DreamWorks is getting into the game with its first major original short First Flight, showing in limited release with Over the Hedge. Courtesy of DreamWorks Animation. 

Pixar, which began as a technology company and division of Lucasfilm, initially produced shorts as a way to show off its products. Its first short, Luxo Jr. (1986), was intended to promote the company at a SIGGRAPH convention. But attendees who saw the film didn’t ask about the product. Instead, they were interested in the story, wanting to know whether the lamp in the film was a mother or a father lamp. That demonstrated to the company the power of storytelling, leading Pixar to make additional shorts. Geri’s Game (1997) was the first short Pixar released after it started producing feature films.

Other recent Pixar projects include For the Birds (2000), Boundin’ (2003) and One Man Band, which Pixar will release theatrically and on DVD with this summer’s feature, Cars. It expects to wrap its next short, which is likely to accompany the studio’s next feature, Ratatouille (opening June 29, 2007), in a few months. Pixar currently completes one short film per year; the schedule depends on the features, with much of the work on shorts squeezed in between feature productions.

DreamWorks debuted its first major original short, First Flight, written and directed by Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson, in limited release with the feature Over the Hedge in New York and L.A. in May, after some exposure at film festivals. The studio also has created some commercial shorts based on its feature properties, and many of its employees have created their own short films. PDI also completed several short films before it was acquired by DreamWorks.

The creators’ enthusiasm, along with the quality of the film, convinced DreamWorks to greenlight First Flight. “We knew we were going to make this short somehow. That was clear,” says Bill Damaschke, DreamWorks’ head of creative production. He reports that more than 80 DreamWorks artists contributed to the project.

Sony Pictures Imageworks finds shorts of great interest. The Oscar-winning ChubbChubbs (left) was conceived as a pipeline test, while Early Bloomer grew out of its training program. © Sony Pictures Imageworks. 

&articles“Since First Flight, we’ve put a process in place, although sort of loose,” Damaschke continues, explaining that a team of directors has agreed to meet regularly and consider ideas for shorts. If the property is right and resources are available, the studio would do another one, says Damaschke. He adds, however, “There’s no official plan to make x number of shorts per year.”

Sony Pictures Imageworks also has produced some shorts recently, and although it doesn’t have a specific plan for future projects it is willing to discuss at this time, “the idea of shorts is and always will be an area of great interest,” says Tim Sarnoff, SPI’s president.

The ChubbChubbs (2002) was originally conceived as a pipeline test to help determine the studio’s strengths and weaknesses in producing all-CG animation within the Imageworks production environment, according to Sarnoff, who says, “By design, The ChubbChubbs presented a multitude of technical and artistic challenges.” The concept for the short, which won the Oscar in 2003, came through an open call for ideas. Another Imageworks project, Early Bloomer (2003), grew out of a storyboard class in Imageworks’ training program.

Some smaller studios, too, have been actively producing shorts over the last five years. Blur Studio, for example, has completed four shorts and is working on a fifth. Aunt Luisa (2002), Rockfish (2003) and In the Rough (2004) were all shortlisted for Oscar nominations, and Gopher Broke (2004), which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival this year, was nominated. The studio is currently working on Gentleman’s Duel, a complex seven-minute film, according to Tim Miller, Blur’s creative director and president.

The first production, Aunt Luisa, came about when the studio found itself suddenly with some down time from service work and decided to produce something of its own, long a goal at Blur but unachieved due to time constraints. After the film was Oscar-shortlisted and received positive feedback from the industry, the company decided to institutionalize a shorts program. It holds a contest each year to select the best short-film ideas submitted by studio employees; the first production to come out of the contest, which generated 30 entries in its first year, was Rockfish.