How long should a short be ?

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
I am writing a short, indie horror-thriller. For experience, preparation for a feature based on a similar concept as the short. Wondering how long the short should be? I have written/filmed two shorts so far, first one five minutes, second one ten but shortened to five with editing-- both 5 minutes which was the limit for my local short shorts film festival. But this new short, my third, I do not plan to enter into the local film festival (<5 min shorts), but I would like to enter it into other short films festivals. What is the generally accepted or recommended length or upper limit for a horror short? 10 minutes?
:beer: randall
 
Most festival want a short to be less than 15 minutes. I suggest you seek out the requirements of the Festivals you would like to enter/
 
Good point. Anybody here have thoughts as to the top 3 film festivals to enter for a horror short? (creature horror, in the style of Jeepers Creepers)

phudsontx said:
Most festival want a short to be less than 15 minutes. I suggest you seek out the requirements of the Festivals you would like to enter/
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A short film should be as short as you can possibly make it, and still adequately tell the story. Never, ever pad a film -- people's attention spans are micro-short nowadays. Get in, get to the point, and get out.

It better be something awfully special if it's gonna take up 10 or 15 minutes, nowadays! :D
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
I am writing a short, indie horror-thriller. For experience, preparation for a feature based on a similar concept as the short. Wondering how long the short should be? I have written/filmed two shorts so far, first one five minutes, second one ten but shortened to five with editing-- both 5 minutes which was the limit for my local short shorts film festival. But this new short, my third, I do not plan to enter into the local film festival (<5 min shorts), but I would like to enter it into other short films festivals. What is the generally accepted or recommended length or upper limit for a horror short? 10 minutes?
:beer: randall
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I wish there was a spread like, short, under 10 minutes, then 1/2 hour, hour, then feature 90+.

Absent that, use the industry standard of 1 minute per page, have the above with comparable page counts.

For me, I do consider 'short' to be under 10 minutes... at 15 minutes, that could be extended to become a 25 minute, and hence a 1/2 hour with commercial breaks...
 
Barry_Green said:
A short film should be as short as you can possibly make it, and still adequately tell the story. Never, ever pad a film -- people's attention spans are micro-short nowadays. Get in, get to the point, and get out.

It better be something awfully special if it's gonna take up 10 or 15 minutes, nowadays! :D
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:thumbsup:


a clear story from the start.

one event, end it with either a revelation or resolution or question.

make it simple.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
Absent that, use the industry standard of 1 minute per page...
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The 'minute a page' rule is extremely fallible with shorts. I averages out fairly well with features (although it's often pretty far off there too - like the 15 minute dialog-less opening sequence in "There Will Be Blood", which is 7 pages in the script), but a 5 page short could turn out to be anywhere from 2 or 3 minutes to 10 when edited properly. I think it's one of the reasons why even 'short shorts' are often edited too loosely, and are consequently boring. There's not enough story/script to fill out the targeted time.

The rule (or observation) was devised from long experience with features, which over the course of 90-120 pages usually average out to 1/min. A short is just statistically too small a sample to work reliably that way. I think the answer is to storyboard or otherwise previsualize the actual film in a way that reveals its real-time playing length prior to finalization of the script. Or at least take your best shot at it : )
 
festival programmers often advise filmmakers that it is easier to program a short short, than a long short.
 
I'd say longer than 5 and short as 10. That's all the attention span we have for short films.
 
Ted Spencer said:
....but a 5 page short could turn out to be anywhere from 2 or 3 minutes to 10 when edited properly. I think it's one of the reasons why even 'short shorts' are often edited too loosely, and are consequently boring. There's not enough story/script to fill out the targeted time.
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We love short shorts...

But, yes, I understand there are difficulties at below 10 minutes in terms of 'page count', heck probably below 30 or so pages... Since my scripts have tended to less than 10, and the short I'm reworking the audio on right now started out at 10, shots got 'deleted' due to set availability, editing occured... it's now 3 minutes... which is fortunate for the audio work I'm doing...

Still I think there should be more refinement on the categories, for boty 'written' scripts, and for films that are made.
 
Yes, under 10 minutes will greatly increase your potential 'market' of film festivals. Viciouly remove every second you don't need, both when writing and during editing - 'boring bits' are the curse of most short films.
 
Ted Spencer said:
The 'minute a page' rule is extremely fallible with shorts. I averages out fairly well with features (although it's often pretty far off there too - like the 15 minute dialog-less opening sequence in "There Will Be Blood", which is 7 pages in the script), but a 5 page short could turn out to be anywhere from 2 or 3 minutes to 10 when edited properly. I think it's one of the reasons why even 'short shorts' are often edited too loosely, and are consequently boring. There's not enough story/script to fill out the targeted time.

The rule (or observation) was devised from long experience with features, which over the course of 90-120 pages usually average out to 1/min. A short is just statistically too small a sample to work reliably that way. I think the answer is to storyboard or otherwise previsualize the actual film in a way that reveals its real-time playing length prior to finalization of the script. Or at least take your best shot at it : )
Click to expand...

Yeah that's so true, I wasn't finding the minute/page thing to work out well at all on my first several shorts. I thought it was perhaps inexperience in both writing and directing, though, which it still may have been a little bit. But it was also just as you said, insufficient sample size. My last short worked out fairly closely, though, I can't complain it was very close.

Even with my feature script I'm looking at some parts thinking, "Well, I know this is going to be a long page," so I'm hoping there are others that are short. What I try to do as best as possible is make sure in areas of a lot of action that I just enter a new paragraph, so if the character does something, ok hit enter, then write what he does next, that spaces it out more appropriately and gets you a LITTLE bit closer at least. But ultimately there is so much you can do to mess with the time structure, whether it's longer establishing shots, or holding a look longer, you can slow down time or speed it up as you want, really.

It's a silly rule in some ways because while it's a decent enough guideline, it has some value, it's also totally dependent on directing style too. Hopefully this sucker ends up close though, because for a comedy, 96 page script is long enough, I don't want it to be over 100 minutes even with credits, ideally.
 
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