Northern Alliance - BFI

facilitated over one billion downloads of short „films‟ each month 94 ), with other
new technologies and platforms (3G mobile, iPlayer) adding to that number.
Although the stakeholders consulted agreed that the internet provides potential
for growing and expanding the audiences for short film, the consensus appears
to be that, so far, online showcases either fail to differentiate user-generated
content from professionally made short films, or have not yet developed a
valuable audience.
The following quote is typical of many of the views of the stakeholders consulted.
“Online viewing platforms [for short films] are specialist and have not obtained
mainstream exposure. The current reality is that the majority of people do not
know how or where to access this content.”
Mary Davis, Head of Industry, Edinburgh International Film Festival
It is implicit in the consensus view represented above that most interviewees
strike a complex and perhaps unconscious divide between the mass audiences
watching a wide range of moving image material online (pop videos, humorous
animals, vlogs and captured footage of real life, but also authored shorts of all
levels of competence and genesis), and the much smaller audiences choosing to
watch shorts via outlets such as Animate or the BBC Film Network. It also seems
that interviewees regard the broader range of online short form content as in
essence televisual, whereas those who participate or invest in short film regard it
as essentially cinematic.
Whether because of a failure of online audiences to understand short film, or a
failure of filmmakers to understand online audiences, the promise of the internet
is seen as largely unfulfilled. Filmmakers tended to view traditional means of
distribution as still the best route to reach the public.
DVD compilations are perceived as a good way of showcasing short films,
especially labels such as Cinema 16, that specialise in curating compilations of
short films. Such compilations are, however, regarded as niche rather than massmarket
in nature. There was widespread concern that UK broadcasters now rarely
programme short films, apart from occasional one-offs and the strands that they
have financed themselves (see Appendix X for more detail on broadcasters views
on short film).
94 Source: Anthony Lilley, Arts Broadcasting Towards Arts Media (2007), Arts Council
England.
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