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Sloppy Seconds: Short Films Under One Minute

Topics: Popular Media | Add A CommentBy admin | June 23, 2010

It took over 2000 seconds to locate these five, ten, and fifteen second film sites. Don’t expect us to take another few thousand to actually REVIEW them too.

There’s a feeble irony in the fact that it will take you longer to read this than it takes to watch any of the short films referenced. Take solace in the fact that if you do read this, you’ll be spared the endless tens of seconds that I subjected myself to in order to spare you some of the same agony. As an attention deficient media sieve, I’ve previously mentioned my obsession with short format visual media, whether as tradtional short film, TV commercials, or obscure animation. I’ve been especially busy lately, so I thought maybe it’s time to push the envelope and see if there are any REALLY short films out there. I started small, with 5 Second Films. Clever idea, but we’ll have to see if they manage to bump up the quality of the content. If I’m going to spend a minute of my life perusing your five second films, I want at least four scintillating seconds packed into every feature, not just a clever gag. On a slightly more arty note, we have Ten Second Film. I guess that extra five seconds really gives you some room to expand on a theme. I didn’t find any 11 or 13 second film sites (although I did find a 93 minute film called 13 Seconds), but if you’re a cellphone filmmaker (and yes, even they have festivals ), 12Seconds.TV seems to be some sort of video sharing social site. And when we finally get to fifteen seconds, things get a little more interesting. The 15 Second Film Festival – supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland – is, in their words, “a small, but perfectly formed, two-seater itinerant Art-Deco Picture Palace” that “delivers a carefully curated programme of eye-popping, lip-smacking, brain-tickling quarter-minute masterpieces“. We’ll let you be the judge. We’ve already spent over 2000 seconds assembling these links for you, we’re not gonna spend another 1000 finding highlights and snagging the embed code. Let us know if you find anything good.

This piece was NOT brought to you thanks to this five second Honda ad: