Experts discuss the development of shorts and their importance in the film world.

By Izaskun Herrojo

“The Lumiére brothers were the first filmmakers to work on shorts, making over one hundred one-minute films. Great filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg or George Lucas have followed in their footsteps.” Thus began the panel “The Short Film: Is it art or is it just a short?

Isidro Lucas, Director of the Chicago Latino Film Festival, and Jarod Neece, Senior Programmer of South by Southwest, spoke in the auditorium of the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development. In the bohemian atmosphere, the panelists set aside theories in favor of direct interchange with the audience.

Lucas shared his experience in the art of the short. “The short has a special characteristic: because it is short, it can’t afford to be technically inferior. The competition for a short film is not another short film but the competition for technical, not artistic, perfection.” He also spoke about some of the problems facing short films such as timeliness, the search for something already done, and the problem of scope, “that the local beauty, the idea and the purpose transcend to bring us a universal truth.”

For his part, Jarod Neece established some guidelines for consideration when making a short film. The story, the music and the duration of the short were the three most notable points of his talk.

After they had spoken, the panelists opened the discussion to the audience. Among the questions posed by the attendees was the concern about the length of a short film. For Isidro Lucas “the ideal is 5 -20 minutes. I think that shorts that go over 20 minutes are frustrated feature films, but it all depends on what the story requires.” Jarod Neece emphasized the credit sequence of the film which should go at the end, and the importance of promotion. “It’s important to not just promote your short on a website but also to cut a trailer.”

The panelists also discussed the story as a basis for a short. Neece explained that the story is important but just as important when making a short is your take on the story and the innovations used to make the film.

A debate ensued when the discussion turned to the use of voice-over versus subtitling when trying to understand a culture and tradition of a country. Lucas said that in his case he works with subtitles, given that 50% of his audience doesn’t understand Spanish, while Neece prefers “subtitles and listening to the real voices of the actors. When a director chooses an actor it’s for a reason and a bad translation in Dolby ruins the meaning of the film.”

The panel ended on a discussion of the use of new technologies which Isidro Lucas saw as “an opportunity to keep growing in the future.”