Post 6: What Makes a Good Short Film?

To start off our short film research, our school organised a guest to attend a lesson with us.  Her name was  Rebecca Knapp and she  is involved with the film making industry.  She  showed us a variety of short films that she had worked with. When Becky came in to talk to our group about short films, she gave out two scripts from her productions. After we were given two scripts, we had to watch the short films and see if our thought from the script was anything like the actual film.  Independent study was also required and reading.

We then read the script for the films she showed us, & the idea of this was to get an image in our heads about what we think of what the short film will look like on screen. We looked at three scripts reading one script at a time then watching the film after. The two films we looked at were, ‘Donna’ & ‘Does God Play Football’.

The first script we read was from the short film ‘Donna’. The lack of dialogue from this film stopped me from picturing the characters. 


I felt that the script was difficult to stay focused with as it dragged on too long  however,  the film was well presented & we watched it to see if our reaction would change. Also it had a good location and a good choice of characters.

The second script that we watched was 'Does God Play Football' & we all found this script to be a lot more interesting as there was more dialogue and the storyline was very encouraging you as you read through the script to continue reading through it, & it also made us picture the storyline very well. When we watched the film, I found it to be much  more interesting than the script itself because the dramatic acting made the film more enjoyable & exciting to watch.

Music plays a big role in recognising the Genre of the film in 'Does God Play Football', It starts off with classical music & the sound of an organ playing which tells us as the audience that the plot is based around a church and possible religion, It also helps build tension when needed.

Films that last between 5 and 12 minutes would have more of a plot & also more unique characters. With films lasting between 12 and 30 minutes they would have a secondary story line with more developed characters.

The films included ones that she had produced and some that she produced the script for. With the length of a short film being under 5 minutes, producers could only focus on a plot with stereotypical characters.

Short films enable producers to present their ability to the media industry in hope their career will proceed from there. With films lasting between 12 and 30 minutes they would have a secondary story line with more developed characters with multiple character traits.

We should consider the 3 parts to our script:

The Beginning:

The Middle:

The End:

By having these parts in our script, they will ensure that our scripts will be creative  with   high quality and detailed work.

It is also important when writing a script that the producer trying  to portray the message to the audience can be very hard.

An example of this could be from when we read books, it is easier to understand what is happening, & they are easier to understand the feelings that are inside the characters head, but through films, we need to see the character doing some action to showing their emotions.

Conclusion

In conclusion with the questions, "why do we make short films?"  & “who is the target audience?” I think that we make short films to promote ourselves to the media as well as promoting ourselves to a wider public, particularly people who are informed by means of audiovisual media and some young people who read very little.

By looking at existing videos & scripts, it will give you a better insight on what quality is needed to express to the viewers. 

From reading these scripts, I have also found out that the title of your short film plays one of the biggest factors to whether it is a success or not.


From viewing these short films that have been shown to me, I feel Donna did not draw my attention however, Does God Play Football I found did have an appealing title.

I was also set some independent study which consisted of  doing some further reading on how to make a good short film script. It was recommended to me to read of which I did, the link on the KLS Media Department blog on 'how to write a good short film script' 

Once you have created and thought about everything you would like to have in your short film, & you have finished writing your script, then you should use this step by step routine to make sure that you can answer all the questions about your short film;

• One Sentences That Summaries What Happened?
• What is Revealed That is Significant to The Audience Understanding The Character?plot?
• What is Revealed That is Significant to The Plot?
• Is There An Identifiable Theme?

To sum all of this up, I think that what I have learnt from this  has made me realise how I need to set out my layout. I will use this information when it comes to drawing up my final script.