History of short film

Short film has revolutionised the film industry. With each new advancement in film there has been a short film that sparked it off.

1895 was when the first short film was publicly exhibited. This film was called "La sortie de l'usine" by the Lumière brothers. It showed workers leaving a factory, and was only short due to technical restrictions at the time.

It wasn't until 1910, when films got longer, that the term 'short subjects' was coined.

"l'Arrivée d'un train à la Ciotat" (1985) was the first short film to have camera movement, also by the Lumière brothers.

"Le voyage dans la lune' was a film by George Méliès in 1902, it was the first short film to have a storyline and structure to it. The complete version of it was found in a French barn in 2002, it is entirely hand coloured and the most complete cut of the film.

'Short subjects' became quite popular amongst audiences because people could go to the cinema and see 3-4 films rather than just one. This was important at the time as there were very few forms of entertainment for the masses.

In the 1930s, big Hollywood film studios (such as Universal and Paramount) forced smaller production companies to sell their innovative ideas for short films, which they turned into feature films with big budgets. This was because the classical narrative of feature films, 90 minutes or more, was more profitable for them. This was known as Hollywood block booking. The US Supreme Court made this illegal in 1948 after the 'United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.' case, but the damage to short film had already been done.

The invention of television as a mass medium meant that short films could be aired on television for people to watch in the comfort of their own homes, and they were aired until the 1960s.

The 1980s saw short film reinvented. However, short films were much darker and 'grittier' as they were no longer about commercial success, but about their stories, content and conveying messages to their audiences.