History of Trailers

History of the Short Film

‘A short film is classified as any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences define a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits".’
The increasingly rare term ‘short subject’ roughly means the same thing.

Pixar has screened a ‘short’ along each of its feature films during its initial theatrical run since 1995. Since Disney acquired Pixar in 2005, Disney has also produced animated shorts since 2007 with the Goofy short How to Hook Up Your Home Theater.

‘Shorts International and Magnolia Pictures organize an annual release of Academy Award nominated short films in theatres across the US, UK, Canada and Mexico throughout February/March.’
‘Shorts’ are occasionally broadcast as filler when a feature film doesn't fit the standard broadcast schedule. ShortsTV was the first television channel dedicated to short films
.However, short films generally rely on festival exhibition to reach an audience. Such films can also be distributed via the Internet. Certain websites which encourage the submission of short films, such as YouTube and Vimeo have attracted large communities of artists and viewers.
Short films are a typical first stage for new filmmakers. It helps open doors for people who are trying to get into the media/ film industry.

Short short films are sometimes considered as a category of their own. The International Festival of Very Shorts is a festival based in Paris which shows only films less than three minutes long. Filminute, the international one-minute film festival, has presented and promoted a collection of one-minute films across multiple media since September 2006.

Trailer Conventions

Content:

- Include key moments from the film (But do not give away any crucial plot details)
- Title of film- put at very END of trailer
- Then followed by release date or 'coming soon'
- Names of actors put at the beginning (to draw people in)
- Names of directors/writers/producers can also be included. (e.g 'The director who brought you......and.....' (again this is a technique to draw the audiences attention)

Music:

-Soundtracks
-Non-diegetic sound i.e sound effects and mood music

Cuts:

-Usually fast cuts
-Quick pace

Short Film Conventions

Characters:

-Ususally there are just 1 or 2 main characters
- Normally one character focused on

Storyline:

- Usually have a twist in the storyline

Shots:

- A lot of POV shots (point of view) this is because they can be about characters life experiences so it needs to be portrayed how the character sees the situation themselves.

How Long?:

Generally 1-5 mins long

Themes:

- Could be a life experience/heart-felt/wrenching topics
- They can be really unusual and puzzling

Props:

-Low budget props (cheap and easy to get hold of)

Location:

- Normally use only a couple of locations maximum (because of low budget)

Introduction

For Media A2 level, we have been asked to choose one media production package. For the practical coursework, we can choose out of a music video, a teaser trailer, a new documentary, a new soap opera or a short film. I decided that I'm most interested in short films or a film trailers.
To get an idea of what is expected in Short Films and Film Trailers, I have decided to analysis them by looking into their conventions. We also looked at various short films and trailers in class to help us understand what kind of productions they are. At this stage, I am undecided which promotion package to do, however I'm hoping by doing some research into the two that stand out the most to me, it will help me decide. By researching their codes and conventions, I will become more familiar with there production and layout so this potentionally will help me when I start planning and creating the Short film or Trailer. I also plan to look at the history of Short Films and Trailers to get insight into their backgrounds and how they have changed throughout the years.