Television Awards, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. It also served as Herman’s calling card to the film industry, which led to his work as a second unit director on the upcoming 2008 adventure comedy Fanboys, about a group of Star Wars fans who travel to Skywalker Ranch to see The Phantom Menace before its release.
The Best Short Films
Although the shorts used during On the Lot were limited to no more than three minutes due to the commercial nature of network television and the time needed for other contestants, festivals usually allow shorts to be anywhere under thirty minutes to allow flexible scheduling. With so little time, the story must be simple and the characters few. This strategy keeps costs down for the filmmaker and helps audiences get the message quickly with a distinct beginning, middle, and ending.
The best short films will stir your emotions or generate new ways of looking at the world. Even when they miss the mark, it’s no great cause for concern. “These shorts range from one minute to a half hour,” Curtis says. “If you don't like something, just wait a few minutes and it's gone.”
To learn more about short films, read Jodorowsky's First Short Film.
