Task A: Why make a short film?
I decided to research into why
people decide to make short films, the two articles below have helped me in
developing my understanding.
The above article begins
talking about the history of short films, and how back then it was the ‘norm’
for them to be short. The article then goes on to mention how in the early
1900’s technology developed and so did the films being produced. Films became
longer and more favourable than watching a short film. It mentions how in the
period of World War 2 short films were used to show servicemen actively
fighting, allowing the Government to place its messages in British cinemas.
However the article then goes on to speak about how in the 1960’s music videos
allowed short film makers to make music videos. As technology is continuing to
develop in this day and age the use of short films is, arguably, increasing as
Hollywood directors are releasing their own on the internet for all to see.
I think this article has been
useful as it has given an insight to the history and background of how short
films developed from way back in the late 19th century. It can help
with our group and our short film as we now know short films are popular within
certain audiences and can be enjoyed once made and released.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-life/7593767/Short-films-that-launched-big-names.html
The above article looks at 10
films that have helped in launching some actor’s careers and established major
studios. Some of the films on the list within this article are Bottle Rocket
(1996), Machete (2007) and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (1994-2004). All
of the films mentioned in the article explain how young people wanting to kick
start their careers in the film business whether it is a writer, directors or
actor and mention how they managed to produce their short films.
Personally I think most of the
people in the article who created the short films did it in order to produce
money and create short films for everyone to be able to watch. Judging by some
of the films that were released, such as Bottle Rocket 1996, they helped in
moulding the beginning of some actor’s careers, such as Owen Wilson. Reading
this article has been useful as it shows my group and I that no matter how low
a budget someone has or how little backing from a big studio they have, great
short films can be made.
Task B: Who is the audience for a short film?
In order to get a better understanding of the audiences that watch short films, I have decided to research into it in a lot more depth.
The website above has got some
great information on it about the demographic and psychographics of a short
film audience. The demographics being people who watch a short film in order to
find a potential director or actor, they can then invest in the young talent
and watch them grow in their potential careers. People in this category would
also watch the short films for inspiration as some of the people in this
category could be young amateur film makers. The psychographics can be divided
into 3 separate sections in order to divide the audience up, an audience that
is completely different from a mainstream audience. The 3 sections consist of
Succeeders, Aspirers and Individualists. The website gives a definition for
each explaining who would fall into each category:
·
Succeeders
– People who like to think they’re in control, ambitious and successful
·
Aspirers
– People who strive for bigger and better things
·
Individualists
– People who want to be separate from the crowd, individual thinkers
Following this I decided to
research about how short films are distributed, from most of the research I
carried out one main point that kept popping up is that most short films are
distributed through the internet. This can be through a website such as
YouTube. However a lot of short films are also distributed and rely on
festivals. Most young, ambitious film makers take their short films to
festivals in order to get them out and hope that someone of importance will see
their short film and want to know more about the film itself and potentially
the people who created it.
The use of distribution can
matter to some filmmakers as whichever route they decide to go down can
potentially determine the type of audience they receive. For example at a short
film festival there is more likely to be people who show a great interest in
short films, whereas by distributing on the internet, theoretically, anybody
can watch it and not everyone knows it’s been released.
Film festivals are important to film makers and can help in raising awareness of the short films that are being produced and distributed.
London Short Film Festival
http://shortfilms.org.uk/
One major film festival is the
London Short Film Festival. This has only been around for 10 years but it
allows for the country’s raw talent filmmakers to showcase their short films.
It screens over 220 films and the amount of people going to the festival has
grown in the last decade.
Shorts International
Another short film festival
that shows short films to America, Europe, Asia and anywhere that has a movie
theatre. It’s the world’s leading short film company with the biggest short
film catalogue, showing all the short films that have recently been released.
Shorts International does just about everything there is to do within short
films, they even have an Annual Shorts Award every year that recognises
extraordinary contributions to the short film industry.
Both of the festivals mentioned above are just two of the many film festivals that take place every year, showcasing the most recent and upcoming short films there are for audiences to watch.
Potential target audiences I
think there are for short films are Hollywood successors who are interested in
the young, raw talent there is and young people who take a great interest into
the short film industry. These people would be extremely interested in what
types of short films are being made and would want to make their own opinion on
whether they think they were successful or not.
Task C: How are short films distributed?
Short films have got many
genres, such as Thriller, Romance, Animation, Comedy, Drama, Documentary and
Horror, some say the great thing about short films is that they can be anything
and the only limitation is the cost of production. According to the Internet Movie
Database website the most popular
short films are animated as the top three are The Snowman (1982), Frosty the
Snowman (1969) and Prep & Landing (2009). 
However my group and I do not
have the specialist equipment to be able to create an animated short film,
therefore I continued researching and found out that after animated films one
of the next most popular genre was drama. This immediately makes me think about
how my group’s short film could be classed as a drama genre due to the fact it
is about sexual grooming and is very dramatic. This will influence my thoughts
on the script as we will need to add possible lines from the characters that
can help add to a dramatic atmosphere that the audience will enjoy.
From the research I’ve carried
out and films I’ve witnessed, the duration of a short film can range from 5
minutes to 30 minutes. However, it can depend upon what the film is about and
who is producing it, many film festivals can put limitations on just how long
they will allow for films to be, with the very, very maximum being 40-45
minutes. The average time of a successful short film can range from 15-20
minutes, as long as the storyline can be successfully maintained throughout
this time. After researching this and looking at the time limit my group and I
have on our film, being 6 minutes, we are going to need to have a simplistic
storyline that can be presented clearly, but at the same time can get across
all the features us as a group want in our short film. We are going to have to
be extremely careful of not babbling on in the storyline and showing parts of
the film that may not necessarily need to be in the short film.
A short film can be structured
in the 3-act structure, which consists of a beginning, middle and end.
http://www.cgdirector.com/learn-how-successful-short-films-structure-their-story/ Having a short film structure that consists of a beginning, middle and end allows the audience to realise that there are 3 main points within the storyline. The effect that we would want on the audience is that in the beginning the audience can get into the plot and start to get to grips with what is going on. In the middle we want the audience to begin to string questions together about what is going to happen next and we want them to want to carry on watching the film to find out what does happen. Finally in the end we want the audience to have not only enjoyed watching but also to have the film stuck in their minds, possibly even continuing to ask themselves questions.
With our storyline and the way we are going to film our short film, hopefully we can have this effect on the audience.
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