Do Short Films Have Opening Credits?

Opening credits are generally found in movies and full-feature films and they tend to be pretty self-explanatory. When a film showcases opening credits they are showing the major companies that are involved in the fundamental structure of the film production. And they tend to run in order from top billing obligations first and stars. As well as any secondary credits following. While this is all pretty straightforward, a common question that filmmakers have is: Do short films have opening credits, too?

Opening Credits for Short Films

While short films have opening credits much like you might see in a feature film. As you can imagine, a short film has less time to make it all happen.

Opening credits for short films, therefore, must be condensed. So that they can deliver the desired details in a fraction of the amount of time that would be expected for a feature film.

So, when someone asks, “Do short films have opening credits?” The short answer is, “YES! Sometimes.” Short films don’t always have opening credits. Nut those that do will generally take on a condensed format that is slightly different from a full-feature films opening credits.

Structuring Short Film Opening Credits

The opening credits for the short film may be structured slightly differently than a full-feature film’s opening credits are, too.

For example, instead of the opening credits for the film showcasing the obligatory connections to the top billing agencies involved and those that were contracted for exposure, the film credits are likely to jump right to the production company. 

This is because there’s generally fewer major contracted credits for a short film and fewer stars involved, therefore the credits will typically roll right into showing off the most important contributors.

Wearers of Many Hats

You might also notice the opening credits of a short film showcase repetitive names. It’s pretty common for the same small group of people to work on a short film.

Thus instead of seeing a laundry list of people involved, you’re likely to see a condensed, shortened list. That showcases some names over and over. As they are likely members of the production crew that had to take on multiple roles for the production.

Whether there are a lot of names to show in the opening credits of a short film, or just a few, the names are most likely to be delivered in order of importance. Generally beginning with those least important to the production and working down to those most important.

Side Scroll

Another way that short films can condense the opening credits to save time is by showing two credits at a time, side by side. In order to help the audience pay attention to the most important credits first.

Once the important credits are out of the way, the rest of the credits will appear on the screen all at the same time. This can bring the total amount of time required for opening credits down to well under 30 seconds.

As you can see, when someone asks, “Do short films have opening credits,” the answer is “Yes, they do, but they are different from what you might expect from a full-feature film.”