Distribution Of Short Films

Successful distribution for short films is quite rare comparing to mainstream who rake in the profit throughout the distribution period. Short films aren’t as popular as mainstream and can’t rely on box office and DVD sales. Successful short films can often make it in a compilation DVD however these are commonly used for educational purposes, On a rare occasion a short film can make it to a DVD just for itself. When a popular short film makes it this far not a lot off profit is made compared to mainstream films. Examples of short films that have made it this far are Chris Cunningham’s “Rubber Johnny” and also Shane Meadows who made a compilation DVD of just his work.

With the convergence of technology allowing people to surf the web on games devices and mobile phones this maximizes the amount of times different people can view short films. With sites like YouTube allowing millions of people to watch videos, a short film needs to be uploaded and once that process is complete it can be viewed any number of times by anyone surfing the web. This is part of distribution and is beneficial for short films as it is there way to be broadcasted to the world.

I recently viewed “Peter and the Wolf”, its distribution was unique as it was part of an iPhone application. The application was free and was called 12 days of Christmas. It basically allowed the iPhone user to download free content throughout the 12 days of Christmas, one of these days allowed me to download “Peter and the Wolf” it is strange to think that this short film has been distributed through an application and iTunes.

I think the distribution of short films will continue to develop along with the technology that allows user to view these films.