Discovering Short Films The History and Style of Live-Action Fiction Shorts [Hardcover]

As film history's oldest and one of today's most prominent forms, the live-action short film has both historical and contemporary significance. Felando discusses the historical significance of the short film, identifies the fiction short's conventions, and offers two general research categories: the classical short and the art short.1. Introduction 2. Shorts and Film History: The Rise, Fall, and Rise of the Short Film 3. Short Film Specificity: Narrative Compression, Unity, Character, and Endings 4. Storytelling and Style: The Classical Short 5. Storytelling and Style: The Art Short

Films started out short, and short films - from television commercials and episodes, to music videos, to cartoons, to YouTube embeds, to instructional material - dominate our lives. Almost all serious film criticism has been about full-length movies, but perhaps because we just don't notice enough our own immersion in the culture of the short. Felando's book - erudite, subtle, careful, persuasive, and insightful - shows how one category of short film (live action fiction film) can become art, akin to the short story in literature, and how, like any art, it uses all the cultural resources at its command to do exciting and unprecedented things. Discovering Short Films is of single importance, not only because it notices a new form of art, one based on visual and narrative experiences so central to our lives that we never give them a second thought, but also because of the wealth of knowledge, insight, and critical guidance it offers us. - William Flesch, Brandeis University, USA

Cynthia Felando is Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.