Conventions of a short film

Conventions of a short film

For my visual research I watched some short films to find out what the codes and conventions are. From my visual research I found...

• There is usually a clear beginning, middle and end. Though some short films don't finish with an ending, therefore leaving the audience in suspense and guessing about what might have happened to the characters


• Though there is usually a clear beginning, middle and end the narrative generally goes against Todorov's narrative theory. Therefore, short films challenge the most commonly used narrative structure in moving image media, which then ends up challenging the audience's expectations. By doing this short films often make their narrative more interesting.


• The protaognist is usually the most developed out of all the characters in a short film, allowing the audience to fully understand them. If there are any other characters their usual function is to move along the synopsis and they therefore aren't as developed as the attention needs to focused on the protagonsit.


• Most feature films' camerawork is very smooth because the camera is supported by a tripod. On the other hand the camerawork in short films is usually handheld because of budget restrictions and this can also make the film appear more realistic to the audience as they feel that they're with the protagonist.


• Short films can be a lot more experimental wih their editing creating an unique style for the paticular film. The editing can make the visuals of a short film more interesting as it's different from what the audience may be used to seeing with feature films.


• Some short films use non-diegetic music to create a certain impact on the audience. Whereas other short films that want to be more realistic, will rely soley on the natural sounds in the background or from the characters' dialogue .


• Many times times the synopsis does a full loop - which means the film will end with the characters in the same location and position as the beginning.


• There is normally a catalyst for the film, so there's a reason for the synopsis. This also tells the audience why the protaognist will act in a certain way and the motivation for these actions.


• Like feature films, short films have opening and closing credits. The opening credits normally consists of just the title. The closing credits will usually have the production team with who did what job e.g. director, producer, director of photography etc. The closing credits will also have the actor's name for the each character.
  

When I create my short film I plan to stick to some of the conventions of short films, but to make my short film unique it may be neccessary to challenge some of these conventions.