My new film is 40+ minutes, does that make it a feature?

Young-H._Lee

Young-H._Lee

Well-known member
Hey guys

I finished shooting my new "short" film this week...after editing the final scene, I realized that my film will be longer than 40 minutes. I was rather surprised...I looked up the Academy rules and it defined a feature to be 40+ minutes...

so I guess I just shot my first feature film?

mini feature?

anyways, what do you think i should do...I relaly want to do well on the festival circuit but not sure how long the film should be...should I do everything I can to compress the movie into 30 minutes or less...or keep it at its director's cut version of 45-50 minutes?

thanks
 
That's a tough one. Depends on the festival but I think they usually have time length windows for either short or feature. Short 5 - 20 min or so. feature 75 - 120 min or so. I think you fall in between the two.

Times may vary a great deal, but 40 may have no home...
 
Yeah, the least time I have ever seen for acceptance into a fest is 70 minutes for a feature.
Maybe you wanna consider adding a few more scenes. I know, another 30 minutes is a lot, but 40 minutes as dakotapod said, "may have no home"
 
Unfortunately, that makes your film a disaster - or, best case, a TV pilot?

Nobody wants to see movies that length. There is no market for them. It is the accursed Dead Zone of cinema. Anything over 30 minutes (or, better, 20) is in trouble. If there's any way you can edit it down, do it.

Not trying to be harsh but you'll have a tremendous amount of difficulty getting people to watch (and therefore SHOW) this film.
 
I would go for cutting it shorter, not making it longer.

If you can't figure out how to make it shorter (sometimes we all just get too caught up in our own films), then maybe it's time for someone else to have a go at making it shorter.
 
I'd try trimming it down. You can always have a longer directors cut. Congrats Young. :thumbsup:
 
If the movie is brilliant it'll find a home. If it's less than brilliant you may have problems with festivals and their stupid guidlines.

-rook
 
thansk guys

yea i was afraid of this happening...i must have really screwed up my script format because the original script is like 30 pages...final film will come close to 50 minutes!!

eh..

well anyways, ill see what i can do
 
That can happen if your script is action heavy as opposed to dialogue heavy. If you've seen a Cameron script it is light on dialogue, whereas Tarantino has tons of dialogue.
 
yes, my film has tons of action...i looked it over and yea...i have like two brief paragraphs for 2-3 minutes of action!! which is a lot!!
 
I could be wrong but I was always pretty sure that a feature was at least 88min long. But now you guys (and gals?) have me second guessing myself...
 
Cut it down under 30, you'll thank yourself later. Ask youself this, if I'm adding scenes to make it longer, why didn't those scenes make the original cut?

Only keep what moves the story forward, and trim the fat. You can add stuff for the directors cut later. You need to focus on a film that will make it in the festival, period.

Good luck.
 
Here are definitions from Sundance. Note that the requirements are different for narrative films and documentaries.

NARRATIVE FILMS:
69 minutes or less running length is considered a SHORT
70 minutes or more running length is considered a FEATURE

DOCUMENTARIES:
49 minutes or less running length is considered a SHORT
50 minutes or more running length is considered a FEATURE
 
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