Production Exhibiton and Distribution

Just like mainstream film short films follow the structure of production, exhibition and distribution however due to low budgets and niche audience these stages are followed a much different way.

Production
Directors will find it much easier to find a production company to produce their short film rather than say a feature length, this is due to the lower budget yet more professional film production, this is why there are many production companies that specialize is short films (once again short films code and convention of low budget benefits the industry).
One company that has gained a reputation for high quality short films is a production company named ‘silver films’. The shorts About a girl and Endgame have both been produced by this company. Another production company by the name of ‘Cow boy Films’ that originally specialises in feature lengths such as The last king of Scotland was the company behind the award winning short film Wasp. The production company behind the Short film ‘cubs’ is a company called Free Range Films, the company has been described as ‘sometimes serious, sometimes fun but always thought provoking’. The company is based in England and has produced only English films, although mainly producing feature lengths such as straight heads and history boys the company also takes time out to produce short films. It is very rare a production company will focus just on short films.

Exhibition
Where mainstream feature length films are generally exhibited in cinemas, with large cinema chain deals and with a huge marketing budgets short films are generally only exhibited at film festivals with the awards from the film festivals being the only real marketing tool a short film will get. It is very rare that short film will ever be exhibited in a cinema. Due to film festivals being the only real exhibition for short films directors are making sure their work will be noticed by film festival organizers by making it as different and as creative as everything else out there, directors will also generally begin by targeting smaller festival with their work and using awards from those festivals as a factor to be recognized by larger festivals.

Distribution
Distribution is mainly where the money is at for mainstream films, after box office sales, DVD and merchandise sales is where the profit is made, due to desire for recognition over profit by short film directors the lack of any kind of profitable distribution in short film does not pose any threat to the industry. Where there is some proof of short film collection DVD sales rising majority of short film distribution is through online websites such as YouTube. There are some sites which specialise in distribution of short films such as Depict! A site that showcases only short films less than 90 seconds, the site can be used by any member of the public and the site is recognized by more professional directors and festival organizers. Another site specialized with short film distribution is the BBC Network, based on specifically British short films the site has hundreds of short films opened to any member of the public divided into the categories animation, artist moving image, music, drama comedy and documentary.