Short film
Comedy short films were produced in large numbers compared to lengthy features such as D. W. Griffith's 1915 The Birth of a Nation.
Short comedies were especially common, and typically came in a serial or series (such as the Our Gang movies, or the many outings of Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp character).
Instead of the cinema owner assembling a program of their own choice, the studios sold a package centered on a main and supporting feature, a cartoon and little else.
With these major comedy producers out of the running, Columbia Pictures actually expanded its own operations and launched a second two-reel-comedy unit in 1938.
Theater managers found it easier and more convenient to fit shorter, one-reel (10-minute) subjects into their double-feature programs.
In the live-action field, humorist Robert Benchley had been making short comedies since the dawn of sound; his various series for Fox, Vitaphone, MGM, and Paramount ran from 1928 to 1944.
RKO's Flicker Flashbacks revivals of silent films ran from 1943 to 1956, and Warner Bros.' Joe McDoakes comedies became a regular series in 1946 and lasted until 1956.
By and large, however, the movies' one-reel subject of choice was the animated cartoon, produced by Walt Disney, Warner Bros., MGM, Paramount, Walter Lantz, Columbia, and Terrytoons.
These "chapter plays" remained popular through the 1950s, although both Columbia and Republic Pictures were now making them as cheaply as possible, reusing action highlights from older serials and connecting them with a few new scenes showing identically dressed actors.
MGM continued Tom and Jerry (first with a series of poorly-received Eastern European shorts by Gene Deitch, then a better-received run by Warner Bros. alumnus Chuck Jones) until 1967, and Woody Woodpecker lasted to 1972; the creative team behind MGM's 1940s and 1950s cartoons formed Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1957, mainly focusing on television.
The Pink Panther was the last regular theatrical cartoon short series, having begun in 1964 (and thus having spent its entire existence in the limited animation era) and ended in 1980.
[citation needed] Warner Bros. often includes old shorts from its considerable library, connected only thematically, on the DVD releases of classic WB movies.
Certain websites which encourage the submission of user-created short films, such as YouTube and Vimeo, have attracted large communities of artists and viewers.
Similarly, unconventional filmmaking techniques such as Pixilation or narratives that are told without dialogue, are more often seen in short films than features.
