Short Films and their Purpose

A short film can be defined as a film lasting anywhere between five to fifteen minutes. The issue of the length of a short film is quite debatable varying from a variety of different sources. However, The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences have stated that a short film is one which has a 'running time of less than forty minutes' credits being included in the run time. Despite this, the main attribute of a short film is that it is not considered long enough to be considered a feature film which usually have a run time of sixty minutes or longer. An example of this is "I Am Legend which has a runtime of 1 hour and 41 minutes. Short films usually have the identifications of being made independently, have a low budget and are usually sponsored by companies such as by the National Lottery if in the United Kingdom. Whereas feature films will usually have a well known cast and will usually have the typical convention of good versus evil where the good will triumph in the end. Additionally, the plot for the large part is usually straightforward and simple to understand where unresolved endings are not really present in feature films. 

Unlike feature films which are made for the producers to make a profit therefore causing their business in filming to accelerate; short films on the other hand are not usually made to make a profit but are distributed to the audience for several other reasons: 

• Self-Promotion
• Conveying a message/educating people
• Experimentation for new techniques and ideas and possible future films. 

In the case of the latter for experimentation for future possible films, the director Neil Blomkamp created a short six minute film that he used to be able to get a Hollywood deal for the film District 9. The film titled "Alive in Joburg"was the initial introduction of the director and how he was able to get a deal to create the popular film District 9. Below is the audition film that Neil Blomkamp used to be able to get supported by Peter Jackson to be able to make the film District 9. 

This short film was very successful and was quite interesting for one of the clips that were used. The topic of immigration in South Africa was a key issue for this part with Blomkamp adding it so that it fitted with his film. This is a very interesting idea that might possibly be used in the film. However, for it to work the issue of copyright might be a problem.

In terms of films specifically in Britain there are a large majority of films which tend to try and educate the general public on a particular matter or situation. One example of a film created for this purpose is the film Gravity directed by "Colin Hutton". The film attempts to educate the audience possibly that of the young youth due to the mis en scene representing the teenagers dialogue of slang and their appearance being that of a teenager in terms of wearing hoodies. It tries to educate the young audience in terms of gun violence and the dangers that arise when having a gun with you. In the short film the shot of the gun in the sky coupled with the 180 degree transition from the sky to the boy on the swing where he is revealed to be injured an possibly dead. In this way it shows extremely the dangers that possessing a gun has in order to try and persuade the young audience to stay away from using guns. Short films due to their length tend to cover quite controversial topics such as in the film "Gravity" which whilst being able to cover them in a feature film a lot of the audiences would defer from watching it due to possibly wanting to watch something for entertainment and not to be depressed at. There is also the key issue of the length where a feature film would have to solve what happens whereas a short film ends unresolved making the audience clueless about what will happen next. 

At 4:00 the tilt shot to the sky is used which directly links to the bullet from the gun going up into the sky and then landing on the boy when the clip transitions to the boy on the swing. As mentioned earlier this film was constructed to educate the dangers and possible outcomes of having/utilising a gun.