Short films over 10 minutes

FrankLad

FrankLad

Hey guys!

From everything I've read in books on writing short film, as well as forums and festival requirements at various sites... 10 minutes is the best length for short films.

(I've read "10 and under", “8 to 12”, "shorter = better" and - more vaguely - "whatever time is required to tell the story"... but 10 seems to be the number that comes up often.)

I understand this is for ease of programming. ie. They'd rather show three 10-minute films than one 30-minute film.

So I’d really like to hear from the folks who have made short films with running times over 10 minutes, who have submitted their films to festivals. Where you successful? Which festivals tend to be a bit more lax in running time?

I’ve just completed the first draft of my film that I’ve planned on having a running time of around 17 to 20 minutes, and your responses will be helpful to me as I work on the next drafts.

Thanks a bunch for any help you can provide!

Frank
 
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I have several screenplays under my belt and both are about 20 minutes long. It takes that much time to set up the characters and the plot lines. I need to get from point A to point B and that just takes some time.

A successful short film like Spider (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmbv8kevQ-E) has one or two simple ideas. My mind just doesn't work that way. I want to say more.
 
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One size does not fit all.

Does the story warrant it?

The festival in my town plays lengths up to 30 minutes, I believe. A lot of them go over 10 minutes, and often they drag. Some of the six minute ones seem like an eternity.

That said, they also started a one minute category -- and I won it.
 
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I forced myself to keep my recent short under 10 minutes and it ended up being 9:00 exactly. But I have a short dramatic script that is 20 pages and there's just no way I can see editing it down to under ten without losing a good chunk of what makes it work.
 
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The length a 'short' should be is something I've heard debated a lot.

I think the answer is the film should be as long as it needs to be.

I know that sounds flip, but 25 mins flash by if the story is well told, photography good, acting sound, etc whereas 10 mins can last forever if it's amateur hour.

If you're worried look at the lengths of shorts they've shown in previous years - past line ups are a good indicator of the sort of films they like.

And good luck!
 
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My .0002 cents (I hope to start submitting to festivals this year).

I remember when I did my first short, Delivery Day-which turned into a short called Face Value. Anyway, The original ran about 13 minutes which is what i thought was a "good" length, and I got a lot of good advice here about trimming it to tell the story-and I think it's current (and hopefully final) incarnation is about 7 min (that's the one I hope to submit). I had this arbitrary number that it should be a certain "length" at the time-but even watching it myself it felt "long".

So my current project "Showing Face" trims in a nice 4 min-because that's how long it was meant to be(now if I could just get my music score ;))
 
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A good movie leaves the audience wishing there was even more.

A bad movie makes the audience wish there was less, a lot less, zero perhaps and they may even want to hurt you.
 
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My last short was 37 minutes, this both helped and hurt us in the long run.

We only got into 3 out 15 festivals, but we won best short at two of them.

What we did accomplish is to prove to our investors we could manage a much larger project (cast, crew, budget) which has got us funding for a feature.

So my two cents...

If you are looking to get into more festivals go for around 12 minutes.

If you are trying to really tell a story make it as long as the script dictates and if you do a good enough job then good things will happen.
 
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A few of the short films I have made have been quite a bit longer than 10 minutes, and did fine on the festival circuit. In fact, three of them were 25 minutes or more and have played at over 50 festivals worldwide and won almost two dozen awards between them.

Make a good film, tell an interesting story, and most people won't notice the length.

gelder
 
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As we have said all along, it's not the end of the world. My first short was 35 minutes (should have been about 25) and my second short was 25 minutes (should have been about 22 or 23). The first got in a couple of festivals, the second got in a dozen festivals and won multiple awards. We are just pointing out you are creating a little headwind against the film as far as getting programmed goes. In some cases the programmer will have to like your 25 minute film quite a bit more than they like those two 12 minute films they also have sitting on their desk for them to make the call to program your 1 film instead of those 2 films.

The lesson (for me) which applies universally not just to festivals is TIGHT editing. I could have easily cut 10 minutes from my first film. The pacing was really slow. I could have cut 2 or 3 minutes from my second film (there are stretches where it drags just a bit). Hopefully third time will be a charm for me as far as getting the length "right" for the story.
 
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steve gelder said:
A few of the short films I have made have been quite a bit longer than 10 minutes, and did fine on the festival circuit. In fact, three of them were 25 minutes or more and have played at over 50 festivals worldwide and won almost two dozen awards between them.

Make a good film, tell an interesting story, and most people won't notice the length.

gelder
Click to expand...

:yes:
 
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