Short Films
During the process of learning how to create and produce a short film it became apparent in both our normal classes and the workshop with Becky Knapp that idea development and the documentation e.g. script writing, are essential to success of our short films.
During the process of learning how to create and produce a short film it became apparent in both our normal classes and the workshop with Becky Knapp that idea development and the documentation e.g. script writing, are essential to success of our short films.
- Taking character development into consideration.
- Thinking clearly about the time span - real time being easy and more effective.
- Budgeting - to plan realistically in terms of what you can/can't do on a budget.
To begin with Becky began to explain what a short film is, she explained that there are different lengths of short films and the aim of these films also differ.
- UNDER 5 minutes:
• Stereotypical characters as there is not time to develop characters.• No twists in the plots
• 'Joke' plots are usually the basis.
- 5 -12 minutes:
• Some time to develop characters; not completely stereotypical - still simple.
• Plots can essentially be slightly more complex involving twists.•
- 12 - 30 minutes:
• More developed characters - multiple character traits - characters avoid stereotypes.
• Two stories can run parallel through the film.
The next task Becky set us was to read through scripts of short films that she had been part of, we then watched the films. The two films that were of particular interest to me were “Does God play football?”, a film based upon the life of a little boy interested in football and the lack of a father figure to guide him when a ' miracle' takes place.
The second was "That old one", a film based upon the central protagonist 'Tom' waking up after a night out in a woman's bed, he realises he had a one night stand and his mind creates a series of memories as he tries to remember the events of the night.
The process of studying scripts and then watching the short films was particularly helpful as it showed us the layout but also showed us the depth to which you have to go into in a script. It also showed us that the ideas for short films do not have to be complex to be successful also helping in the development of our short film script ideas.
01/04/11
In reference to the target audiences for short films they are relatively small when compared to 'Hollywood blockbusters' - this is due to the fact that the majority of the time short films are created for a niche and not for the general public or to appeal to as many people as possible like blockbusters are. Secondly, the distribution of short films differs from bigger films due to the fact that it is limited to either the Internet e.g. YouTube and film festivals e.g. schweppes short film festival - However short films a
lot of the time are not created with just the soul intent of creating a well received film but also as a way of breaking into the industry, many short film makers get the opportunity to create feature films off of the back of their short films due to meeting, impressing and initiating a professional relationship people within the industry and essentially receiving funding for their features.
In terms of the style and genre of short films, many British shorts fit within the 'social realist' range, they centre around social issues within Britain. Therefore the majority of shorts we have watched are of this genre e.g. 'about a girl' (mentioned in post 5) however not all short films are of a social realist, gritty nature we later studied 'on a life's edge and 'signs' (mentioned in post 9), these films although still trying to portray a message do it in a lighter nature and attract different kinds of audiences.
In reference to the target audiences for short films they are relatively small when compared to 'Hollywood blockbusters' - this is due to the fact that the majority of the time short films are created for a niche and not for the general public or to appeal to as many people as possible like blockbusters are. Secondly, the distribution of short films differs from bigger films due to the fact that it is limited to either the Internet e.g. YouTube and film festivals e.g. schweppes short film festival - However short films a
lot of the time are not created with just the soul intent of creating a well received film but also as a way of breaking into the industry, many short film makers get the opportunity to create feature films off of the back of their short films due to meeting, impressing and initiating a professional relationship people within the industry and essentially receiving funding for their features.In terms of the style and genre of short films, many British shorts fit within the 'social realist' range, they centre around social issues within Britain. Therefore the majority of shorts we have watched are of this genre e.g. 'about a girl' (mentioned in post 5) however not all short films are of a social realist, gritty nature we later studied 'on a life's edge and 'signs' (mentioned in post 9), these films although still trying to portray a message do it in a lighter nature and attract different kinds of audiences.
The final thing Becky spoke to us about was pre-production documentation, she explained how important it is for the whole of it to be 'spot on'. She informed us of a major problem that needs to be avoided when producing a short film that many critics, including herself have identified; 'script writers often want to include too much information in their short films'.
