Codes and Conventions of Short Films

For my research into short films, I’ve had to watch a variety of short films. From doing this I have come to a realisation that makers of shorts films take into account a number of things that the viewers don’t seem to notice.

Some of these things include:

Characters

Characters is an apparent convention for short films, this is because short films tend to stick to having just 2-3 main characters that the film is focused on. This is the because the duration of short film are around 3-5 minutes long and the producers of the film don’t have enough time to create a background or character history. They decide to keep the numbers of characters minimal so the audience can relate to them in a short amount of time the film runs for.

An example of this is a film I watched called ‘Thirst’, where the main character is a male and he finds himself lost and has an overwhelming thirst for water, when he finally finds a lake he’s excited to drink but drinking from it takes him further into the lonely and isolated desert. All through the film he remained the main frame, but there were two other characters in the film but he was the dominant one. The screen shot below is the last scene of the film, and from the look on the character's face he looks lost and out of place with everything around him, but he is actually relived that he's in the city and not lost in the desert like he was at beginning of the film.

Twist

Short films always have a form of twist involved with it, it’s the moment that caps the rest of the story off and reveals it for what it really is.  The reason for this is to keep the audience interested and engaged, because the films are short, and without the twist the film will be boring, and dull. The twist can happen any time during the run time of the film, it could be at the beginning, middle or at the end of the film. A well suited example for a short film with a ‘Twist’ would be a short film called ‘LUCKY - Tropfest Finalist’ by Nash Edgerton. The film is a about the only character waking up at the boot of an unknown car and struggles to get out, and when he finally does, he is shocked to find out that there’s no one driving the car he’s been kidnapped in, but he manges to regain control of the car, (which some people might have found a little too easy), he then bring the car to an abrupt stop and he turns off the ignition and the car explodes with him (main and only character) in it.

This keeps the audience on edge as they were not expecting it to happen, and leaves them wondering in their minds if he manages to get out, but when the film finishes without the character surviving, they come to conclusion that he didn’t get out of the exploding car.

As well as giving it a twist the director also gives the audience what they wanted, in a way they didn’t expect it.

<<<He wakes up from being knocked out, and finds himself in the trunk of a moving car

 <<He finds his way out of the boot, and he works his way to the  bonnet of the car so he can break the window to control the high   speed moving car.

 <<The final scene this is where the car blows up with the main  character in the Vehicle, leaving the audience on edge.

Situation

For a short film to be successful, it needs to have a very intriguing storyline. The producers take everyday situations that the audience can relate to and flip and nip it in a way the audience will find interesting.

An interesting example of how a simple everyday situation can be flipped in a film is the film ‘FOCUS - Tropfest 2011’ by Ari Kruger. In this film a man meets a lady in a supermarket and from there they get to know each other, after a while they take their relationship to the next level, they fall in love and  things have never felt better. But one day, he notices something about her you hadn't noticed before, and when he brings it up she gets really aggressive about it, so he drops the topic. Soon her condition gets worse and he can’t help but question her she gets aggravated and she wakes up one morning and leaves him for another man and he blames himself for falling in love. Here we can see that the director takes something such as love, something everyone knows to be a good thing, he flips it to create an interesting story.

<<<Where he meets her for the first time

            at the supermarket.

<<<This is where he finds out there's

         something wrong with her.

<<<Finally when they grew apart, she tells him she's not interested in him anymore.

Budget

Short films don’t always have a high budget, and this can be noticed whilst watching them, there are no expensive cars, houses or costumes; this is mainly because it’s a short film and the producers and directors are independent, so they don’t need financial backing/support. They maintain a low budget by sticking to one or two locations and using a maximum of three characters. In each of the examples I have used, they mostly have 2-3 locations. In ‘Focus’ we see that some of the shots were taken in a house whilst the rest of the shots were taken outdoors, the same goes for ‘Thirst’ where there was just one shot the house and the rest took place outside. Reason being filming outside is free and won’t cost the producers and directors a dime.

These conventions are things to take into consideration when I decide to make my own short film. The things I have learnt and will consider when making my own short film include:

Ø      Keeping the characters simple and keep their numbers down in order to save time.

Ø      Make sure the twist is effective and this keeps the audience interested.

Ø      Use every day simple situation and turn it around.

Ø      Use maximum of 2/3 locations.

Ø      Use one location and try to get actors for free (preferably friends)

Ø      You don’t need a big budget to make a good film.

In order to achieve this I will have to do a lot of planning and research. This is so my production will be of good and real quality, and also it can be accessible for people to view especially my target audience.