Minute is an app that allows you to watch quality short films, tailored to the time that you have available. We took a look at this early-stage startup with a big vision.
When was the last time you watched a short film? Can you even name a short film? There are actually quite a lot of short films floating around that are anywhere from student projects to indie filmmakers trying to get a start, to shorts you’ve never heard of that have won awards.
But unless you happen across them on YouTube (other video perusing platforms available), they are highly unlikely to ever cross your path. This means that not only does the creator lose out, but you miss out on interesting stories, forced to be innovative by their short nature.
So wouldn’t it be good if these could be collated in one place for people to discover and watch while commuting or...visiting the powder room.
It just so happens that, after finishing his first short film, Janvier Wete thought the same thing. So he created Minute.
The completely free Minute app first asks users how much time they have - 1-10 minutes, 10-20, or over 20 minutes - and then gives you a plethora of short films to browse.
You can break it down further by genre, of which there are many. The first one we had a glance at was an Irish Film Board - funded animation narrated by George Takei.
Minute say that they hand select the films that go on to the app to ensure quality, and as the app matures we’re sure it will only increase in functionality and useability too.
Being able to enjoy bite-sized but complete stories and documentaries from any genre while you sit on the train or eat your lunch is a nice idea and a way to open people up to more diverse filmmaking and stories. It’s on our phones, and we think it will be on a great many others too in no time at all.