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Explanation: After lengthy consideration, I think this is the best option. None of the others proposed here fully convinces me, but I think this one ticks the boxes, as they say.
What do we know about "pastilles"? They are short, no more than a very few minutes, they are basically TV-related (actually radio too), and they are a programming phenomenon: they are interspersed between longer programmes, and sometimes occur as interludes in the course of a longer programme.
Let's recall the definitions already cited:
"En jargon télévisuel, une pastille est un programme court, très court (deux minutes ou moins), souvent intercalé entre deux émissions. Une manière de distraire le téléspectateur et de multiplier les plages de pub. Il peut s'agir de reportages courts, tels « Du côté de chez vous », petite émission déco parrainée par Leroy Merlin sur TF1, ou « D'art d'art » sur France 2, mais aussi de fictions plus audacieuses, comme « Bref » sur Canal +." http://www.leparisien.fr/loisirs-et-spectacles/pastille-17-0...
"Autre nouveauté annoncée pour la rentrée, un programme court (appelé dans le jargon « pastille »), fait pour et avec les enfants sur des thèmes d’actualité ou de société, intitulé 1 Jour, 1 Question." https://tuauraslesyeuxcarres.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/rentre...
It's certainly not necessarily a film as such, but neither is it necessarily (or even usually) a "bump" or "teaser".
So they can be creative fictional pieces or topical, but they can also be commercial or advertising/marketing-related. The latter point is confirmed here:
"Une pastille publicitaire radio est une petite introduction faite à l’antenne par un animateur juste avant la diffusion du spot de l’annonceur. La pastille radio permet de mieux intégrer la publicité dans la continuité du programme pour favoriser l’attention et permet également d’utiliser la voix de l’animateur comme « caution » pour l’annonceur." https://www.definitions-marketing.com/definition/pastille-pu...
Well, "interstitial" really fits those specifications pretty well. Although the word carries strong connotations of advertising because of its use as an Internet term, where it refers to those ads that you get while your page is loading, in the audiovisual/TV context this is by no means necessarily so, no more so than "pastille".
"In television programming, an interstitial program (or wraparound program or wraparound segment) refers to a short program that is often shown between movies or other events, e.g. cast interviews after movies on premium channels. The term can also refer to a narrative bridge between segments within a program, such as the live action introductions to the animated segments in the Disney films Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, or the Simpson family's interludes during their annual Treehouse of Horror episodes." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstitial_program
A good example, much cited on the web, of how an interstitial can be a very brief item within a programme is the fact that The Simpsons started life as an interstitial in the Tracy Ullman Show, though admittedly bookending the commercial breaks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Simpsons_shorts
"As show producer James L. Brooks recently told The Hollywood Reporter, he wanted "Ullman" to feature short animated interstitials, and had liked Matt Groening's "Life in Hell" comics so well he invited the cartoonist to submit some ideas." https://www.today.com/popculture/simpsons-made-their-tv-debu...
An example from the BBC:
"BBC Worldwide Channels introduces a new series of interstitials starring Polish children on the CBeebies channel this July. Entitled My Favourite Things, each of the six 45" to 60" spots was filmed in Warsaw on 10 June and features Polish preschoolers talking about the things they enjoy most – from 'My Favourite Toy' to 'My Favourite Story'. The bright and colourful spots will be packaged with distinctive CBeebies branding." http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestori...
Perhaps most telling of all is that "animated interstitial" is very much a standard term in the animation industry. The following is well worth reading:
" Short Stops: Animated Interstitials Joe Strike talks to several animation production companies about the growing need for interstitial programming around the globe. Once upon a time -- that time being Saturday morning 34 years ago on ABC-TV -- there was Multiplication Rock. The three-minute long cartoon math lessons set to music proved so popular, they led to similar series covering grammar, science, American history, money and computers under the umbrella title of Schoolhouse Rock. [...] For many kids in the U.S., Schoolhouse Rock was their introduction to interstitials -- short form segments serving as a bridge between full-length programming. The overall quality of TV cartoons has risen dramatically since the 1970s -- and so has the demand for interstitials. Now some of those same kids are creating or commissioning the next generation of these short-form bursts of animation." It goes on to refer to Rintindumb, a Lucky Luke spinoff from the French studio Xilam; I'm convinced these would be called pastilles in French. https://www.awn.com/animationworld/short-stops-animated-inte...
Maybe I should have said "contronyms" instead of "contradictory". I think the dictionary definitions qualify it as a contronym. What do you think? Regards
The 2 meanings of 'showstopper' are not really contradictory at all: the original meaning, from the theatre, refers to soemthing that is so popular (usually!) that it 'stops the show' — or in fact, simply 'holds it up'. The second meaning is just an extension of this, where something with a negative connotation 'stops the show' — in many ways, I suspect this is likened to, for example, a 'gamebreaker', with a meaning similarly extended from its original, literal sense.
But in a nutshell, before the ads go on, the announcer or anchor can always give an introduction (probably alerting people that they can go to the loo).
I'm not too keen on featurette either. I'm working in a context where the genres are defined by TV time (except, apparently, "pastille"). That said, what you said about 'interstitial animation' might apply to Spanish (LatAm) "pastilla".
Was that note about "makings-of" addressed to me? I agree; that's what I know them as, and I've never heard them called "featurettes", which is apparently an Americanism. The point of my post was simply to suggest that "featurette" might not be the right word for "pastille".
Noted what "Parrot" replied I was going to have a second bash with "showstopper" as we do have the word "animation" = show, presentation but much to my surprise, dictionaries show this word as having two very contradictory meanings:
1. a song or other performance receiving prolonged applause from the audience. "he wants every scene to be a showstopper"
something that is striking or has great popular appeal. "the brilliant orange flowers against the bronze-green foliage were a showstopper"
2. an obstacle to further progress. "the subsidy limits proved to be a showstopper for other senior Democrats who refused to pass the bill with such restrictions"
All I would say is that this can mean other things. It's in Merriam-Webster, defined as "a short film especially : a short documentary film about the making of a full-length movie".
"In the American film industry, a featurette is a film usually of three reels in length, or about 24–40 minutes in running time, [...] After the advent of DVD technology, the term also gained the meaning of "a brief documentary film covering one or more aspects of the film creation process"." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Featurette
Meantime we've hit an agreement on "videoclips", as the purpose is to protect copyright. Unless there are better ideas (so far I have "full-length films, series, short features,...")
"A film that is 16 - 29 minutes in any genre is considered a short film. A film that is 1 - 15 minutes is a short short film." "Animation Any animated project will be considered - any genre, any length. Short short animation 1 - 15 minutes. Short animation - 16 - 29 minutes. Short feature animation - 30 - 69 minutes Feature length animation 70 - 120 minutes" https://www.withoutabox.com/03film/03t_fin/03t_fin_fest_01ov...
There are "shorts" and then there are "short shorts". Pastille sounds like the latter: about three minutes or less. There's a Festival International des Très Courts (max. 3 mins).
Here they're talking about a 3-minute "pastille": "Cette petite pastille d'animation croque la biographie d'une personnalité, en 3 minutes chrono, sans images réelles, uniquement avec des reconstitution utilisant des objets du quotidien." https://www.telestar.fr/actu-tv/programme-tv-ce-soir/a-la-te...
... this probably means a short piece of animation, the graphical equivalent perhaps of a musical 'sting'? You know, the sort of brief 'flash' that sometimes comes along to introduce something, often like a station ID or commercial break delimiter.
I have no idea why they would call this a 'apstille', but it's the only thing I can think of that would be shorter than a 'short'; perhaps the 'pastille' is a rather curious translation of a 'spot' — you know, like a red spot or dot...?
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4 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): -3
pastille d\'animation
teaser
Explanation: Hello
Featurette looks good too but this is the word that I know and which can be confirmed on the Internet
SafeTex France Local time: 20:23 Native speaker of: English