What are short films?

A short film is any film long enough to be deemed a feature film. By most short film directors, this can range from between 2-40 minutes, typically. like feature length films, short films consist of a Narrative structure, themes, style and genre, titles as well as Sound, mise en scene, cinematography and editing.

Most short films employ the five part narrative structure of Todorov,
which states that all narratives are circular. As well as this short films are renown for including a twist within them, this is what makes them interesting and has spiked their popularity in recent years. this shock factor is what new audiences have come to expect from short films, due to their short length, subverting the typical expectations of an audience from a feature length film.

People identify with short films as being made independently and with a low budget, but of course there are some exceptions. Blomkamps short, "live in Joburg" is an example of a short film that has been used with a budget abnormal to that of short films, which was around $750.


This leads onto the purpose of why short films are made. One major reason for the production of short films, is for experimentation of an idea that a director or screenwriter may have, that could tempt production companies to take this idea and make it into a full motion picture. Moreover, "Live in Joburg" acts as sort of a teaser for the film that follows this and so gives a possible audience an idea of what a film like this could be, and the ideas they experiment with, so not only tempting the production companies, but movie goers as well. The film that went on to be made from this short film was "District 9"

A second reason that short films are made is for education and conveying messages, mostly to small social groups and communities. These can come in two forms, lighthearted and for use in school like the short "Oxygen" which teache younger audiences the effects of oxygen on other substances, or possibly in a dark manor, teaching, usually youths life lessons, such as not to use drugs or the effects of gunviolence, such as the short "Gravity", by Colin Hutton.

The final purpose for creating short films, is self promotion. Short films are a vital way to show production companies what a director, or editor or screenwriter is capable of. many short film directors have become successful due to the short film medium, as it shows what they can do under low budgets, and possibly how they can expand under higher budgets. One director, Fede Alvarez created a short in 2009 entitles "ataque de panico!" meaning, panic attack, this brought him onto the Hollywood scene, and has recently directed the Remake of the popular horror film, "Evil Dead" which shows the effect a portfolio of short films can make.

However the purpose of feature film can cover all of these topics, but are also designed to entertain, where as short films only have around 5-30 minutes to get a message across and are generally designed to convey a message as opposed having enough time to entertain as most short films are famous for being powerful rather than comedic.

What are the main conventions of short films?

the key conventions of short films are use of characters, a potential plot twist, the budget set aside for the film, the length of the film and also the situation. these all compose short films as they used in different ways to feature length films. for example, characters within a short film will generally not have much of a back story, and the audience will more or less be thrown into the meat of things straight away. Plot twists are famous in short films as they leave the audience in awe, due to their length the writer or director must get their point across quickly within a short film due to the short length of time they are working with, and so a plot twist allows the short films to end powerfully and leave a mark on the viewer.

Feature length films will use similar conventions but some will be omitted, depending on the storyline. Plot twists appear often in feature length films but not as much as short films because with a general 2 hour period of running time, a director can get his message across to his audience quite successfully. Generally, unlike a short film, a feature length film will have quite a lucrative budget in order to make their film. oft times a film will not make the money back in the box office, but when a film makes a profit, those are generally the films that would be remembered because so many went to see it.