The History of Short Film

Short films came around in the 1890's although it can be argued that these are the first films, not shorts. These films were short due to the technology restrictions and were initially part of a scientific experiment. This first piece of film was made by the Lumiére Brothers in 1895 and was called La Sortie De L'Usine, which meant workers leaving the factory. these shorts can also be considered as part of "short subjects"

USA and Hollywood soon joined in and created The Kiss by Thomas Edison in 1896 but whilst researching the history of short film others have said short film all began in the early 19o0s within the United States of America. What defines this change is that the films began to have longer time lengths and as time goes on the technology gets better. The aim in a short film was to include a single or more short subject. These short subjects became the first short films but they were not yet called "short films". Once Hollywood came along it over took short film and eventually put it to its death. This was because Hollywood created the first feature length film and offered much more to the audiences. Hollywood created a in house system were all of these short films and feature length films were produced. everything was done in house the development, production, distribution and exhibition. what they also did was create the genres. the majority of early shorts or films were comdies. Hollywood had the money to be experimental and get there hands on all technical developments. this then lead to cinema exhibitors to requiring a film to be no longer and 120 minutes long to have two hour slots for customers. this slot also timed these customers going to the toilet collecting their tickets and schedule advertisements and trailers as well as the film. this was all business inspired.

By the 1930s short film was a marginal activity and slaughtered by Hollywood. Although short films were still around. There were companies that would force owners and creators of generally and experimental short films to sell their own work to big companies. These big companies or theater-chain-owners would then turn these short films into big-name features. This system was called block booking and was an unfair gesture. Eventually The Supreme Court of the United States declared block booking to be illegal.

Later on short film found its self in a new home, Art House, Avent Garde. See Ideologies and Messages Blog.

In 1955, another competitor of short film appeared which were the rise of television. Both Films and Shorts suffered from this development. Since then, short films have become a great start for aspiring and independent filmmakers. However, television programming include broadcasting old short film. These short films were those that had been sold to television stations which was a great way to get a persons work noticed. By the end of 1960s, short films eventually disappeare and it was only in the 80s that the term "short film" began to be used to describe these pieces of work.

Some Sites With Have Information On Shorts On Television.
3minute wounder
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/tags/art-design-and-literature
Shorts
http://www.film4.com/