Post 9: Short Film Research

Task A: Why make a short film?

When films were first in the earliest cinemas all films were short films. The very first films were presented to the public in 1894 through Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope. As new technology came out it allowed film producers to produce multi-shot films which was a short film made a bit longer. In 1910 onwards audience demand began to grow and producers made multi- reel films.
In the sixties short films were shown before a feature film and this was not very popular with the audience at that time. Even though short films were not very popular within the cinemas short films were noticed by people who were interested in art. Short films became more popular within this group and they became successful.

Chris Marker in 1962, the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis, made La Jetée, which was a 28 minute short film set in the aftermath The Third World War. It became successful from the still black and white photographs and soundtrack with a voice over became a very successful short film.


Task B: Who is the target audience for a short film?

(i) In my opinion I think that short films are targeted at people who do not like the set up of big film companies such as Hollywood as they may not think that it is realistic and does not reflect the real world and also because short films tend to show things that happen in reality. Some people would not agree with big film companies because they may feel that all of their films send the same message out whereas, in a short film they are all portrayed in different ways and audiences may want to see films that they are not going to know what will happen and they may like the suspense that there may be an unanswered question and some audiences may be more drawn into the situation of what is happening within the short film.


The target audience for short films is very small as they are made with very basic equipment which will not be of the best quality and are by small independent film makers. 'The short film genre doesn't really follow basic conventions unlike other genres.' Short film audiences would be people that go to events such as film festivals. Short films do not have big budgets. Short film audiences may also be people such as students.

http://wbsmediagroup6jack.blogspot.com/2009/09/short-films-target-audience.html

Task C: How are Short Films Distributed?
(i) Many short films are distributed through film festivals. There are film festivals situated all around the country such as London, Edinburgh, Leeds etc. Film festivals are a way of small film companies showing their short film and trying to see if it can be distributed.

The Short Film Bureau is a non profit organisation which was set up in 1998. It was set up to offer Short film makers advice and to support with the funding, production, marketing and distribution of short films. They recently had an agreement with a UK distributor which means that distributors will accept short films before a feature film. Companies such as Odeon and Columbia Tristar have agreed with this.
The organisation have said that 'short films will become accepted if it compliments their main feature.' they also said 'If you have a good comedy, and it's under 10 minutes, it could be taken as a good warm up act. If a film is longer you probably wont have much luck with the major but independent distributors might take it.'  This is telling us that short films can be successful when being distributed as long as they fit in with the criteria of what the film distributors want. If a short film links with what they distributors then they may be used as entertainment before the feature film.

http://www.film4.com/features/article/get-your-short-film-distributed

(ii) I have researched different websites to help me look for short films which have been at film festivals. I have found this website http://www.encounters-festival.org.uk/vimeo-channel.html  to help me. I have watched some of the short films on this website and I have looked at..

- What genres of short films are popular?

- How long are the short films?

- How are the films structured?

- What effect does the film have on the audience?

The first short film that I watched was called Breathe By Geoffrey Taylor. This film was started off by showing two hands holding while walking down a corridor. It then goes on to show that it is a mother and her son. The young boy sits at a desk in the office while it shows his mother cleaning the offices. The young boy tries to entertain himself and goes over to the window which shows that it is very dark outside. A young girl appears at the window and the boy breathes on the window and writes things to her and they begin to play. This short film was 6 minutes long and this is the length in which our short film has to be. I looked at different ways in which they were able to fill the time and the way they structured the film. They structured it well by focusing on the boy and his emotions. I feel that by showing the boys emotions really effects the audience. The picture I have shown to the left is showing the boys emotions and how he is feeling. The structure of this film was good because they did not have too much going on in each shot and it was very simple. I feel that by there not being much happening in each shot makes the audience more aware of the emotion that it trying to be portrayed and I believe for our short film we need to do the same because we are trying to show how the character is feeling. The genre of this short film was a mystery.

The other short films in which we watched had the same kind of genre. Each short film which I watched was very dark. I think that by making it very dark was that it had a good effect on how the audience reacted to it. I believe that if we use the same effect or even if we use natural lighting instead of artificial lighting then it will have more of an impact on the audience and this is what we want to achieve for our short film. Also they way that they structured the short film was good because they did not show things that would move the film along, everything that was shown had a purpose of being shown and builds it up for the audience and draws them in more. Most of the short films were around 6 minutes long and this is the same time that we have for our short film. I am able to look at the different ways that they make up that time.

Task D: How to write a good short film script?
(i) When you are thinking about making a short film and writing the script there are important questions to ask yourself before you start to develop the story. You should ask:
- Who is the main character?
- What is their problem?
- How will the audience recognise the problem?
- Are the stakes high enough?
- Am I telling the story from the best point of view?
All of these questions will help you know if your story is going to be successful. The reasons why you must answer all of these questions is because the audience must be clear of what the film is about. With the main character there must be a problem otherwise the film may not be successful, the character must has a want, a need, or an obligation and if the character has one of these this will help the story to become more interesting for the audience. At all times throughout the film these points must be clear to the audience. It is important to make the problem the main focus of the film.

A good example of this is Lynne Ramsay's Gasman is about a young girl is competing with her sister for her dad's affections. This is showing the character have a problem and throughout the whole film this is the problem that the character is facing.
Also when writing a story you need to make sure that the stakes are high enough this means that there is something for the character to loose and this also needs to be noticed and understood by the audience. You need to think about whether the main character is the best point of view to tell the story from and this is very important as it may not have the same effect if the storyline is based from someonelse's point of view. 
Genre is less important in a short film than a feature film but it is still important to think about where the storyline is going and this does have some kind of issue with genre but not as important as it is in a feature film.
Overall, a short film needs a story which something happens that has an effect on the main character and the most important point is that the audience must have the understanding of all of these points throughout the film because if not the film will not be understood.

Task E: Independent Research
This is the short film which I have watched:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00pg3hl
 At the beginning of this film it draws the audiences attention in by having the sound of the radio and you are thinking about what is going to happen. The man driving then has an accident and hits a cyclist, he gets outs but then he realises what he has done and gets back in the car and there is a medium close up of his face and this is showing his emotions. They keep cutting to a close up of the man's face and this is very effective because it is showing the feelings and thoughts that the man is feeling and this is really shown to the audience. Throughout this short film it is concentrating on the emotions that the man is going through and I think that by showing this and not using much dialogue is more effective as the message is still being shown to the audience. At the end of the short film it shows him riding a bike on the road and it is making the audience question what is going to happen and I feel that keeping the audience in suspense is a very good way of ending a short film and I would like to reflect my research into my short film.