What are the conventions of a short film?

There are many conventions for a short film, however some of the main conventions are:

-Narrative structure

-Techniques such as cinematography, editing, sound and mise en scene

-Titles

-Themes

-Purpose

The narrative structure of a film is the structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which a narrative is presented to a reader. Some narrative structures are: linear/non-linear, subjective/objective, restricted/open. If we take an example of a short film; Sold directed by Nadia Attia, this short film has a linear narrative; this is where all the events shown on screen are in chronological order, this is used to make the film feel like it is being filmed in real time. It also had a circular narrative, where an event is revisited at the end of the film, in this case, the ladle is what makes the short film circular, it makes an appearance at the start of the film, and ends with the ladle being bought, this is a ‘one plot twist’ and is used quite a lot in short films as there is not enough time to have many plots. A subjective narrative structure was also used, a film has a subjective narrative structure when we only know what is happening to one person, in sold, we only see what john smith is doing. Subjective narrative structure is quite similar to another narrative structured employed by sold, ‘restricted narrative structure’ this is when we find out events as the main person is the film finds out.

The techniques (cinematography, editing, sound and mise en scene) are used in the whole of film industry, not just in short films.

Cinematography is the angles used, for example long shot and close ups.

Cinematography is used to sometimes alert the audience of certain items, or to make someone seem powerful or weak.

The editing of a film can make a big difference in a film, by making fast cuts, a film can seem more like an action film, and by editing sequences in a different way, a happy film can be turned into a horror movie, as shown in the trailer scary poppins.

Without sound, films would be different, there are many different types of sounds, for example, scores and dialogues. For our film, dialogue would be hard to input as the camera microphones quality are not that good, so I think it would be useful to keep dialogue to a minimal. Sound can help a difference, for example some sound effects can be put in to alert the audience of something approaching, for example a car or a train. The score can also change audiences feelings, for example in a horror movie, an eerie sounding score would be played to keep audiences ‘on their toes.’

Mise en scene is many different areas which include props, location and lighting, even the characters and what they are wearing. Short films sometimes challenge what the audience would expect, this links in with short films sometimes being used for experiments, by challenging this, they can see how audiences would react to it, and if the reaction is positive, they might implement it into a feature length film.

Titles are used to show the title of the film or to show the crew used to help make the film and any sponsors that sponsored the film. The main title is usually at the start of the film and can be shown in many ways, some films would have it over a black screen whereas some other films would have them on top of the moving images. The end credits tend to be over a black screen with a score that suits the film on top.