SHORT FILM PRESCRIPTIONS
Sep 27 | Author: Mike Plante
PREMIERE STATUS
As for Sundance, there is not a requirement that a short has to be a premiere. It’s possible that the short could be overexposed, like having shown in 100 festivals, but that’s usually not the case. More like a film has shown in a few festivals, and that’s fine. Beyond Sundance, most festivals just want good short films to show. There are a few that try to program 95% shorts that did not play Sundance, which is strange. And a few fests in the same city as other fests will probably not overlap.
At CineVegas, we want to show great short films and it doesn’t matter where they played before. We also love to have a mix – mainstream, underground, slick, scrappy, docs, narratives, animation. There is no agenda but its great to mix it up for crowds.
TEN MINUTES. As in run time. Want to run longer? OK, but you need a strong story, not to mention acting and sound. Think people get bored with a film over 2 hrs? It’s worse with a short that can’t sustain a story or atmosphere. We’ve seen 4-minute films that are funnier than some comedians’ entire careers. 5-minute films with as many tears as epic romances. More often than not when a film goes past 10 minutes, and especially 15 minutes, you are starting to introduce characters, plot, subplots (in a short??), ideas – and that all has to be wrapped up quickly. It becomes more of a failed feature. Many times the film is too enamored with its own imagery and gets stale by the end. Don’t use an image just because its pretty, it has to be good for the film. Even if it’s experimental – you don’t need to tell a story for a film to be compelling, but your images had better hold up for a extended time.
Exceptions include documentaries, which are often such great stories that a longer run time is needed to tell it properly. And, if you just happen to be an incredible writer and have a unique idea, then a longer story might work out. That’s just rare.
More soon…
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