History of Short Films.

When cinema started in 1895 the films created and shown were short films. At this point, and even today, short films were not apart of mainstream cinema. In order to make a short film it was to include a feature followed by a short subject, these short subjects could be animated cartoons or live action. Despite them being of a short length they were not yet known as 'short films'.
The genre of these short films was usually comedy although some also were of topics that interested other individuals. Some of the first short films made were short due to technological restrictions i.e. 'experimental sequences'. However, it wasn't a long period of time til short films started to die off and werent as popular as they once was. Fewer were being made and the ones that were made were made in house. It was heard of that big film companies were helping in financing short films, because of this companies had power and they began taking ideas from short films and turning them into big blockbuster feature films to reap any profits possible. This was known as block booking and was later declared illegal by the Supreme Court of the United States.
From the 1930's onwards short film production was a marginal activity, it was official, Hollywood hhad come along and put death to the short film at the time it was most popular in the industry. Hollywood followed the Studio System and had produced and introduced genres, cinema exhibiters required the film to be no longer than 90 minutes to allow cinemas 2 hour blocks in order for a quick turnover.
Opposed to the restricted genres in earlier history they are now very diverse, they attack themes that feature films would avoid. Short films are only advertised through art exhibitions and festivals. Currently Hollywood no longer follows the studio system and just see's short films as a cut price laboratory for experimental and innovation. Studios have developed a system of scouting for new talent by using film festivals to find aspiring young directors i.e. Spielberg.