Conventions-Narrative Structure and Themes

The common conventions for a short film are very different than that for a feature length film for many different reasons, as I will explain. The structure of a short film mainly follows a linear narrative, but may include non-linear aspects, for example, the film Veronique by Patrik Bergh use flashbacks from parts of the story. This film also takes the example of showing the boys’ feelings on each day of the week; it is effective for this short film as it portrays a message of very short teenage crushes.

Furthermore, some short films have aspects of a circular narrative, in which it may return to something as subtle as a theme or object, for example, Sold by Nadia Attia returns to the ladle, after the neighbour asking to borrow one, showing the narrative can be very simple in a short film due to time constraints. I intend to use a simple narrative in my own film.

Also common for circular narratives, the narrative would be restricted, meaning you would find out information at the same time the character does; it is seldom for the narrative to be omniscient. An example of a restricted narrative short film is Bitch by Dom Bridges.

Generally, in short films the directors’ will purposely put a twist in a simple everyday situation to make the film more interesting and to follow the often used theory by Todorov, where;

-First, there is equilibrium,

-Secondly, a problem occurs,

-And lastly, the problem is solved, the equilibrium is restored, but something is different.

An example of a film that uses a twist is Double Take by Toa Stappard. I intend to follow this theory in my own film.

Short films will often only have two or three characters, and will usually not bother introducing them and really blasting out their names, again due to time constraints, for example Get off my Land, by Douglas Ray never used any names and when referring to a character it would be ‘the farmer’. In my own film I will probably not use names and go on about history of the character before the film is set.

Those short films that generally have over three characters will often have an objective narrative which will focus on more than one person, for example Cherries by Tom Harper. However, it can be found that sometimes films may have many characters but only focus on one person; therefore it has a subjective narrative, which I intend to use in my own film as I feel that it adds more interest for viewers.

Furthermore in short films, they will often use more challenging or alternative themes, the reason of this is the sole purpose of a short film which I will outline in more detail later. However, alternate themes are used because short films are rarely profit orientated and can be simply experiments for directors. Moreover, these short films will sometimes have a social realist theme which can be in both feature length and short films; for example, London to Brighton and Gravity.

However, over the short films I have watched, some themes have included, stereotypes of different people, lack of community, what goes around comes around and classes.