Conventions of Short Films

A short film is a film that is not long enough to be considered a feature length film. The Academy of Motion Picture and Arts defines a short film as 'an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less'. "Short film' is not a genre of film, but rather a category; they are usually seen as simply 'compressed films'. These types of movies very rarely have a big budget (and are very often self-funded- by the producer- or sponsored), and therefore the quality of filming, acting, graphics, etc, do not usually live up to the same standard as feature length films.

Cinematography: The cinematography of short films is often very basic, and well below the standard expected of a feature-length film. Kinetic movement of the camera is often used for short films, along with basic camera shots and angles. The story in a short film can either follow a linear sequence or a non-linear sequence. A linear sequence is when a film follows its story line in chronological order, i.e. in real time, and a non-linear sequence is when a film doesn't happen chronologically- i.e. events are mixed up. Furthermore, a short film can also have an open or closed narrative. In open narratives, the story has no apparent beginning, middle or end, in terms of the actual events. Open narratives are often found in soap operas, such as Eastenders. Cliffhangers is a device often used in open narratives especially. A closed narrative is often found in feature-lenth films, showing a beginning, middle and end. The story is unravelled before its audience, and eventually brought to a close at the end. Closed narratives are not uncommon in short films, but open narratives are more likely to be used. 'Breaking the 4th wall' is a term that is frequently used to describe many short films. This is when a character talks directly to the audience, through the camera. High key lighting is another device frequently used for short films. Also, voiceovers are a big part of many short films, an example of this would be 'Veronique' by Patrik Bergh.

Style: The styles used for short films is usually very different to that used for feature-lenth films, due to the differing budgets and equipment available. Unknown actors are almost always used for short films, mainly due to the budget available to producers, and the fact that popular actors would be unreachable to unnoticed producers and directors. Moreover, special effects tend to not be used for short films, or can be of very low quality- once again due to the low budget on offer to short film producers.

Narrative Structure: Short films either have a subjective narration; a story where emotions exist in the main character, and attempt to alter the audiences emotions; or an objective narration. An objective narration is when there is no connective to emotion or bias within the film. Short films can also have a circular narrative, which is when certain plot points are repeated. For example, the scene at the beginning of a film also occurs at the end of the film. The film 'Sold' is a good example of this.

Titles: Usually, titles in short films are infrequent, and only really appear at the beginning and the end of films. This is due to the small cast usually identified within short films, and the fact that titles are only really needed to establish the name of the film.