The Purpose of a Short Film

There are a number of different purposes for the making of a short film compared to making a feature length film. Making a short film tends to be the stepping stone for new directors and is their way of self promotion showing companies and people their skills and ideas for a feature length film. The director can illustrate their talent and passion via making a short film giving people a glimpse and making people aware of what they can do with people and characters using their imagination, skills and ability. Short films are also created in order to communicate a message to the audience about controversial and touchy subjects e.g. violence, knife crime, poverty. Full feature length films do not take this strong approach to communicating a message as feature length films base their story-line on if they will make a profit or not and tend to choose simple story-lines that they know will sell and are popular with the mass market making them willing to pay to watch the film. Short films are not made in order to make profit as directors know that people will not pay to watch a film that is 5 to 30 minutes long.

Another reason why short films are made is for experimental reasons for example it is a way for a new director to do new things and try out new ideas seeing if they would work and be successful as a feature length film. Short films tend to be shown in film festivals and competitions showcasing a variety of directors talents and ideas to a large audience all interested in short films for pleasure not profit. Short films are also distributed via the media online and on TV. Short films have been effected significantly by the media and the internet as it allows the short films to have a greater target audience and allows more people to watch the films. There are also specialist TV channels and public services which screen a variety of short films for those who have no access to the internet and haven't come across a short film before introducing them to the concept and idea of short films. They tend to be show late at night on main channels e.g. channel 4 where there is not a very big audience and they are able to show controversial films and footage as the audience tend to be older that watch television late at night.