The differences between short films and feature films
Short films
What is a short film?
Short film- a short film is any film that cannot be called a featured film due to the length of the film being too short. The length has to be 40 minutes or less to be called a short film. It is an industry term which carries more of an assumption that the film is shown as part of a presentation along with a feature film. Short films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals and made by independent filmmakers for non-profit, either with low budget or no budget at all.
Short film- a short film is any film that cannot be called a featured film due to the length of the film being too short. The length has to be 40 minutes or less to be called a short film. It is an industry term which carries more of an assumption that the film is shown as part of a presentation along with a feature film. Short films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals and made by independent filmmakers for non-profit, either with low budget or no budget at all.
What are the differences between a short film and a feature film?
There are more differences between the average short film and average feature film than the length of the film. I say "average" because there will obviously be some exceptions and if there are well known exceptions I will credit them.
Short films have a much smaller budget compared to feature films, the average budget for a short film is around £10,000. However some short films have no budget at all. £10,000 or more for a film under 40 minutes could be considered a lot but there are many things that you need to spend your budget on such as camera equipment, actors, costume designers and set designers etc. However, most short film directors will have to sacrifice have specialists in each field like costume to make sure they don't go over budget. One way directors save the money in their budget is by only using one location. To have permission to shoot in multiple locations can cost a fair amount and when you have a small budget you can't have many locations. So many short films are shot in one location, sometimes the location used will be a public area so they don't have to spend money on a location. Shooting in one location can be positive or negative for the film overall. Location is very important because it helps set the atmosphere of the film. For example if the atmosphere you want to create is creepy then a location like a forest covered in fog would fit the film better than a colourful flower garden. So a positive effect of using one location is that it is easy to keep the atmosphere you have created with the location because the scenery will never change. A negative of using only one location is that you will have to constantly change the angle you shoot from and the type of shot you do to keep each scene unique and fresh. If every scene is shot the same it will get boring very quickly because every scene will look the same. Short films are not the only type of film to use one location even some feature films use one location. An example of this is the original Saw which was shot in only one room.
There are more differences between the average short film and average feature film than the length of the film. I say "average" because there will obviously be some exceptions and if there are well known exceptions I will credit them.
Short films have a much smaller budget compared to feature films, the average budget for a short film is around £10,000. However some short films have no budget at all. £10,000 or more for a film under 40 minutes could be considered a lot but there are many things that you need to spend your budget on such as camera equipment, actors, costume designers and set designers etc. However, most short film directors will have to sacrifice have specialists in each field like costume to make sure they don't go over budget. One way directors save the money in their budget is by only using one location. To have permission to shoot in multiple locations can cost a fair amount and when you have a small budget you can't have many locations. So many short films are shot in one location, sometimes the location used will be a public area so they don't have to spend money on a location. Shooting in one location can be positive or negative for the film overall. Location is very important because it helps set the atmosphere of the film. For example if the atmosphere you want to create is creepy then a location like a forest covered in fog would fit the film better than a colourful flower garden. So a positive effect of using one location is that it is easy to keep the atmosphere you have created with the location because the scenery will never change. A negative of using only one location is that you will have to constantly change the angle you shoot from and the type of shot you do to keep each scene unique and fresh. If every scene is shot the same it will get boring very quickly because every scene will look the same. Short films are not the only type of film to use one location even some feature films use one location. An example of this is the original Saw which was shot in only one room.
Short films have a much smaller budget compared to feature films, the average budget for a short film is around £10,000. However some short films have no budget at all. £10,000 or more for a film under 40 minutes could be considered a lot but there are many things that you need to spend your budget on such as camera equipment, actors, costume designers and set designers etc. However, most short film directors will have to sacrifice have specialists in each field like costume to make sure they don't go over budget. One way directors save the money in their budget is by only using one location. To have permission to shoot in multiple locations can cost a fair amount and when you have a small budget you can't have many locations. So many short films are shot in one location, sometimes the location used will be a public area so they don't have to spend money on a location. Shooting in one location can be positive or negative for the film overall. Location is very important because it helps set the atmosphere of the film. For example if the atmosphere you want to create is creepy then a location like a forest covered in fog would fit the film better than a colourful flower garden. So a positive effect of using one location is that it is easy to keep the atmosphere you have created with the location because the scenery will never change. A negative of using only one location is that you will have to constantly change the angle you shoot from and the type of shot you do to keep each scene unique and fresh. If every scene is shot the same it will get boring very quickly because every scene will look the same. Short films are not the only type of film to use one location even some feature films use one location. An example of this is the original Saw which was shot in only one room.
Featured films are shown at large theatres but short films are not shown in the same place. Most Short films are actually shown at festivals. This is due to Featured films having the budget to actually afford to be shown in multiple theatres in many countries. Short films don't have the budget to be able to be shown in theatres so most of the time they send their final products to the hosts of film festivals. If the hosts like the short film they might be invited to the festival to show their film at the festival. Not all short films try to get invited to film festivals, some directors put the final product online instead on websites like youtube and vemo. If directors put their film online the film could go viral and could be seen more than films that are shown at film festivals and even some featured films. A recent example of a short film going viral on youtube is In a Heartbeat . The film was first put online and went viral due to its positive meaning and its look into issues that many people experience. After it went viral it was then invited to film festivals and won many awards. Such as The Alumni Choice Award at the Trinity Film Festival.
Production time will vary on every project due to many things such as the genre of film. For example if the type of film is animation it will take more time than live action films. Even though production time varies with every film the majority of the time the whole production time will be less for short films compared to featured films. This is due to many things but the main reason is there are more scenes to shoot because featured films are longer than short films. When there is more scenes to shoot it means there was a longer time in pre-production because it means there was was a longer script to write and a bigger storyboard to create.
The Final major difference between short films and feature films is the meaning behind them. The majority of websites say that short films are educational and feature films are only for entertainment. I disagree with these websites because there are many short films that are not educational and there are even feature films that can be educational as well. An example of a short film that is not educational is The Pig Child which is about a scientist who mixes a human and pig embryo which is currently scientifically impossible with are current technology. An example of a feature film which can be educational is most war films based on true stories, a recent example of this is Dunkirk which was released earlier this year.
What makes a successful short film?
There are many parts of production and pre-production which will determine if your short film will be successful or not. One of the biggest things that can effect how successful a short film will be is the plot. Even if you have a great concept it won't be successful unless the way you deliver it is good. With a short film you have less time to delve in to a complex plot compared to a feature film, so if you choose to have complex plot for a short film the pacing has to be correct without any parts getting rushed or skipped for it to be a success. The way a scene is shot can make more of a impact than characters depending on how well a scene is shot, the way a scene is shot can set the atmosphere of that scene. If the same angles are used in every scene the viewer will get bored and the film won't be as successful. Also if you use an incorrect angle in a scene it could give of the wrong affect than you wanted. An example of this could be using a extreme close up instead of a close up the viewers might not understand the emotion the character is feeling because they can not see their whole face. This could completely destroy the atmosphere the director was trying to create.
The majority of short films are educational or have a singular message behind them. Short films are more effective for communicating a message than a feature film. This is because the majority of people watch feature films to be entertained they don't want to have to think about a deeper meaning or message. Examples of films like this are Hollywood action films like Die Hard (1988) and The Avengers (2012), the large gap between the releases of these films show that the majority of hollywood films are to just watch for entertainment. A large amount of short films are educational with a deeper meaning about issues in society like racism, some are to get people motivated like The Aim. The reason short films work better to to get one meaning across is because there is less time to fill meaning they can stick to one topic without it getting repetitive this is much harder to do with a feature film because of the longer duration it would have to fill.
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