Definition of short films
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Transcript of Definition of short films
DEFINITION OF SHORT FILMS
ConventionsLength: 2-20 minutes
‘Charlie’ is around 16 minutes, whereas ‘2AM: The Smiling Man’ is around 4 minutes
Narrative Structure
As short films are obviously short, producers need to tell the story in a short space of time, so they have an easy format that audiences
can follow.Todorov had a theory that all narratives in
films have a set structure.Equilibrium-disruption-recognition-resolution.However, I believe this theory isn’t followed in
short films, as their isn’t enough time. I believe the structure is:Disruption-recognition
An example of this is ‘SKYPEMARE’, where a women spots a man in her friends house, and
it eventually ends up fatal.
PlotThey’re usually written about one
specific event. The content is simple and told in one time frame, which
makes it easier to follow. They base the film on one emotion, whether that be
love or feeling frightened, and it emphasises these feelings in order to get the audience to feel them. ‘NIGHT NIGHT NANCY’ follows this convention as its set in one time frame and aims
to get the audiences to feel frightened about dangerous intruders in your
house.
CharacterShort films have simplistic narratives because of the length of film, so this
also means their are only usually one or two main characters. It focuses on the character development, and how they react to current things, rather than a big explanation about their backstory. In ‘Pictured’ we are only introduced to one character, and we only discover
how she reacts to an increased suspicion into what the picture is doing,
there is no backstory, just a small character development.
InstitutionShort films have small budgets,
as they aren’t funded by an external company. This means there aren’t any recognisable idents, and their is sometimes only 1 simple opening credit,
which would just be the director. The end credits are also quite
short due to the lack of people in the production team. (Picture from the end credits of ‘Lights
Out’.