History/Background of Short Films and introduction

Friends of mine (Ben and Fin) on the same course have wrote a Thriller/ Horror script due to the target audience research they have found. To create a successful film they have in listed myself and a fellow student Jake to help with the technical aspects of the film.

For my research into the History of Short films I will look into some famous directors and see what skills and equipment helped them when producing the film. Further more I have looked at previous students work and on website platforms such as; Short of the week and Film short.

Quentin Tarantino - My Best Friends Birthday

Martin Scorsese - The Big Shave

Steven Spielberg: The Last Gun, Slipstream.

The first films started out in 1894 with Thomas Edison and his Kinetoscope device. This was a singular viewer based device that conveyed a strip of picture past the persons eye at a high frame rate to create a almost stop motion film.

Years:

1900s':
Technology advancements meant that filming and editing had improved drastically upon its creation in the late 1800s. This therefore lead to longer more sophisticated films such as 'The one man band' (1900) which was directed by George Méliès who went on to create many more successful films in the early 1900's.

1910's:
The idea of a short film wore of at this point as audiences were demanding longer, multi reel films. Although tricky for film creators, the idea of longer 'Feature' films bought in more middle class audience which put a influx of money into the business. This helped the funding of the films and the 'Picture Palaces' which are more commonly known as cinemas now a days. DW Griffiths was the first to tend to the audience's needs with the film ' Klu Klux Epic, Birth of the nation(1915).

Onwards:
In the mid to late 1900's, short films had fallen behind the longer, more thought after films and were only left to show War servicemen in action. Although sparse, short films nowadays have their place to bring a variety to the film industry.