How long should a short film be for submitting?

[ironpony]

I shot my first one that I want to submit to festivals next year, but different festivals have different rules. One says it's okay if it doesn't go over 60 minutes. One says nothing over 18 and nothing below 15. My short I intended to be 10-13 minutes but it came out to almost 30 so far. I've already trimmed off most of what I can and anything more will result in less character development. I could trim it down to 15 I think but then the plot would just barely make sense, and not everything will be fully explained. There will be some mystery left in it, but that's also a weakness, besides a strength. The hero and villain will be more mysterious but there development will not be near as strong, since I would have to cut two scenes. Not just parts of the scenes, the whole scenes to get it down that low by chance. The rest of scenes need to stay for the plot to make sense. But what should I do? I could do a few versions, and the festival with the longest amount of time rule, will get the version that slows down for the most depth.

But this could also be more money, cause I would have to pay the music guy to do more than one score, for different edits. What to do, what to do... Thanks for any advice.

[David Jimerson]

How many pages was the script?

[ironpony]

12

[gonzo_entertainment]

The sweet spot is usually said to be 12 minutes. Plenty of longer films do well, plenty of shorter films do well, but going over about 15 potentially does give you a headwind to fight against.

[ironpony]

How many festivals would you say have headwind on this, percentage wise?

[hscully]

That's interesting that your 12 page script came out to be 1/2 hour. It usually runs about a minute a page when the screenplay is formatted. Unless of course there were valuable improvisations by you, your team, or your actors.

Anyway, shorts according to SAG, usually called experimental or something like that, are not longer than 35 minutes. As you know different festivals have different requirements. The thing is that you want your short to have the best chance to be selected for viewing and those that land around 15 minutes are valuable to the exhibitors because they can make a nice evening, you know a couple of narratives, animations, etc. At 30 minutes you put a lot of pressure on yourself because it has got to be really great and it better not drag anywhere. 30 minutes is a big commitment. That said, I am shooting a short with a friend that he has for over 20 minutes. We'll see.

In the end, the film has to work so if yours works only at 30 then that's your answer but if you can cut, by all means cut.

[gonzo_entertainment]

How many festivals would you say have headwind on this, percentage wise?

It's not that as much as the selection committee sitting there thinking "OK, we have this good 25 minute movie, this good 12 minute movie, and this good 13 minute movie. We only have 25 minutes left on the schedule. Should we program one good movie or two good movies..."

That's assuming all are of equal merit.

[kylevant]

I always think of it like this: Many festivals like films under 10 minutes, then under 15 minutes, then there's under 30 minutes. You'll probably get less selections with shorts under 30 minutes as those slots are limited, but I wouldn't sacrifice the story to cut a few minutes off of it. I always edit very tight, but on my last film I couldn't take it shorter than 20 minutes without sacrificing a lot of the story.

[daveswan]

My first short which is being edited now is running 17.30 from a 12 page script. Very dialogue heavy. The first cut ran 18 mins excluding titles and credits.
We'll keep cutting until we can't cut any more without making the story (An occult horror) even less understandable than it is now.

[gonzo_entertainment]

Yeah, I mean a story is what it is. My film that did the best on the festival circuit (got in about 15 and won a couple of awards) is 26 minutes long.
http://vimeo.com/17683897

My last film that is almost exactly 12 minutes did butkus (got in 2 festivals)
http://vimeo.com/38129130

This is not absolutes. It's just all things being equal a shorter film probably has a better chance.