A Brief History of Short Films

The history of short films began in the 1910s in United States of America. It was the time when films began to have longer editions. The custom in film making was to include a feature followed by a single or more short subjects. These short subjects could be animated cartoons or live action. These short subjects became the first short films but they were not yet called "short films".

The theme of these short subjects in the earlier history of short films was usually comedy. Some short films were also in the structure of travelogues. Other short films had topics that interested people. In this early history of short films, the form began to be popular.

However, after the 1930s, the short films were starting to die. There were fewer short films. Most of these short films were produced in-house. Sometimes these short films were financed by big film companies. There were companies that would force owners of short films to sell the short films to the big companies. These big companies or theater-chain-owners would then turn these short films into big-name features. This deed was called block booking. The Supreme Court of the United States declared block booking to be illegal. The Supreme Court forced the theater-chain-owners to sell their movie studios.

In 1955, another competitor of short films appeared. It is the rise of television. Since then, short films have been attended to by only independent filmmakers. However, television programming included broadcasting old short films or short subjects. These short films were those that had been sold to television stations. By the end of 1960s, short films eventually disappeared.

It was only in the 1980s that the term "short film" began to be used interchangeably with "short subject". Short subject was the term used for short films in the earlier history of short films. Short films, in the modern age, are contemporary noncommercial motion pictures which are shorter than feature films.