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Short Film

'A short film is any motion picture not long enough to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits".'


Although short films are only defined by runtime, they also have common elements they give them a certain feel when viewing. They tend to show one event where the characters may make no personal progress, rather only experiencing the event. There is also a heavy reliance on performance and creating emotion through other micro elements, usually not including dialogue (from ones I've seen). This is mainly as there may be not be enough time to take a character on a personal progression arc without it feeling rushed or having unjustifiable actions.


From watching a mixture of animated and live action short films, I've observed that animated short film are much more successful at taking a character on an arc in a miniscule amount of time than live action is. They also have a tendency to rely almost entirely on music and include no dialogue, the plot shown visually and emotions triggered through the music.


They do overlap in some areas, but the narratives tend to be similar.

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