5-Second Films or 5 Second Films or simply 5SF is an American film group and website that develops and produces an online comedy web series of five-second long short films as well as a series of long films that have been viewed over 280 million times on YouTube. It was started in the dormitories at the University of Southern California in the spring of 2005 by Brian Firenzi. The website went live in October 2008. Up until December 2013, they featured a new film every weekday, with the only rules being two seconds of opening titles, five seconds of film consisting of a quick set-up and punchline, and one second of end titles. Since then, they've been releasing new short films in a more relaxed tempo. The website has been featured on G4's Attack of the Show!, Comedy Central's Tosh.0, Last Call with Carson Daly, Spin, CNN and Wired. The films sometimes featured guest stars like Patton Oswalt, Fred Armisen, Doug Benson, Eddie Pepitone, Juliette Lewis, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and Andrew W.K. Time put 5-Second Films on its list of the top 50 websites of 2013, calling it "addicting" and writing, "You'll probably never find a better way to waste a few seconds of your life."
History
5SF was conceived in 2005, by Brian Firenzi while he attended USC. The idea originally came from a contest organized by the Cadillac Motor Company, where five second commercials were allowed to be submitted for cars. Though Firenzi and friends never entered the contest, it inspired them to create "Chivalry is Dead," a five-second film where a man refuses to hold a door for a woman. Firenzi showed various other students his films, and soon he assembled several other creators to join him. The website, with its promise for a film every week day, was launched on October 31, 2008. Slowly, more and more actors, writers and directors assembled in one house in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. The films grew to have a cult following. In February 2013, the core 5SF crew joined forces with Uproxx, releasing weekly sketches that stuck with the surreal and darkly comedic form of most 5SFs, but were longer than five seconds. Usually these sketches were about three minutes. They were less popular than the 5SFs but still well received by fans. In May, 2013, the core members again decided to expand the concept further. The 5SF Dude Bro Party Massacre III, realized in 2009, was a parody of 1980s slasher films, turning the genre on its head by changing the victims of the killer to men, instead of women. The next year, the idea returned to the cast, who made it into a fake trailer. In May 2013, the cast launched a Kickstarter to make Dude Bro Party Massacre into a feature-length film. By July of that year, the Kickstarter raised over $240,000. Producer Keith Calder of Snoot Entertainment matched the Kickstarter money, putting the budget for the film close to $500,000. Production began in January 2014 in Los Angeles and Big Bear, CA, and included performances from frequent 5SF guest stars Patton Oswalt, Andrew W.K., Greg Sestero from the cult film The Room, and Larry King. Production wrapped on June 23, 2014, and Dude Bro Party Massacre III made its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2015. Bloody Disgusting called it "hysterical", IndieWire called it an "Instant Cult Classic", and Ain't It Cool News praised DBPM3 for its "murderously great horror satire".
Members
5-Second Films is made up of a group of writers, directors, filmmakers, actors, and actresses, most of whom lived in the same house where they plan and film the shorts.
