This week Brains? takes a look at all things screen and marketing, starting with this must read guest post buy the estimable Amy Broadfoot.

‘Oh No! You went over the xyz running time!’ – Amičko Films guide to ideal short film time limits

I hate hearing this, and I hear it a lot.

I know a few filmmakers who have been unfairly psyched out by this statement. I also love short films and I think they are under appreciated as an art form and would love to see greater respect for the medium. So let’s get this cleared up.

The main mistake filmmakers make is they don’t have a clear idea of what they want to achieve with the film, and therefore they don’t understand how an audience will interact with their film. Shorts can run to whatever length you like, that is, if you know you’re audience.

Here’s a rough guideline for running times for short short, medium shorts and long shorts. It can be broken down into three simple questions,
Do you want it to go viral?
Do you want to festival?
And/ or do you want to win an award?

The information in this blog is taken from statistic research, industry panel discussions and my general knowledge of film festivals. Please give me your thoughts if you think otherwise.

Please note a film running time includes credits.

Mirco shorts
Less than 8 mins
Statistically the most watched films on Youtube are films which run less than the 2 mins. This medium can access the largest audience possible, far beyond the power of cinemas/television distribution purely as there are now more mobile phones with internet access worldwide than there are television sets and personal computers.

Think about how people access Youtube, what else is fighting for their attention, and are they limited by download capabilities?

For viral seeding think in threes: You have .3 of second to grab someone’s attention, 3 seconds of visual entertainment to get someone to clink on the link, and 30 sec to prove that it’s worth watching the rest of the film. So what are you three 3′s?

General rule is, the shorter the film the more hits it will receive.

Medium Shorts
8 – 20 mins
This is for the filmmaker who wants to have a more developed narrative than in the above category. This is an appropriate length of film festivals, however please note that if you want to festival you cannot Youtube! If you release more than 10% of your film online you may be disqualified from festivals and distribution, so be careful with those trailers.

If you keep it under 20 mins it’s an easy guarantee it will suit the entry rules for most festivals. However here’s an interesting statistic: shorts 20 mins or less are twice as likely to win awards than ones less than 5 minutes, BUT a 35 minute short is more likely to win an award than 5 minute film if they are competing in the same category. Why? The extra time allows for a stronger narrative, regardless of overall production values, narratives win awards.

Long Shorts
Up to 60 mins
I’ve left it open to the 60 mins mark as this has been the longest time limit I’ve seen defined in the rules and regulations of festivals.

This is probably the most feared category and unfairly so.

As we can see below most festivals have pretty gracious running times for shorts, we also know that in order to attached future funding it’s very helpful to have had a successful short. However, the experience of making a Mirco Short is vastly different from making a feature, so I recommend all film makers to attempt making a Long Short to have an taste test of what a feature would be like in both the production and marketing. Don’t worry if you go over the 20 min mark, many festivals will still love to see your work and maybe even give it an award.

Here’s a list of qualifying times for the short film categories at significant short film festivals:

Flickerfest, Australia – less than 35mins
Toronto International Film Festival, Canada – less than 50mins
Sundance, USA – less than 50mins
Raindance Film Festival, UK – less than 30mins
Kurzfilmfest Straubing, Germany – less than 30 mins
International Film Festival Berlin, Germany – less than 30 mins
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France – less than 40 mins
Aspen Shortfest, Canada – Less than 40 mins
Krakow Film Festival, Poland – Less than 30 mins

Awards:
BAFTA, UK – less than 40mins
Oscars, USA – entry via winning at accredited festivals

Awards winners and running times:

Oscar 2010
Live action: The New Tenants at 21mins
Doco: Music By Prudence at 32mins
Animated: Logorama at 18mins

Sundance 2010
The Six Dollar Fifty Man at 15 mins

Berlinale 2010
Incident by a Bank at 10 mins

BAFTA 2009
I Do Air at 7 mins

Distribution:
N/A on the running time – they’ll program what is good and what has a proven audience base.

Finally, I would like to state that there is NO POINT in screening at film festivals if you don’t know how to capitalise from them! If you submit to festivals just to add screenings to the list you might need to go back to your producers handbook and have another read… but this can’t be another rant for another time.

Know your audience and then know your limits. Happy Shorting.
______

Amy has worked internationally in film marketing, sales and festivals. She currently lives in Perth and run a film consultancy business Amičko Films, is the only Australian manager for the short film distribution label Future Shorts and runs mirco cinema events at The Moon and other various locations. For more info contact amy@amickofilms.com