Why make a short film?
I decided to research into why people make short films. To help me understand why, I looked at two articles from The Telegraph.
The First Article I looked at explained the history of short films and how it was the ‘norm’ for all films to be short because of the minimal technology around and as the technology began to develop in the 1900’s so did the films being made. Short films were made during world war two as a means of propaganda and were a way of communicating between the government and people they would be shown in British cinemas before feature length films. In the 1960’s short film makers were able to branch out into different styles and genres of film an example of this is music videos. The Article finishes by saying that as technology develops the use of short films is, arguably, increasing because Hollywood directors are releasing their own short films on the internet.
This article has been helpful in explaining how short films have changed over the years and the audiences they appeal to. This could be very useful when it comes to picking a target audience for our film.
The Second Article that I looked at focused on ten films that have helped to launch actor’s career’s and set up major studios. The article explains how aspiring young film makers, actors and writers start by working on short films to gain the experience and understanding they need to kick- start their careers in feature films.
Seeing how people who start by creating short films have gone on to create feature length films has given my group and I the incentive to work hard on our short film. Working on short films can give you the foundations to a good career in the film industry, it doesn’t matter how low the budget is or how little help and backing you receive.
Who is the audience for a short film?
To obtain a better understanding of the kind of audience that watches short films I looked at three different websites and articles.
Slide Share Short Film Target Audience gives information about the demographic and psychographics of the audience of a short film. The demographics are the audience members that watch the short films because they want to see a certain director, actor or receive inspiration for their own short films.
The psychographics can be divided in to three sections in order to differentiate between the different demographics within the short film audience. The three sections are:
-Succeeders: people who like to think they’re in control.
- Aspirers: people who strive for bigger and better things.
- Individuals: people who want to be separate from the crowd, individual thinkers.
After finding this out I wanted to know how audiences would be able to see the short films that are made and what distribution methods are used. I found that one of the primary ways in which they are distributed is through the use of the internet and websites such as YouTube. However, a lot of film makers distribute their films through a more traditional rout of film festivals. Film festivals mean that there is a greater chance of the film being spotted and having people what to see more from the creators or actors in it.
For short film makers choosing the method by which their film is distributed can affect the kind of audience they receive. Using the internet means that potentially anyone can see it, however, people may not be aware that it has been released without the use of a film festival which may draw larger crowds (audience members), on the other hand if they distribute it through a short film festival it is only going to attract audiences that have an interest in short films.
Film festivals seemed to be a major part of distributing films and promoting them so I looked into the main two short film festivals.
- Short International: this is one of the major short film festivals in world with the biggest short film catalogue. Not only does it show the latest releases but it shows them in any country that has cinema including America and Europe. Short International doesn’t just screen the films it also presents an annual Shorts Film Award every year to recognise the contributions of all the film makers in the short film industry.
- London Short Film Festival: this is another major UK film festival which has been running for over 10years. It screens over 220 films each year from a variety of film makers from across the country.
These are just two of the many short film festivals that happen every year to showcase the newest short films for audiences who enjoy them. I think that the potential target audience for short films are successors who are interested in finding young talented film makers and people that enjoy short films and are interested in 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.
How are short films distributed?
There are many different genres in short film, just as there are with feature length films, such as Romance, Animation, Drama, Comedy, Action and Horror. According to the internet movie database IMDB Animation is the most popular genre with films such as Tangled Ever After (2012), The Lorax short stories (1972) and Ice Age a Mammoth Christmas (2011).
However as we don’t have the access to the equipment needed to create an animated short film, or the time and skills needed, I found out that the next most popular is films in the Drama genre. This is a great benefit for our group as our film can be classed in the Drama genre because of the realistic story line. This means that we have to make sure that the script doesn’t fall into any other genre such as romance or comedy.
From the research I have carried out and all the films I have looked at I have notice that the duration of a short film ranges from about 5 minutes to 30minutes long. However it depends on the purpose of the film and who has produced it and many film festivals put time limits of about 40-45 minutes maximum of what they will screen. The average time of a successful short film generally tends to be 15-20 minutes which allows time for a storyline to be built up and have depth whilst keeping the audience’s attention and interest.
After researching this and looking at time limits my group and I have decided to make our film between 5 and 10 minutes long. This gives us enough time to have a convincing storyline with a twist or two added in to it presented clearly and without losing the audience’s interest. However we have to make sure that we include demonstrate different techniques often used in short films.
It is also important to structure short films well and evenly with a beginning middle and end, this is referred to as the three act structure. I found this website which gave me helpful information about the Three Act Structure.
Almost all short films are based on a storytelling technique which was first introduced by Aristotle, the three act structure. Aristotle said ‘a beginning, a middle, and an end, and the events of the plot must causally relate to one another as being either necessary or probable. This effects the audience as by having a short film structure inspired by the three act structure they automatically have a clear understanding of what to expect in the sense of; beginning - rough idea of location, main characters and basic plot, middle - a problem has surfaced and the characters try to solve it, end - a conclusion on the problem.’ It is also important that the audience are left asking questions, we hope to do this in our film, in particular with the last line.
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