How long should your first short film be?

While there’s no Hollywood rulebook that says how long a short film must be, generally speaking, a short film is a motion picture up to 50 minutes long. That said, 20 minutes tends to be the average length. A short film can be live-action, animated, or computer generated.

How much time does it take to make a short film?

That makes them attractive to the cast, and it allows the crew to jump from one shoot to the next. These movies are usually shot in the summer and done quickly and efficiently.

Is 30 minutes too long for a short film?

According to most film festivals, any film that is less than 40 – 50 minutes in length is considered a short film, and according to traditional narrative storytelling, even a film that’s 5 seconds long with a beginning, middle, and end can still count as a short film.

How do I edit a short film?

Here are my top tips on how to edit your short film:

1. Know your film.
2. Be brave and dynamic.
3. Be open to suggestions.
4. Don’t make scenes dreary by over or undercutting.
5. Style is more important than matching.
6. Use split edits.
7. Cut shots mid-movement.
8. Don’t be afraid to cut any overacting.

How many pages is a 30 minute film?

How Many Pages is a Short Film? Whether you’re writing a short, short film, or a long short film – as with features, a typical rule of thumb is one minute per screenplay page. A typical three-minute short film will be about three pages. A thirty-minute short film will be about thirty pages.

Is 10 minutes too long for a short film?

Although we recommend that students keep their films to 10-15 minutes, many of my students have made films that are 20-25 minutes. Because festivals often have a cut off of 30-minutes for short films, few of these films get accepted.

How long can a short film be?

They are generally 40 minutes or less and can even be 30 seconds long! To qualify as a short film at film festivals, the running time should be less than 15 minutes. Short films can be of any genre (e.g., horror, comedy) or method/mode of filmmaking (e.g., documentary, animation).

Can you make a 30-minute film into a 10-minute film?

You can’t squeeze a 30-minute story into a 10-minute package without ruining it. But there’s no question in my mind that with every minute you add to the length of your film, the odds of getting your film accepted decreases. Case in point: When my son Bret was 14, he took our summer program for high school students.

How long is a 90 second film?

The first was 90 seconds, the second 2.5 minutes, and his last film 3 minutes. Although they were very well done for a first-time filmmaker, they were not brilliant. And yet he was able to get each of them into over 10 film festivals. Believe it or not, even a 90 second film will open doors for you.

What do filmmakers learn from their first short films?

The rite of passage for any filmmaker is making that first short film, which is where filmmakers cut their teeth and truly come of age. They learn about filmmaking by making a lot of mistakes — big and small. It’s perhaps the cosmic filter system to weed out the unworthy or the unwilling.