In the

American film industry The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Ame ...

, a featurette is a kind of film that is shorter than a full-length feature, but longer than a

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

. The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film.

Medium-length films

A featurette is a film usually of three to four

reels A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the ends ...

in length, or about 22–43 minutes in running time, thus longer than a two-reel short subject but shorter than a

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

. Hence, it is a "small feature" (the ending "

-ette A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A ( abbreviated ) is a word-forma ...

" is a common diminutive suffix derived from French), and in fact featurettes were sometimes called "streamlined features". Featurette was commonly used from before the start of the

sound era A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed befor ...

into the 1960s, when films of such length as the

Hal Roach's Streamliners Hal Roach's Streamliners are a series of featurette comedy films created by Hal Roach that are longer than a short subject and shorter than a feature film, not exceeding 50 minutes in length. Twenty of the 29 features that Roach produced for United ...

—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

. Some featurettes are still being produced, notably the action comedy ''

Kung Fury ''Kung Fury'' is a 2015 English-language Swedish martial arts comedy featurette film written and directed by David Sandberg. It pays homage to 1980s martial arts and police action films. The film stars Sandberg in the title role, Jorma Taccone, ...

'', which runs only 31 minutes.

Companion films

After the advent of

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

technology, the term also gained the meaning of "a brief

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

covering one or more aspects of the film creation process"."Featurette"
Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved 2012-07-11. In DVD features descriptions, the term "featurette" usually refers to "behind-the-scenes"–type

bonus material Bonus commonly means: * Bonus, a Commonwealth term for a distribution of profits to a with-profits insurance policy * Bonus payment, an extra payment received as a reward for doing one's job well or as an incentive Bonus may also refer to: Plac ...

such as documentaries on

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wo ...

set design Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained ...

, or cast and crew interviews.

References

{{film-term-stub

Medium-length films

Companion films

See also

References