Codes and conventions of short films

Research and Planning

Budget One code and convention of a short film is a

small budget, the reason that short films commonly have a small budget is due to the directors being mainly independent which means they will not have sufficient funds to product a high budget film. They normally cut their budget down by having minimal locations and characters.

LengthAnother code and convention of a short film is length, it is quite self-explanatory as short films tend to be short. The maximum length of a short film is 30 minutes however they are typically around 5-10 minutes.

Characters Short films tend to have only two or three

main characters. One of the obvious reasons for this is the budget. Another reason that there are few main characters is because short films aren’t long enough to be able to create a deep background for the characters. This means that the audience must quickly relate to the characters to be more engaged with the film.

There is normally a lot of detail put into designing characters that the audience can relate to.  The lead character normally is shown to develop throughout the film to become another character.

Narrative Twist Short films commonly contain a ‘twist’ this is a

way to make short films more interesting for the viewer. Considering that short films are short it is very important that the short film is able to engage the audience and keep their attention.

Audience expectation (Twist Cont) The audience expectations are what the

actual audience of the short film expects to see inside of a film. They assume what is going to happen except the ideas never do happen. Short films try to break what the audience is thinking about the film to completely twist it and have a different ending to what they would have thought.

Situation Short films usually take an every day situation

that the audience can all relate to and then ‘flip it on its head’ so the audience can relate to the situation however will be intrigued as well.

Circular Narrative The story would start with something

happening, for example a person could be climbing up a mountain, and then at the end of the short film, they could be climbing up the same mountain. The story ends in the same place that it began. The circular narrative is something that is at the start and at the end with a logical middle to show how this would happen.