Timeline of Short Film

·         1895

-        The first short film was publicly exhibited. It was by the Lumieré Brothers and was entitled La Sortie de la Usine.

-        The length of the film was not deliberate, but rather due to technical restraints.

·         1910

-        The films started to become longer now, because of technical advancements and so films that were made deliberately short were coined as, ‘shot subjects’.

-        ‘Short Subjects’ became quite popular amongst audiences because people could go to the cinema and see 3 or 4 films rather than just one. This was important at the time, as there were few forms of entertainment for the masses.

·         1930s

-        Hollywood Studios began to be ‘block-booked’ which meant that they would rent out all their films in a season to one theatre or theatre chain.

-        Also, Hollywood Studios started to force small production companies to sell their shorts, so that they could turn them into feature films.

-        The Supreme Courts of the US declared black-booking to be illegal in 1948 after the United States versus Paramount Pictures.

-        The 1930s was the beginning of what was known as the ‘golden age’ in Hollywood and with that emerged the ‘classic’ film narrative (a feature-length film of 90 minutes or more) and these were more profitable for the film exhibitors than shorts.

·         1960s

-        The invention of the TV-mass medium and inflation meant that by the 60s, short film had literally disappeared.

·         1980s

-        In the 1980s, short film was reinvented and they were much darker and grittier. However, the major change in short film, which still applies from the modern short, is that they were no longer about commercial success. Instead they were more about style and conveying a message.

·         Avant-Garde

-        It was about breaking the boundaries and being innovative in film , doing something weird, wonderful and different something that had never been seen or tried before.

-        The Avant-Garde director Maya Deren did this with her films during the 40s and 50s and thus promoted the creative freedom. An example is; ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’.