Bring back shorts
Pixar fans love them. Some of our best known directors started their careers making them. They were once common in our cinemas before adverts took over. So where have all the short films gone?
Back when the world was in black and white, a trip to the cinema often meant a series of documentaries, newsreels, adventure serials and cartoons being strung together to provide a varied, and cost effective, night out.
As the fascinating new book The British ‘B’ Movie (BFI/Palgrave MacMillan) notes, from the 1930s through to the early 1960s low budget films of around an hour or so, known as ‘quota quickies’ or ‘B’ films, were produced to accompany the main ‘A’ features, often convincing punters to part with their cash.
By the 1970s the short film was all but dead thanks to the growth of adverts and the dominance of the blockbuster, though I remember cartoons before films when I was taken to the old ABC on Lothian Road in the (very) late 1970s as a boy.
Though short films still exist on late night television and on the Internet, their side-lining isn't something we should be happy about.
If you went to see the recent science fiction film District 9 you might not know that it started life as a short film, directors such as Ridley Scott and Shane Meadows also learning their trade by making shorts such as Boy and Bicycle and Where's the Money Ronnie!
When I wrote a few weeks back about my trip to the Inverness Film Festival, one thing I didn't mention were the series of short films such as Smith, Pollphail and Steel Homes preceding the new feature films. All of them are unique and British and you've probably never heard of them.
On the other hand, go and see the latest Pixar epic Up and you'll find a lovely little short film called Partly Cloudy before it, the adults and children in the audience clearly lapping it up.
So are short films dead in mainstream cinema? For the most part it would seem so, though I'd love to see the Cineworld's and Odeon's of this world giving over 5 or 10 minutes to a new short which complements the main film, bringing back some variety to our evenings out.
Until then keep an eye out for short film seasons at your local cinema and you might be pleasantly surprised with what you find.
Back when the world was in black and white, a trip to the cinema often meant a series of documentaries, newsreels, adventure serials and cartoons being strung together to provide a varied, and cost effective, night out.
As the fascinating new book The British ‘B’ Movie (BFI/Palgrave MacMillan) notes, from the 1930s through to the early 1960s low budget films of around an hour or so, known as ‘quota quickies’ or ‘B’ films, were produced to accompany the main ‘A’ features, often convincing punters to part with their cash.
By the 1970s the short film was all but dead thanks to the growth of adverts and the dominance of the blockbuster, though I remember cartoons before films when I was taken to the old ABC on Lothian Road in the (very) late 1970s as a boy.
Though short films still exist on late night television and on the Internet, their side-lining isn't something we should be happy about.
If you went to see the recent science fiction film District 9 you might not know that it started life as a short film, directors such as Ridley Scott and Shane Meadows also learning their trade by making shorts such as Boy and Bicycle and Where's the Money Ronnie!
When I wrote a few weeks back about my trip to the Inverness Film Festival, one thing I didn't mention were the series of short films such as Smith, Pollphail and Steel Homes preceding the new feature films. All of them are unique and British and you've probably never heard of them.
On the other hand, go and see the latest Pixar epic Up and you'll find a lovely little short film called Partly Cloudy before it, the adults and children in the audience clearly lapping it up.
So are short films dead in mainstream cinema? For the most part it would seem so, though I'd love to see the Cineworld's and Odeon's of this world giving over 5 or 10 minutes to a new short which complements the main film, bringing back some variety to our evenings out.
Until then keep an eye out for short film seasons at your local cinema and you might be pleasantly surprised with what you find.
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15:05
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