In this post I will be talking about the conventions of short films and providing deconstruction on two short films that I've found.
Our task that we were set was to come up with a short film idea for us to pitch to the group when we got back. A short is a film not long enough to be considered as a feature film, it is usually defined as a film 40 minutes or shorter including all credits.
Conventions of short films
Our task that we were set was to come up with a short film idea for us to pitch to the group when we got back. A short is a film not long enough to be considered as a feature film, it is usually defined as a film 40 minutes or shorter including all credits.
Conventions of short films
The conventions of a short film are that usually there are only three or four main characters and no more than that, this is because a short film doesn't have enough time to create a suitable backstory for everyone, so only a few characters are used to help the audience connect and relate to the characters.
Another convention is that they always contain a "twist" as this makes it more interesting and eventful, without a twist in the short film, it would be uneventful and wouldn't interest the viewer. For example a youtuber called Sawyer Hartman has done a three minute film called Night Terror, and the twist is that he stabs his girlfriend and then her body disappears.
Short films also have a very low budget, this is mostly because short film directors are independent and without sufficient backing.
Short films take an everyday situation and they subvert it, meaning they flip it on it's head, for example, in a short film called "the black hole" the setting is an ordinary office but special powers are revealed by a black hole.
A final convention of shorts is that Todorov's theory of equilibrium is typically applied to them:
Equilibrium - Everything is normal
Disequilibrium - A problem occurs
New equilibrium - Problem is solved, everything back to normal, however a change is noticeable.
Following conventions
I will now be seeing my two films follow the convention of short films.
The black hole
Main characters - the convention of this is that shorts only have 3 or 4 main characters, the black hole follows the convention by only having 1.
Duration - The black hole is 2:50 so it follows the convention of short films
Twist - this convention is that short films always contain a "twist", the black hole follows this convention by at the end of the short film the main character gets trapped inside a safe.
Low budget - Short films are usually low budgeted because they are made by independent directors. The black hole follows this convention by confirming that only £5,000 was used to make the short.
Subvert - The black hole follows this convention by subverting an everyday office situation and making it interesting.
Night terror
Main characters - In night terror there are only 2 main characters so this follows the convention of short films.
Duration - Night terror is 3:06 so it is slightly longer than the black hole but still follows the convention of short films
Twist - Night terror follows the convention of a "twist" in a short film, by having the male lead stab his girlfriend in the end.
Low budget - Night terror follows the convention of a low budget, I know this because Sawyer is a youtuber and doesn't make profit from his films and has to pay for them himself.
Subvert - Night terror follows the convention of subversion in short films by flipping an ordinary night at home into a horror scenario.
The only convention that both do not follow is Todorovs theory of equilibrium, each short does the first two stages but does not bring in a new equilibrium.
In the next post I will be talking about the production team that I will have been put into.
In the next post I will be talking about the production team that I will have been put into.
