Shorts

How many people here have ever seen a short film?

Probably the only time one even hears the term is at the Academy Awards when an oscar is given to best short and best animated short.

Very few people get to see these short films; often they're very good indeed. Why doesn't The Academy offer to view the nominees on TV in the week before the awards. That would help create interest in the short film awards which are more often an excuse to make a cup of coffee.

Back in early Hollywood, a short film used to be played before the feature length. Why did this practice stop? Should it be reinstated? I think so.

The shorts that I've seen are often funnier, more touching and better than feature lengths. The directors tell a 20 minute story in 20 minutes rather than this new Hollywood practise of stretching a 20 minute story into 180 minutes. Sure, a lot of the shorts I've seen at Festivals are weak but the good ones deserve more publicity.

I'd love to see shorts accompany Hollywood films. They could be placed before the adverts so that early arrivees are rewarded with a short story before the feature. The likes of Laurel and Hardy and Chaplin got started in shorts and some of their best work are still in this shortened format. We could be missing out on a world of talent just because we've been trained to accept a film that's got an hour and a half length.

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I think some of the most memorable are Pixar's which they show before their movies, and the Wallace and Grommit esque clay shorts. Most done by Aardman, and very funny.

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Yeah, I'm with Spud. I'm a big fan of "Gerry's Game." Very cool short.

That's one nice thing about the Internet, there are many opportunities on the web to see short films (both good and bad) at places like iFilm or AtomFilms, etc.

Here in the States, The Sundance Channel and The Independent Film Channel show a lot of short films, but they are two of the only programmers who do so regularly.

I go to a few Film Festivals a year, so I usually see a good crop of 'em there.

[Edited by Holden Pike on 10-01-2001]

Sci Fi channel's Exposure shows some shorts that are sometimes very good and very funny, I don't know how many people watch it, but it's very good.

I watch exposure alot, er I use to. Great stuff on their.

Mark went to a film school and they gave him 200 some free shorts, he said some were pretty good.

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I watch shorts on IFC quite a bit. They're usually quite hit or miss. Sometimes I'm stunned by how good some are but I usually find myself just trying to get through them.

Gerry's Game...very cool...too bad there aren't opportunites to see more like it.

Steve

I love love love shorts. One of the best I've seen I can't remember the name of! It was on HBO, and was about a gay young man, junior high school age. It's set in the 70's and he loves Diana Ross. Does anyone remember the title?

I like the IFC shorts, but they play the same ones over and over again. I get excited to see it on the guide and then dissapointed when it turns out to be the same 5 every time.

R

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Gerry's Game was a very good short. Since they are coming up with a channel for just about everything, they should make a channel devoted to shorts. I mean not just play shorts 24/7, but show what people go through to get to the finished product. I would watch the channel.

Mark (Zweeedorf) has tons of shorts on tape, he has a bunch of old Exposure episodes, and a good amount of FSU film school tapes. My favorite short is actually a music video, it's called "More", and at the end it says "Music by New Order", who are unassailably the greatest band in the world.

Are you going to the VA Film Fest Holden? I was going to go but I'm moving.

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Haven't decided if I'm going to the Virginia Film Festival this year (been to three of 'em in the past). My little sister used to attend Randolph-Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, which was only about a 45-minute drive, so I could crash on her floor for a few days. But she's since graduated, and I can't see getting a hotel room, which would mean I'd have to just pick one of the days to go down and drive back late at night.

I'd love to see Gena Rowlands and a few of the Cassavetes flicks. Sydney Pollack is there with Tootsie, that'd be fun. David S. Ward brought The Sting. But I don't know what I'm going to be able to work into my schedule.

For anyone curious, their site is http://www.vafilm.com.

[Edited by Holden Pike on 10-03-2001]

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Speaking of Shorts, I watched "George Lucas in Love" today, and I thought it was pretty funny. Very well done as short films go.

Here are some brilliant free shorts I've stumbled upon (God bless the interwebz):

The ark - Grzegorz Jonkajtys

Competed in Cannes in 2007 in the Short film category.

Suzie Templeton - Dog


Templeton went on to win an Oscar for Peter and the Wolf in 2008, although, personally, I think this one is better (if shorter and less ambitious).

Druckbolzen (Pressure bolt) - Benni Diez and Marinko Spahić

Post more if you know of any...

(I believe I've just set a world record of some kind for bumping old threads...)

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For anyone who lives up in Canada, TMN shows a bunch of shorts in between every film. Good Canadian shorts too.

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Suspect's Reviews

Harvie Krumpet - Adam Elliot (22 minutes)


Won an Oscar for Best animated short film in 2003.

I haven't caught a whole heckuva lot of short films, but Call Register is probably the best and definitely the funniest of the ones I have seen. Starring The Office's Martin Freeman, it's a 13 minute story about sexually superior roommates and unrequited love that I know all too well. Here it is, folks. In all its short glory...

Pretty good, thanks...

Yes, and I like that Harvey Crumpet dealie you posted, too. But my favorite animated short is Nick Park's (the Wallace and Gromit guy) Creature Comforts. I think it won an Oscar, too.