In my experience, with a 50 minute movie you're pretty much screwed. You can't sell it as a feature, you'll have a hard time getting it into festivals, and you probably won't get it on TV: of all the movies I've worked on my favorite was 54 minutes long and it just couldn't get into festivals and even the TV companies that liked it had no slot they could fit it into.

I'd expand it into a feature, myself. Fifteen minutes seems to be about the limit for easily getting a short into a festival: they can show four or five typical shorts in the same amount of time as one fifty-minute movie.

Damn. Well, my producer constantly tells me to expand it into a feature, but I just can't picture this film being that long. And it obviously can't be that short either. My original plan was 30 minutes, but that changed when I started writing. So now I'm stuck somewhere in between. My even bigger fear is that it turns out 70 minutes. I don't think the story is complex enough to be told that long. Well, I'm gonna keep it at the 50 min mark in the editing room.
In what category does my film fall into? Is there even a category for films of this length?

75 is kind of doable for a feature, don't think you can get away with anything much lower than that (though I do seem to remember one released feature at 68).

Fifty minutes is basically a one-hour TV drama, but there really doesn't seem to be any market for them.

most festivals will say that anything over 30minutes is considered a feature. So i gues thats what category it would go under. I would say try to make it 30 minutes but cutting 20 minutes out of a film would be rough. Try to rewrite it. Thats my best suggestion. Some tips would be that you dont have to show everything. Like if there is a car accident or anything like that you could have somebody just talk about it briefly. You also got to remeber that the length of it might change after yo ushoot it. It depends on how you shoot it. Like if you hold on to shots long or you cut away quickly.

In the end its always hard to change the length of a film but i would try to shorten it or make it longer before you start shooting. And dont under shoot. you can always make things shorter in post but you cant make things longer if you only have so much film.

"Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film also knows that, although it can be like trying to write 'War and Peace' in a bumper car in an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling." - Stanley Kubrick

For a feature film it has to be over 80mins. Your 50min film is classed as a short or a film that cant be sold. Add 30mins onto it or take away 20mins. Send it to festivals.

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Thank you for your advice, but I really can't do any of those things. I'll just make the damn movie and see what happens. Actually I don't plan on taking over the world with this film. It's very personal to me, and I'm just trying to express myself. The other reason for making it is that I need films to present to the film school I'm planning to attend.

If its over 40 minutes its a feature, those are the rules, Your better off cutting it down to 30, if not, try and Bump it up to 60, It will get into festivals as it is and it could make it onto tv. I know because the first feature I made was 47 mins and that was fine, but yet the one I did that was 1hour and 10 mins was better recieved, good luck!

Films are my life!

Hi there,

I'm in the same kind of boat. I'm currently in pre-production for a martial arts, noir action movie, that will probably run to about 40 to 45 minutes. Is there anywhere this can be shown? Any festivals? Is it viable to drum up interest for a feature film with a genre movie of this length?

This is something I'd love to know as I'm sure my unpayed, crew, actors, stunties and staff would also love to know.

Cheers

Prepare to Fecht!

If your goal is to make a personal movie to express yourself there are no rules. If your goal is to enter film festivals of find distribution a 40 to 60 minute movie is a really tough sell.

Festivals schedule shorts in a "block" and prefer films of under 30 minutes - in my experience they are reluctant to schedule movies longer than 20. They can show three 10 minute movie rather than one 30 minute movie. It's not fair, but that's not what were talking about.

To answer your question about drumming up interest, you should look to your own movie viewing habits. Would you pay full price for a 45 minute movie made by someone you don't know, starring actors you've never heard of? Have you don' it in the past.

The chances are very few people would and I know that no distributor would be willing to take the financial risk of releasing a movie like that.

shapecool - when you say your first feature - the 47 minute one - was fine, do you mean artistically? Or did you get it released?

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Personally, i think the shorter the better. Good directors can get their message across by not showing everything - leaving some up to the audience - but give enough to get you thinking. I think 10-15 mins max.

john2006mad

Visit my first amateur movie:
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You could always create a second feature and link them together. See MONTY PYTHON'S THE MEANING OF LIFE, or the new GRINDHOUSE by Rodriguez and Tarintino. You could even add two or more and do a CREEPSHOW type deal.

That way you don't disrupt the flow of your film by stretching it out or chopping it up and you make it long enough to show. Before showing it a festival you might even combine work with another filmmaker with the same problem.

Just a few thoughts from outside the box.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

I write short-shorts, 27-40 page shorts for tv, and 120 page features, to have something for everybody.

When are some of you young filmmakers going to get together and create a industrial paradigm shift by doing direct marketing of two or three shorts to a video and selling that to mass markets like Wal-Mart, Blockbuster...etc? Why stay within the status quo when your entire being screams out to change it? I see everybody trying to work within preset rules that are already too tight for comfort. Go for it!

quote:

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Originally posted by amir

I'm making a film this spring, and it's gonna be 50 minutes long. That's my question. Can a film be 50 minutes long? I mean, what can I do with it? It's not a short and it's not a feature. Is there a category where my film fits, and are there festivals that play films of this length?

Anybody with any experience making films of this length?

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Our undertakings become our destiny, by design.

quote:

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Originally posted by MAEllsworth
When are some of you young filmmakers going to get together and create a industrial paradigm shift by doing direct marketing of two or three shorts to a video and selling that to mass markets like Wal-Mart, Blockbuster...etc? Why stay within the status quo when your entire being screams out to change it? I see everybody trying to work within preset rules that are already too tight for comfort. Go for it!

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There are plenty of filmmakers - young and old - putting together compilation DVD's and selling them using direct marketing. There are very few people buying them.

Yep. I'm afraid most people don't buy DVDs of shorts they've never heard of from people they've never heard of...

I have bought a couple of short films on DVD, but only because they made a name for themselves through festivals and the like.