Short film #1 - What is a short film?

A short film is a film that is not long enough to be considered as a feature film. There are no strict rules that govern whether a film is a short film or not but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences clearly defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". There a few important things about short films that you should take note of:

• Short films can be professional or amateur productions.
• Short films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals.
• Short films are often made by independent filmmakers (such as Warp Films) for non profit, either with a low budget, no budget at all, and in rare cases big budgets.
• Short films are usually funded by film grants, non profit organisations, sponsors, or out of pocket funds. (Examples include - National Lottery Funding
• These films are used by indie filmmakers to prove their talent in order to gain funding for future films from private investors, entertainment companies, or film studios.

Examples of successful short films include:

• Toy Story of Terror (2013)
• The Real Ghostbusters (2011)
• Doctor Who - Time Crash (2007)

The films above are from the IMDb's most popular short film list. There are loads more to find out about on this list, you can see it by following the link below:

http://www.imdb.com/search/title?title_type=short