What is a short film?
A short film is a film that is shorter than feature length films. A film that is 40 minutes or less is considered to be a short film. Short films are usually given an arthouse release, as they are often made by independent filmmakers with a budget that is lower of than that of a feature length film. Plot wise, short films usually contain a twist in the end to subvert the expectations of audiences.
What can I usually expect to find in short films?
- Low number of characters. Short films usually contain about 2 or 3 main characters. Because short films are short in length, they can struggle to fully develop a character's backstory, so keeping the amount of characters to a minimum means they can develop them as much as possible without convoluting the story to much.
-Plot twist Short films almost always contain a plot twist at the end to subvert the audience's expectations. With short films, the plot is always important. Because the are 'short' films, the story is usually the most appealing feature, as they usually contain crazy characters and situations. A plot twist at the end will make the audience feel satisfied, and not like they wasted their time watching something that lead nowhere. Here is an example of a good short story with a twist: Table 7.
-Length Short films are short. The maximum usual length is about 40 minutes.
-Budget and release The release of short films is usually arthouse, and they usually require very little budget to make. They also aren't advertised as well as feature films, as they're on an independent release, which is why most people don't watch short films as much as feature films, which have lots of money and backing.
-Situation Short films will usually take an everyday situation and flip it on it's head. This helps to make the audience relate to the film somewhat, but give it an interesting, out of the ordinary twist. A great example of this is The Black Hole- which is shown below- where a man working in an office find a black hole that prints off from a computer, which allows him to steal things, like chocolate from the vending machine, or even money..
Example of short films:
Thriller - Even though it is technically a music video, it is also a 13 minute long short. Directed by John Landis. The twist that the audience wasn't expecting was in the middle, when Michael Jackson and his girlfriend get cornered by zombies, and he turns in to one.. We're not creating a music video so this example again isn't that fitting, but it's such a popular short, with a twist in the middle.
The Black Hole - A very short short under 5 minutes. A bored man in a office prints off a black hole and finds a way to steal money food etc. But he ruins it with greed. Simple and effective, it would be a good inspiration for a short that we could create, but the 'black hole' could be slightly hard.
Vampire Gastlebrau - a Disney animated short, with no dialogue, about a vampire that loses his fang and a girl finds it. In order for him to get his fang back, he has to do her chores. Once he completes it, she gives him his fang back, and he leaves.. but does he return? Because this is animated, it isn't the greatest example to use for our shorts, as anything animated is hard to create for us. It's still a nice story with a twist though.
