Short Films research

What are the conventions of a short film?

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. 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 purpose of these films vary from being educational/Informative films, being promotional for more developed and refined box office films. As well as being an experiment, based on developing actors, summaries for films or testing out visual techniques and camera angles as well as for effects.

One example of a short film that I will be using is the film called 'Ataque de Panico' by a producer from Uruguay called Fede Alvarez. It is about the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo being invaded and destroyed by giant robots and spaceships. It was filmed with a budget of only $300 (£186) and lasts for only 4 minutes and 48 seconds and currently has 1.5 million views on Youtube. The movie will be sponsored by director Sam Raimi who was director of the comic book film Spiderman (2002) and the cult horror Evil Dead (1981).

The narrative structure of the film generally has no dialog what so ever but instead uses background music, the song called "In the house-In a heartbeat" which was an instrumental piece by John Murphy, which was composed in the film 28 Days Later (2002). The only ever dialog used in the film though was from the news anchor played by Martin Sarthou reporting the attack on the city. The theme of the film follows traditional alien invasion films that came before it such as War of the Worlds (2005) directed by Steven Spielberg and Mars Attacks! (1996) directed by Tim Burton. In that it generally starts off with an attack on Earth unprovoked, leading to humans being nearly wiped out but at the end find a way to fight back. In this film however the film concludes with the robots coming together to form a giant sphere that explodes, destroying the city and no one left alive. The style of the film is heavily set within Science Fiction or Sci-Fi in that the majority of the film is based on an Alien Invasion much like War of the Worlds.

The use of sound was used well within this film in that we do not get much dialog other than from the news reporter, instead we mostly hear background noise such as the people screaming and panicking around the city. The sounds of explosions caused by the giant robots can also be heard, all this helps the short film give out a sense of chaos towards people. Use of editing can also be seen easily in that the graphics used for creating the robots and ships were edited within the film as well as the scenes of explosions and fire throughout the city. The editors use of bringing the robots into plain view through establishing shots, where in one scene robots come out from the fog as a way to introduce them further helps understand the fact that they came out of nowhere before attacking the city. The camera angles used in this short are numerous in that some shots are point of of view shots of what people are seeing when looking up at the sky seeing the ships dart across. As well as looking through a persons camera, seeing what they are recording as well. Over the shoulder camera where also used in the film especially in one scene when the news reporter was reporting about the giant robots attacking.The Mise en Scene that we in the film shows how completely unaware the people were when the attack started in the city as all the people we see in this film are civilian just by looking at their clothes, as well as the fact we see no military at all within the short film.

What is the purpose of a short film?

The purpose of a short film is based mainly for experimental reasons, mainly done by inexperienced directors trying to refine their skills. This can be seen in their use of sound, editing and cinematography. However some directors create shortfilms as a basic template for the future. Such as independent film naker Fede Alvarez's short film Ataque De Panico, which garnered a large amount of views in YouTube that director Sam Raimi has stepped in to produce the short film into a feature length film. Another example would the short film Alive in Joburg (2005) directed by Neill Blomkamp which was about alien refugees living with human beings in Johannesburg, focusing on the themes of Apartheid and waqs note for its documentary style. The story was later expanded in the film District 9 (2009) the theme and setting of this short film is similar to the film Alien Nation (1988).

Fortunately for those short films that have not been picked up on such as the two above, short films do not rely on needing a large audience to watch their short film. Instead these short films are developed to help showcase the skills as a director as well as the skills of the acting cast and film crew to help them get in to the big business of the film industry.

What are the potential audiences for short films?

A feature film is a film made for distribution towards theaters and being the main attraction on the screening, rather than a short film before it. Feature films have to present rather typical themes which can be easily definable in a genre towards the audience. This is to guarantee that a return in investment is assured due to the fact that production of full length films require a large budget for it to be produced.

Also in short films require large funds in order to be produced this often is acquired through institutions such as the UK film council and funding from the National lottery, an example of a film that has done this is the british film London to Brighton (2006). Without the proper amount of funds for production it can lead poor quality filming and a lack of distribution of the film. On the other hand there are some short films that do fine without proper funds such as Ataque de Panico which was filmed with a budget of only $300 (£186) before being posted on YouTube and becoming a huge success.

For short films such as Attaque de panico and Alive in Joburg. Attaque de Panico I think is more suited for older audiences, adolescent viewers being the minimumage to watch due to the fact there is a lot of violence and flashing images used which may be harmful towards younger viewers. Alive in Joburg would also be suited to similar audiences like Attaque de Panico due to both being based in the Science Fiction genre and the fact that this film looks into apartheid would be considered too mature for younger audiences.

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) classify films into different categories depending on the level of violence, language, sex and drugs that are used within the film. Attaque de Panico would likely be given 12/12 A, as the short film does have violence but no one within the film is shown being harmed nor are they emphasised or detailed most of the harm is being done towards the city in the film. As for Alive in Joburg it would most likely gain a 15 as the film depicts a lot of violence as well as dangerous behaviour.

With these sorts of classifications set towards these films likely for those in 12/12A meaning only audience over 12 can watch this although this would not be too damaging towards the films earning as most audiences who will watch the will be over this age limit. As for the film set for 15 this may affect the films earnings as the rating will keep audience below the age 15 from watching the film.