Research into Short Films

We spent some time simply watching short films to get an idea of what ours would need to be like, and what they can be about.

I found that you can essentially make a short film about anything. the key is to make sure it is interesting. I found that the best short films that I watched had a twist at the end and left the viewer wandering what happened next.

One of my favourites was one starring Gavin and Stacey's James Corden. It was called Where Have I Been All Your Life. It was about a guy who turned up to a house and informing the residents (a married couple in their 60's) that he is the son of the husband, causing a series of dark secrets to reveal themselves. When James Corden's character left the house with his girlfriend, they realised they had knocked on the wrong door.

The film was extremely good at keeping the truth from the audience and revealing the twist/punchline at the very last minute. This made the film that much more humorous, and much more enjoyable as a film.

Another short film that I watched was one called Dinner With Raphael. This on starred the actress Dianna Agron (Glee, I Am Number 4). This one was about a girlfriend going to meet her fiance's family. It turns out his brother, Jimmy, seems to think he is Raphael, one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was extremely funny as it was very surreal, but at the same time completely imaginable.

There was no such punchline in this one like the one with James Corden in, however the film was still extremely funny due to the sheer madness of the character Raphael/Jimmy and how he truly believes to be a ninja turtle. 

One of the last short films that I watched was one called The Crusader. It's about a guy called Lee Philips who tries to sue Warner Bros. for misrepresentation as he is Batman, and they have not portrayed him correctly.

The film is done as a "mockumentary" and was really funny. It was filmed as a believable documentary, it was simply the story that was what made it so funny. I really liked the idea of doing a mockumentary as it would be different from the story telling that I did within my AS level piece.

How are Short Films consumed?

Short films are created all over the world, and not necessarily by famous directors. Many short films are created by people who are just interested in creating them as a hobby. With technology like the internet and particular websites like YouTube and Vimeo, these films are available for many people to watch, rather than only having them screened at film festivals.

The extremely popular short films (namely PIXAR animations) are available to the public by showing them at the cinema alongside the feature length film. They are then featured on the DVD as an extra so they can be watched at home. In late 2007 Pixar released a DVD (Pixar Short Films Collection – Volume 1)  full of their short films so people could have them readily available in their DVD collections.

Another way audiences can view short films is on the internet. As stated above, sites like YouTube and Vimeo encourage submission of short films. These sites have attracted a large community of viewers, as well as sites such as BBC Film Network an FILMSshort are sites who's main aim is to showcase short films created by anyone who's anyone. There are a number of competitions that I have come across on sites such as Vimeo that are somewhat themed. For example, there was one to promote a Nokia phone, and the film could only be recorded using the camera on the phone and no other way. There were some really good entries.

The main way for peoples' short films to get noticed by enthusiastes is to have them screened at film festivals. There are film festivals all over the world that screen films of all genres, but there are specific Short Film Festivals that films can be submitted to. For example, in England alone there is; the London Short Film Festival, Encounters Short Film Festival, Sefton Short Film Festival, Strawberry Shorts, amongst others. These are the festivals specifically for short films, there are many others all over England that screen shorts as well as feature-length films.

There are many opportunities for short films to be consumed by an audience, the problem is that audiences need to dig around more for them as they simply aren't as popular as feature-length films and because of this they seem to have to take a backseat.

The Problems with Short Films

We have been given the task of creating a short film for our coursework which can prove to be quite a problem for us. The film itself should be about 4 minutes long which makes it quite difficult to fit an interesting storyline.

Characters

• We have to be able to introduce a character within the first 30 seconds or so of the film in order to leave plenty of time for a storyline to take place.
• They have to be interesting so the audience wants to continue watching.

Storyline

• The storyline needs to be around 4 minutes long.
• It needs to be interesting in order to keep the audience interested.
• Essentially, simple and effective is a good way to go when creating a short film.

What is a Short Film?

A short film is essentially a film that is not long enough to be considered feature-length.


The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences states that a short film is "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits." Many short films are about 10 minutes long.

A lot of short films are a lot more "arthouse" compared to what is shown all the time at the cinema. The smaller budget of short films is possibly why not many thriller/action short films are made, but more comic or more of a speciality type of film, aimed at specifc audience members.

One of the most well known producers of short films (in particular of this era) is those created by Pixar Animations. During the theatrical runs of their feature-length films, they would screen a short film as well. These proved to be extremely popular and were later released on a compilation DVD.

One of my favourite short films is called Harvie Krumpet. It is an animation by the director Adam Elliot (who created one of my favourite films Mary & Max). All of Elliot's films are done using grey plasticine and he calls them "Clayography" - clay animated biographies.

He uses the traditional "in camera" technique, in that all the props within the scene are handcrafted miniture objects. His longest short film, Harvie Krumpet runs for 22 minutes and was narrated by Geoffrey Rush. It won Elliot his first Academy Award for Best Short Animation. It was played at over 100 film festivals all over the world.

Elliot has 3 other shorts called; Uncle, Cousin and Brother. Like Harvie Krumpet, they are "clayographies" and tell biographical stories of the character. Each of his films revolve around a bittersweet nature to them, as they all feature characters that have some sort of disability. For example, Harvie Krumpet has Tourettes Syndrome and the cousin in Cousin had cerebral palsy.

Research into Film Posters

We were given a number of film posters to analyse so we could get an idea of what they are like for when we have to create one for our short film - if we choose to.

The Dark Knight

The first two we were given were for the film "The Dark Knight".

Both of the posters have sinister themes to them, especially when compared to other superhero films such as Superman and Spiderman. These 2 posters could almost be advertising a horror movie.

The poster on the left actually features the Batman character, even though he is made up of joker cards, which excentuates the importance of the Joker character. Phrases and quotes from the Joker are etched into the cards, and the logo itself is actually formed by the word "HA" scratched over and over again in the shape of the logo.

The red mouth on the left poster looks as though it is blood and the scalpel was used to cut his mouth.

The fact that there are little-to-no credits on the poster means that the audience has to do their own research into it as they may not know who the actors starring in it are going to be, and it also leaves a lot tho the imagination, in that it really doesn't give much away about the film other than it's about Batman and the Joker.

The red mouth is iconic for the Joker in the film so to have it as the main feature on each poster really emphasises the importance of the Joker throughout the film. As well as the mouth, there is also the quotes from the film by the Joker ("Why so serious?") which also helps to show off how big of a role the Joker plays in the film. The actor playing the Joker (Heath Ledger) died before the film was released, this could be the reason that the Joker and his mouth is the main focus of both posters in order to bring in fans of the actor.

The overall simplicity of the posters emphasises the mystery of the film and keeps details to itself, much like the main character Batman. He is a very mysterious character, staying within the shadows and never revealing himself.

Forrest Gump



This Forrest Gump poster that we looked at was a lot different than the Dark Knight ones we looked at. For a start, the poster is covered in credits from actors to director and producers. In fact the main actor, Tom Hank's name is almost as large as that of the film title. This is so viewers of the poster can see who is starring in the film, rather than being left to guess like The Dark Knight. However Forrest Gump was a one-of-a-kind film whereas The Dark Knight was a sequel of Batman Begins in which Christian Bale plays Batman so the audience may presume that Bale would be playing him again.

By having Tom Hank's name so large can draw in audiences as he is widely reknowned for starring in good films such as Big, Sleepless In Seattle and Philidelphia. In fact, Hanks had won an Academy Award for Best Actor the year before Forrest Gump was released for his role in Philidelphia.

Like the Dark Knight posters, the Forrest Gump poster is also very simplistic. This very much reflects the main character who himself is a very simple person. He goes all over the world throughout his life, becoming a catalyst for many iconic moments but not even realising it, and only wanting to find the girl he loves.

By having him sitting on a bench with a suitcase with no other indication of where he is can make the audience think about where he may be heading, what he might be doing and may entice them to go to the cinema to watch the film and find out.

Cloverfield Poster

The last that we were given to look at was the poster for "Cloverfield". Much like the other poster we'd been given to look over, it didn't give much away. All the audience can assume is that "something" has come and caused havoc in New York city. This means that it is most likely to be a horror movie. This genre is emphaised by the general tone and colour used in the poster. There isn't much colour used and most horror-type movies dend to use darker colours as brighter colours are much happier and take the "spookyness" away.

The tagline "Some Thing has found us." emphasises that it is a creature that has attacked the city and not humans. This is done by having something split in 2 as some thing, saying that it is a thing that is attacking New York, yet keeping it a mystery as to what this creature is.

Even the movie title doesn't give anything away about what the film is about. People wouldn't be able to search the internet and find out what a cloverfield is as there is no set definition on it. It was created solely for the film and is actually the name given to the file of the incident by the US Department of Defence. So again, the title on the poster doesn't give anything away about the film.

The fact that such an iconic landmark like the Statue of Liberty has lost its head holds significance in the poster. The Statue itself represents freedom, so to have the head of it knocked off presents a message that the citizens of America that they are not free.

The poster doesn't contain many credits, and of them there isn't any actors or actresses credited as no one extremely famous was cast. The most recognised member of the cast was probably the girl that no one knows the name of, but instead refers to her as "the girl who's Janice in Mean Girls". (This was how I personally remembered her.)



Out of all of the film posters that we looked at, I would say that the Dark Knight ones were the most effective. This is because I personally found them the most "grabbing", my particular favourite being the one shown on the right. This is because it is simple, but effective and really made me want to watch the movie.

A2 Media Studies

This year for our Media Studies coursework we have to create a short films in its entirety, with it lasting approximately 4/5 minutes. 

It can be live action, animated or a combination of both.

It must also include; a poster for the film and a film magazine review page - featuring the film.