In theAmerican film industry, afeaturette is a kind of film that is shorter than afull-length feature, but longer than ashort film. The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film.
A featurette is a film usually of three to fourreels in length, or about 24–40 minutes in running time,[1] thus longer than a two-reelshort subject but shorter than afeature film. Hence, it is a "small feature" (the ending "-ette" is a commondiminutivesuffix derived fromFrench[2]), and in fact featurettes were sometimes called "streamlined features". Featurette was commonly used from before the start of thesound era into the 1960s, when films of such length as theHal Roach's Streamliners—and severalFrench films of that length—ceased being made, or were made as experimental or art films and subsumed under the more general rubric ofshort film. Some featurettes are still being produced, notably the action comedyKung Fury, which runs only 31 minutes.
Other terms with a similar meaning include:medium-length films,long shorts andshort features.[3]
After the advent ofDVD technology, the term also gained the meaning of "a briefdocumentary film covering one or more aspects of the film creation process".[4][5] In DVD features descriptions, the term "featurette" usually refers to"behind-the-scenes"–type bonus material such as documentaries onspecial effects,set design, or cast and crew interviews.[6]
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