The Big Question: What is a Short?
According to Wikipedia, By definition a Short is:
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". The increasingly rare term short subject means approximately the same thing. An industry term, it carries more of an assumption that the film is shown as part of a presentation along with a feature film. Short is an abbreviation for either term. Short films can be professional or amateur productions. Short films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals. Short films are often made by independent filmmakers for non profit, either with a low budget, no budget at all, and in rare cases big budgets. Short films are usually funded by film grants, non profit organizations, sponsor, or out of pocket funds.
From this i conclude that majority of Short Films are produced by small, independent filmmakers with little or no budget for the main purpose of showing people what they can produce given lack of funds. Any budget they may receive for the production would most likely be provided via another, larger, media company, a sponsor of some kind that would possibly like some advertising in return, or lastly, using their own money in order to fund the production of the Short.
Now that i know what a Short is, It makes sense to watch some Shorts, compare the conventions displayed in them, and then later use this information to start constructing my own Short Treatment.
This first Short is called "Strangers".
In short it tells the story of two men sat opposite one another on a train. Whilst sat reading they realise that they are of two different faiths. (One man being Jewish and the other Muslim). When a group of rough looking gentlemen board the train and gang up around the Muslim tension rapidly builds. In the height of this tension the trains come to a halt and the Jewish man prepares to leave, as he does so his phones begins to ring loudly, alerting the other men to him and his faith. At this point realising the coming danger the two protagonists join sides momentarily to escape the group of men. After making their escape the train quickly drives on with the group of men still on board. The two protagonists look at one another and realise they have grabbed each others bags. They throw them over the tracks and then go their seperate ways once more.
Conventions:
- Mime - There is next to none, if any dialogue in the Short. A convention seen in a number of Shorts, this convention allows the audience to focus deeper on the characters appearance in order to build their own assumptions about who the character is.
- Lack of SFX - Given that a short is, as guessed by the name, short, special effects are not always used and instead, in order to keep the story flowing simple camera and editing effects are used.
The second Short is called "The Black Hole".
Substantially shorter than Strangers, this Short tells the story of one man in a dull and dreary looking office discovering a black spot on a piece of paper that has just been printed. After closer inspection he finds this spot allows him to move through solid objects and so decides to use it to his advantage. After procuring a chocolate bar through the glass front of a vending machine he moves to a locked door which, after using the black spot to unlock it, he opens. Inside he finds a safe, that after taping the black spot to, he pulls a handful of money from. Taking it one step further, he goes through the spot into the safe and as he does so the piece of paper falls off, locking him inside.
Conventions:
- Minimal Characters - Majority of Shorts have under 5-6 Characters, in this case we have only one. By keeping the characters to a minimum the story progresses a lot faster than if more were involved.
- Mime - Again we find there is no dialogue in the Short giving the audience less to focus on, allowing them to take in the dull and boring setting and costume. As with "Strangers" this lets the audience construct their own opinions about the character.
- Irony/Twisted Ending - In almost all of the shorts i have seen the very last scene contains some kind of twist or ironic action. The Short "The Black Hole" does this by locking the man in the safe, while in "Strangers" the twist is slightly weaker and begins when the Jewish mans phone begins to ring.
The final Short i will be looking at in this post is called "What's Virgin Mean?"
In this Short we see a mother telling her young daughter what Virgin means. After finally explaining the details of making love she tells the young girl that until you make love for the first time you are a Virgin. Feeling relieved after telling her daughter about this subject, the young girl asks "What does extra virgin mean?".
Conventions:
- Minimal Characters - Another example of the convention seen in "The Black Hole", "What's Virgin Mean?" only uses two characters and as a result the Short is considerably shorter compared to "Strangers" which, using more than 5 characters, runs for approximately 7 minutes.
- Lack of SFX - As with "Strangers" this Short uses simple camera and editing techniques in order to keep the storyline flowing easily and simply enough for the viewer to take in quickly.
- Irony/Twisted Ending - "What's Virgin Mean?" offers a comical twist at the end of the Short, similar to the ending of "The Black Hole". Although the two aforementioned Shorts give an ironic and funny ending, not all Shorts do. Yes, this is a convention in majority of Shorts but not all endings are funny or ironic and instead offer a serious twist.
