Post 6 What makes a good short film

From looking at a wide range of resources into what makes a good short film, I now have a good idea of the planning and thinking that goes into a short film before it gets shown to an audience. There are many different processes that you as a producer or director have to go though that takes up a lot of time and thought.

From the time spent with Producer Becky Knapp I now know that there are 3 different lengths of short films. The first is 5 minutes here the story line plays on the role of stereotypes and looks at a joke or a visual experience. This is supported by the independent research that I did looking into 5 minutes short films. I found the film called The Black Hole, the story lines plays on the role of a stereotypical office worker, and uses comedy as it genre as the man is given the power to steal and take wherever he wishes by using this black hole which in the final scene we see the man getting stuck in a safe. The second is 5-12 minutes, here the story line follows a character go through a dramatic journey and the audience can see the character change. And they don’t use the role of stereotypes. This is again supported by the independent research that I did looking into longer short films. I looked at a film called About a girl, the audience can understand the girl’s life and the background that she comes from and can go through the journey of the girl throwing the baby into the water. The final is 12-30 minutes, the story lines will have secondary stories as they have enough time to build up the characters and there will be complex characterisation.

From looking at two scripts that have been produced, it has shown me how much you judge what the film will be like just by reading and not actually seeing the film. The first script I looked at was called Donna produced by Rowan Walker, from reading the script I was clear that there was very limited speech and the script was mostly describing what visually was happening in the shot. I found it very hard to understand what the film would actually be about however I had a good mental image of what each shot would look like. After watching the film I still wasn’t very clear about what message the film was trying to give to the audience and what genre the film was. The next script I looked at was Does God Play Football produced by Michael Walker, I found this script a lot more interesting and understandable as it was mainly speech so I had a good idea of what was going on in each shot as well as what I should expect to see visually. After watching the film it was exactly what I had expected to see. When comparing the two scripts I think that is important to have speech from the character as it allows the audience to have a better understanding of the message the director is trying to put across as well as makes it more interesting to watch and follow.

Music plays a huge role in helping to recognise the genre of the film, for example in the short film Does God Play Football it starts with classical music with the sound of an organ which instantly tells the audience that the plot is based around a church and possible religion. It also helps build up tension when needed. I looked at the role of music for my independent study; I looked at the Disney film Mary Poppins where they had changed the music to low pitched, spooky music, which you would associate with horror drama films. Just by the changing of the music gave the film a brand new genre. This proves how its very important to think carefully about the music you add to your short film and it can instantly give away genre to the audience.

The book Get Your Short Film Funded, Made and Seen, published by The shooting people shorts directory 2007 has helped me the most in understanding how much time and thought goes into creating a short film. It describes a short film as ‘having an idea for a novella and then deciding to tell it as a haiku’ which I interoperate as you can have this amazing idea however you have to make it as short and simplistic as you possible can. When finding a story there are 3 important areas that you need to think about

• The World. Try to make the character world instantly recognisable e.g. a dinner party, Christmas party, first day at school. This means that you can start to explore the problem much quicker as the audience can relate to the situation they are in as its common. An advantage of setting the world in familiar surroundings is that it gives the story a defined time frame. This is supported by The Sunday Times article called How to Write a Good Script written by Marilyn Milgrom, script consultant published on Febuary 11 2009.
• The character and the problem. As a producer you need to think about who is the main character, what is their problem, how will the audience recognise the problem, are their high enough stakes, and finally who’s point of view is the story coming form. Its important that from the very beginning the audience know the film is about. Through out the film it must be following the main character want, need or obligation and obstacles in their way to achieving these wants and needs.

It’s also very important when we are writing the script how as the producer we are going to portray the message to the audience, which can be very hard. For example when we read books it’s much easier to understand what is happening and how they are feelings as we are inside the character head, but through film we need to see the character doing an action or by showing their emotions. In films rather than writing emotions down in the script it has a much bigger impact if it done visually to the audience, e.g. if the character is annoyed rather than saying “I’m annoyed and angry” simply rolling their eyes has the same or bigger affect. As well as making everything visual it’s important that you think about the tone of the film. The tone needs to be established straight away through the genre, in short films there isn’t enough time to make shifts in tone so the audience are looking for clues about the kind of story it is from the beginning, by the use of conventions. The last thing I would recommend would be to give the script to friends and family to ask for their feedback, as the message you are trying to portray might not come across as you hoped. This feedback allows you to change parts that they might not understand before it becomes too late. 


After looking at all of these conventions of what goes into making a good script, an important question to ask ourselves is who the audience of these films will be and why. Short films are mostly produced for one reason. Directors use their short films as a way to show off their talents in the film making industry, this in turn allows companies and investors to quickly get an understanding of the skills the director possess. In addition companies may see their short films and want to use the plot and story line to develop into a big budget feature film, linked in here is also companies remember shot films produced and wanting to use the director to help with a new idea for a film they have. Its not only the director that can be spotted through the production of short film, its also a place for Script writers, Actors, Lighting and Camera individuals to get noticed.   

Finally once you have created and thought about everything you would like to have in your short film and have finished writing your script you should use this step outline and make sure you can answer all the questions about your short film;

One sentences that summaries what happened?
· What is revealed that is significant to the plot?
· What is revealed that is significant to the audience understanding the character?

· Is there an identifiable theme?