History and Devlopment

History and development of short films

The very first films were shown through Thomas Edison's kinetoscope in 1894 for individual viewing. Below is an example of one of Edison's films 'The kiss'. 

Short films have been the form of choice for films such as newsreels, cartoons, adverts, technical films and music videos. In the earlier years of film production, majority of films were 'short'. Feature length production developed as the cinema industry became established and grew. During the 1970's, the arrival of blockbuster film knocked short films. Instead, short films have migrated to other media such as television and internet. In the UK, television had great success for short films, for example, the Wallace and Gromit films in 1989 onwards. Short comedies were also very popular and came in series such as Charlie Chaplins. 

A few animated short films still continue to be popular within mainstream film distribution. Pixar are a good example of creating shorts to go along with each of their feature length films during 1995 and they started producing short films permanently after 2001. 

Dream Works also now often produce short film sequels to have in their special edition releases of feature films and are typically broadcast as a TV special.

Short films have been viewed as less significant to features at major film festivals such as Venice. The low budget of short films and the convenience has made them very popular over time with festival and production companies. Short films have developed increasingly today and have an keen and continuously growing audience.

The new demand for short films has come from the internet. Sites such as YouTube have proved this in today's society, making short films even more popular. People have become captivated by receiving the same information in small doses.