Conventions of Short Films - Structure/Setting/Theme
While there are many short films out there that aim to portray a plethora of different themes, there are some conventions which generally these films adhere to, with a few edge case exceptions. As well as this, the structure and setting of short films are usually quite similar, due to the time and budget constraints that tend to affect short films. Once we scratch the surface of these films, we can determine a distinct set of conventions that most short films follow.
1500 WORDS from Andrew Chaplin on Vimeo.
Obviously, death could be classified as a universal issue, however the marriage issues that he has are more of a societal issue. Of course, this is only one example of this and cannot reflect the statistics of an entire section of film, however I think it is a good example of how a simple comedy about a man who has to use as little words as possible to get by can become much more profound if you dig a little deeper.
On the subject of setting, often there is little variation in where these films take place. Short films tend to use only a handful of locations, from as little as 1 to as many as 5 or 6. For example, the short film 1997: Birth of the Camera Phone uses 3 - the characters' house, a car and the hospital.
1997: Birth of the Camera Phone from Conscious Minds on Vimeo.
3 locations, depending on the length of the short, tends to be an average amount of locations used in a film. I think that the use of a fewer amount of locations means that the film is less confusing, as trying to cram in 9-10 locations into 5 minutes could become quite disorienting.
The structure of short films tend to be quite similar as well; most of these films, if they are dealing with such a thing, begin with establishing the issue that the film is built around. They then move on to actually dealing with the issue, and ends with either a resolved solution or unresolved issue.
Of course, these are just the conventions that I observed from watching a few short films and is not representative of the overall genre, however I think that it gives us a good idea of what we should aim to do when we are writing our film to ensure that will keep the audience captivated and interested throughout, without giving too much or too little information.
Firstly, I am going to look at themes. There are so many themes that can be used in a short film. It may seem impossible to drill this area down into a convention or conventions. However when looking closer, we can see that a lot of films tend to use societal issues (racism, sexism, ableism, etc.) as a basis for the story. Apart from this, it could also be a universal issue or event - something that affects us all. The rest of the films are usually just original stories that do not deal with these issues.
For example, the short 1500 Words deals with the theme of death as well as family issues, albeit in a sort of roundabout way. The film is about a man, Stanley, who has been given 1500 words to live and keep his marriage together.
Obviously, death could be classified as a universal issue, however the marriage issues that he has are more of a societal issue. Of course, this is only one example of this and cannot reflect the statistics of an entire section of film, however I think it is a good example of how a simple comedy about a man who has to use as little words as possible to get by can become much more profound if you dig a little deeper.
On the subject of setting, often there is little variation in where these films take place. Short films tend to use only a handful of locations, from as little as 1 to as many as 5 or 6. For example, the short film 1997: Birth of the Camera Phone uses 3 - the characters' house, a car and the hospital.
1997: Birth of the Camera Phone from Conscious Minds on Vimeo.
3 locations, depending on the length of the short, tends to be an average amount of locations used in a film. I think that the use of a fewer amount of locations means that the film is less confusing, as trying to cram in 9-10 locations into 5 minutes could become quite disorienting.
The structure of short films tend to be quite similar as well; most of these films, if they are dealing with such a thing, begin with establishing the issue that the film is built around. They then move on to actually dealing with the issue, and ends with either a resolved solution or unresolved issue.
Of course, these are just the conventions that I observed from watching a few short films and is not representative of the overall genre, however I think that it gives us a good idea of what we should aim to do when we are writing our film to ensure that will keep the audience captivated and interested throughout, without giving too much or too little information.
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