It is often believed that short film is a gateway to the feature film, an idea, or a presentation of the form. Like a prototype. Shorter version of the longer form… Cinema, but bite-sized…?
That can be true. But to some filmmakers, they can be something else entirely; they are a form for expression and experimentation. The short film, perhaps, can be imagined as a malleable form that can easily be broken, molded or bent. A shapeshifting form, that can shapeshift into different objects.
Imagine the short film as a game of Limitation. Each short film can be a new door that opens to… anything. Confined of course, within the choice of duration between 1 second to 30 minutes. The shorter the duration, the less you have, the more you are forced to be creative. Other choices of limitation varies from the number of locations, characters, yes or no dialogue, shots, day or night, yes or no sound, fiction or non-fiction; and many more. Unconfined by the same rules as a feature-length film, in this game the filmmaker chooses what to focus on – space, image, words, a place, a person, an idea….
We believe that the existence of SEASHORTS offers a platform to showcase the results of the filmmakers’ different methods of play.
-Chloe Yap Mun Yee
A Brief Note on Short Films and Within