Looking for ultra short films

November 10, 2008 2:11 PM

Looking for short films with a narrative structure and extremely short running time, no more than 90 seconds that I can watch online on vimeo or some other video site.

I have tried to look at the big video sharing sites but most shorts I have find are more like a moving picture of something without a story or animations that while often beutiful doesn't tell a story either.

The reason is that i got myself a super 8 camera and a roll of film and need some inspiratation on how to handle the ultra short format. The film is only enough for roughly three minutes of filming and I might want to do a retake so I aim for the final product to be about a minute.


Thank you in advance!

posted by ilike to media & arts (5 comments total)

FPP froma couple days ago.
posted by cjorgensen at 2:18 PM on November 10, 2008

Not sure where you're located but you might want to get involved with the Flicker series (if you're lucky enough to be near one). In the NYC version, at least, they run a series called "Attack of the 50 foot reels" where filmmakers have to produce a film on one reel (50 feet long) entirely in the camera -- no editing. In fact, you're supposed to submit the undeveloped reel to the series, and the first time it's shown is in the theater. Nerve-wracking, but exciting and fun. They have past submissions available for viewing online (usually -- it seems that section is currently "down" but hopefully will come back soon).
posted by tractorfeed at 3:49 PM on November 10, 2008

A friend of mine did this (a little over 90sec - 2:10): Psychopath.
posted by booth at 7:25 PM on November 10, 2008

Have you seen the Straight 8? (mefi post) The idea being,

you shoot a film on the single cartridge of super 8mm film that we send to you. you can only edit in-camera. then you hand back your un-developed film to us for processing. and upload an original soundtrack


the film we send you is the actual one you shoot and we show. if it's good enough... the first time you see your film is with a packed cinema audience

They have a ton of rather incredible short films on the website. Plenty packed with inspirational goodness.
There are a bunch of cool Super-8 sites out there. One good place to start is OnSuper8.
posted by carsonb at 10:24 PM on November 10, 2008

Jake and Amir do some goof/straight-man/slapstick comedy in little videos that average about 2 minutes. There are a lot of catchy repeating jokes, so watch a bunch in a row (on, say, their best of page). Skip if you can't get over your College Humor hatred.
posted by carsonb at 10:30 PM on November 10, 2008