Featurette
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Look up featurette in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
In the American film industry, a featurette is a kind of film which is shorter than a full-length feature, but longer than a short film. They comprise two forms of content, shorter films and companion films.
Medium-length films[edit]
A featurette is a film usually of three reels in length, or about 24–40 minutes in running time,[citation needed] thus longer than a two-reel short subject but shorter than a feature film. Hence, it is a "small feature" (the ending "-ette" is a common diminutive suffix derived from French[1]). This term was commonly used from before the start of the sound era into the 1960s, when films of such length as the Hal Roach's Streamliners—and several French films of that length—ceased being made, or were made as experimental or art films and subsumed under the more general rubric of short.[citation needed]
Companion films[edit]
After the advent of DVD technology, the term also gained the meaning of "a brief documentary film covering one or more aspects of the film creation process".[2][3] In DVD features descriptions, the term "featurette" usually refers to "behind-the-scenes"–type bonus material such as documentaries on special effects, set design, or cast and crew interviews.[citation needed]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Laura K. Lawless. "-et -ette - French Suffix". Lawless French.
- ^ Daniels, Bill; Leedy, David; Sills, Steven D (February 5, 2006). Movie Money: Understanding Hollywood's (Creative) Accounting Practices. Silman-James Press. p. 134.
- ^ "Featurette". Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved 2012-07-11.
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