2. Our short film will aim to target students, ranging from 16 years old
to 22 years old. The students will particularly be interested in Media
Studies and Film research.
Short film’s industry’s audience is quite particular compared to full
length films audience. There are two focal groups who will be
familiar with short films; unemployed students seeking a future in
the film industry and people who are already successful in the
industry.
3. The history of short films
At the beginning, all films were short. In the 20th century, film began to develop further
and films gradually had a longer duration. Short films began in the 1910s – they had
short subjects which could be animated or live action. Comedians such as Charlie
Chaplin were recognised for their short films and features.
“The very first films were presented to the public in 1894 through Thomas Edison’s
Kinetoscope, a peepshow-like device for individual viewing.”
The brevity of these one-shot films suited Victorian modes of presentation. As Bryony
Dixon, the BFI national archive’s silent film curator and director of the British Silent Film
Festival, explains: “The major outlets for entertainment at that time were music halls
and fairgrounds, where programmes were made up of a variety of different acts lasting
up to about 20 minutes. Most early films imitated other entertainment media already in
existence: magic lantern shows, illustrations, variety acts, tableaux presentations. So
short was the norm.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-life/7593291/The-long-history-of-short-
films.html
4. “Many of our major directors have launched their careers with short
films: Ridley Scott with Boy and Bicycle (1965), Ken Russell with Amelia
and the Angel (1958), Lynne Ramsey with Gasman (1997) and Shane
Meadows with Where's the Money Ronnie! (1995). Shorts predate
feature length production by over a decade, and they have been the
form of choice for films as diverse as newsreels, cartoons, advertising,
technical films, music promos, corporate video, cine-magazines,
sponsored filmmaking, student films, gallery installations and amateur
cinematography.”
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1350979/index.html
