A common way for filmmakers to get into the movie game is with a short film. Many figure they can make a short film and then make it into a feature-length film, but a short film is not like a feature film only not as long.

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Not to suggest making a short and making a feature film do not have overlapping skill sets, but rather the conception of short films is different than features. They will both be made with the camera in the same way, but they are not going to be of the same creative material.

Less Scrutiny

A short film is shorter and much easier to make a entertaining. Audience enjoyment is often inversely related to a film's length, so short films are easier to make compelling. Often a filmmaker might get the impression they can do what they did to make a short, but just make it longer. This mindset will not prove useful for making feature films, because keeping a viewer's attention for two hours is not as easy at two minutes.

Cannot Just Lengthen Shorts

When filmmakers speak of turning a short into a feature, it evokes an image of adding more stuff in between the beginning and end of the short. Rarely will this be the way a successful feature is made. A short is an enclosed story and will not be something you can just fill with more stuff to make a movie with. The only way a short can be used in a feature film is if it is used as a building block, starting point, or inspiration for the film rather than as something to be filled with more stuff to make it as long as a movie should be.

Movie Is A Series Of Shorts

Movies are not long shorts, they are a series of 40-60 shorts called scenes. You do not make movies by making a long scene, but by making many scenes that naturally flow from one to the other. Do not think in terms of lengthening a short film, but rather building upon it. The original short film could be the last scene in the film, the first scene of the third act, or if it's a long short it might be the whole first act. Whatever part this short does end up playing in the feature, it will likely not encompass the entire duration of the movie. It will be one of many scenes and not one big stretched out scene with new stuff in between.

No Single Great Short

When making a short a filmmaker wants it to have a punch of its own, to be able to stand on its feet without help. Making a really distinctive scene is great for making shorts, but not usually the way to make a compelling feature. A film is a series of scenes that in total makes a statement, but none of its parts should speak too much louder than any other part. The power in filmmaking is that it is a poem using the order and composition of scenes instead of words. A movie at its best will not have standout scenes, but rather be a standout movie. The film will be powerful not due to a single strong scene, but the relationship the scenes have with each other and the meaning that comes from it.

Shorts and feature films are different and take different creative capacities to create. Be careful when moving from shorts to features that you know the requirements of each and do not get the making of each confused. They are related but not in the way you might first expect.