Key Media Elements in Short Films

Twist

Short films nearly always include a twist and thus are because this keeps the audience interested, it is also the moment in the film where the films message is rounded off and finalised and sometimes this means that it changes drastically at the end to what the audience may have assumed it was at the start of the film. Often without as twist a short film is boring and dull because the narrative and the message of the film become predictable and do not surprise the audience. For example in the short film ‘Slip of the Tongue’ the twist is placed when the girl snaps and her ignoring reaction changes to one of rage and righteousness. When she openly lays down her views to the man with aggression. This change of pace and twist in the narrative engages the audience and ensures that the scenes hold their attention throughout the entire short film. This is the moment (picture above) when the girl decides not to ignore the man any longer but to take her views to him with a burning anger, which can be seen here through her facial expressions. (This moment is the twist).

Characters• Most short films only have 2-3 characters in them; this keeps the set up and filming

of the piece simple and saves Tim, e and money. In addition short films are normally between 3-5 minutes long and therefore I as the director would have no time to build up the audience’s knowledge of the character (their history etc.) or create a back-story. If too many characters are introduced in a short space of time it may also confuse the audience so that they cannot get a clear sense of the plot.

• One example of this is the short film tick tock in this short film there are only three characters all whom are the protagonists and only a scattering of extras where used for maybe 2-3 seconds in this piece . These t3 characters remain in shot most of the time in the film up until the end of the piece where the focus is on the male in the grey t-shirt.

• As you can see 2 of the 3 main characters are in shot in the part of the short film and they remain in shot for an extended period only until the 3 character joins them. No extras are introduced at this point and when they are later on there presence is only very brief saving the director time and resources. Also by not having any extras in key scenes such as this one it means that none of the focus is taken away from the most important characters in the piece.

Budget• Short films often have small budgets due to the independent nature

of the production of these short films. This can be easily observed just by looking at the short film, there are never an excess of extras or very expensive props. Short films maintain a low budget by using a few locations and only a few actors throughout the piece. This keeps costs low and therefore are large budget is not needed.

• For example the very short film ‘Loop’ only has one location and only has 2 actors involved in it. This allowed the film makers to keep costs down and therefore allowed them to have a small budget.

• This actor in shot is the protagonist and other than him in this piece there is in fact only one another actor who is an extra and this keeps processes such as casting, short and cheap. Once again keeping processes like these cheap allows the budget to be low.

Budget 2

• When I make my own short film using these process to keep the budgets down:

• I will keep the number of characters down to save time and money in filming

• I will use a simple locations• Used a maximum of 3 locations • Attempt to get actors for free• •

 Situation

• For the audience to be engaged in my short film the narrative or storyline has to be interesting and has to grab their attention and hold it for the duration of the piece. A good way to do this is to take an everyday situation that all audience members would have encountered and flip it in a way that will keep the audience interested.

• For example in happy sushi, the narrative starts of about a wobbly table leg, this is a common situation in which people have been in and therefore the audience instantly relate to this. However the film makers change this later on sop that it is not a situation that people have been in such as the match box being alive. This is also an example of how a twist can be used but it does clearly show how a normally situation can gain the audience attention and then the sudden change of situation keeps the audience interested.

PropsProps can be highly useful for a director of a short film. Their use is often subtle but vital in the creation of impact within a piece. The use of expensive props is kept to a minimum in order for a filmmaker to keep to their budget. For example in black hole where the props where kept simple through the use of a piece of paper as the main prop, a story was built around this prop and this allowed the budget of the film to be kept low and the filming to remain a relatively easy process.