Post 6: What makes a good short film?.

For our lesson, we had a short film producer called Becky Knapp come in to talk to us about short films and their scripts. We talked about a variety of topics, such as what short films include, and what not to include, and some of the basics about how to write a script. Here are my notes from the lesson, and I will point out some of the thngs that I have learned form her talk.





 

One of the main points that I learned form this lesson was around the main character. We learned that it would be easier to only have one main character, with one idea, as it would be too complecated to have more than this in the short space of time that we have, and would confuse the audince. We also need to make sure that the character we make up will be able to fit in the plot, the stucture and the dialogue, so it would be a bad idea for me to use a british dialect dialogue for a scottish actor. 

We also need to show the character being confrounted with a problem or an obsticle. These can be internal, like being too shy to talk to someone, or external like a traffic jam. These problems too can remain hidden from the character or the audience, depending on what type of genre we choose. They also need to have a world that they live in, and this needs to be familiar to the audience. This is benefitial to uis as script writters, as this gives us more time for the narrative, as the audience are familiar with the surroundings.

We also need to show what's at stake for the character, as this is what makes the narrarive of the film. This can include many things such as death, disease or a broken heart, and these again are recognisable for everyone, and helps with our short film.

Another important aspect that we need to think about is the tone of the film. This is directly linked with genre, so this will be easier once we have chosen our genre. But we need to be careful, as we have been warned that it is easy to divert from this through our film, so we need consistancy.

We also need to be aware that our caracter isnt too passive, as this can become boring to watch for the audience. To avoid this, we can think about aspects of the character that can make them different and interesting, such as traits, these can be emphasised and used in the narrative. Through Mise-en scene, we can show a change in the character, by their clothing and the colours that they wear, and this can change depending on how they are feeling.

Becky Knapp also gave us a few hand outs, including two scripts, 'Donna' and 'Does God Play Football'.

When first reading the script "Donna" I understood the main body of the short film, but it left me uninterested in the story, as I wasn't intrigued by the story line. It also felt just like a story without any dialogue, and when there was dialogue, it was written in the accent, which made this hard to follow along. On the other hand, when I started watching the short film, it pieced together, but I was still not that interested in the story line, as there was nothing that stood out to me as a viewer. If i had a child, grew up in familiar conditions or had gone through the same neglect as 'Donna' then I may have felt a connection to this short film, but having not experienced this myself, I felt it hard to grasp, even though I knew what was going on. As a page of script writing was equivalent to a minute of filming, the vast description put me off the film, as I am not much of a reader.

Compared to "Donna", "Does God Play Football" intrigued me more, as there was more dialogue in the script, and this made me feel like I knew the character 'Tommy' better. This short film also had more of an attention-grabbing story line, and one that I could understand much clearer than "Donna". on the country, I got more of a feel of the tone, atmosphere and setting in "Donna" than "Does God Play Football". This showed to me that there is a real importance for the direction and setting of the scene. In my script that I will be writing in the future, I think I will aim to try and use around 50/50 of dialogue and description, as this will hopefully grab the audiences attention as well as helping them get an understanding of the tone, atmosphere and the storyline.


This exercise has shown me, that what i may try to convey on paper, may be read differently to other people, and may be conveyed much differently on screen. I therefore need to be very careful when writing my script, as I may not be able to show what i want. To do this, I will write my script, and show it to a few people and get their opinions and see whether I was able to achieve this, if not I shall get feed back and re-write it until this is done. In this way, it will show me the best way to write, and will help later on when in a group doing our real project.

The Times Article
after reading The Times article, i noted down some of the key points;

"there is no hard and fast rule" in short film making.

Why Am I Making This Film? Most people use short films as a tool for learning and testing ideas. This can also however, be a way of showing their skills and talents in certain areas in a short film. When making a short film, you have to always keep in mind the budget. For example, if you only had a couple thousand pounds budget, you would want many special effects or car chases, as this would be too expensive for the budget.

What Is A Short Film? A short film is roughly around under six minutes. Anything up to thirty minutes is a feature film. Therefore, it would be hard to fit a really long story line in under six minutes, and best to only have one main character, with one problem.

Finding A Story. There are three basic elements when constructing a story; a world, a character and a problem, and as mentioned before, it is always best to focus on one character and one problem as you do not have the time in a short film to develop and establish the character. Short films are best done in real time, as a small problem wouldn't last over a couple of days.

-The World. It is easier to set a short film in a familiar setting or event, for example, a school environment or a wedding. This will help the audience, as they are already familiar with those surroundings and can identify with them on an emotional level. This also gives it a finite time frame for the short film. 'The journey' is popular as they can use the journey the character makes as the setting.

The Character And The Problem. There are a few questions you would need to consider when choosing the character;
~Who is the main character?
~What is their problem?

~How will the audience recognise their problem?

~Are the stakes high enough?

~Am I telling the the story from the best point of view?

Audiences must be clear about who the film is about, otherwise this will be confusing for them. The drive from the character in the short film must be either a want, a need or an obligation, and this needs to be clear to the audience; this does not always need to be clear to the character straight away.

Making Problems Manifest To The Audience. When watching short films, as well as other films, the audience need to see what the characters are doing and this shows us what they are feeling and thinking. This can be done for example, by a voice over.

Are The Stakes High Enough? If a character is around a life or death situation this is clear to the audience that the stakes are high, and makes it much more interesting for them to watch. If the characters car broke down, this would be an uneventful story line, whereas if you convey that this is a massive deal to the character, it will make the story line more lively. Unless you show that it really matters to the main character, it will not come across as a life or death situation.

Am I Telling The Story From The Best Point Of View? Sometimes, changing the point of view in the story will make the ending and the whole story completely different. For example, if Cinderella was told by one of the ugly sisters, the ending wouldn't have been a happy ending, it would be a cautionary tale and people don't want to see this. Telling the story from another point of view can change the meaning of the story and have an impact on the ending.

What Does My Story Mean? When making a film, you do not intentionally input moral codes within your story, but this is always evident in each short film. This is because we've grown up thinking certain moral standards are either good or bad and these will influence what we will or wont include, and how we will show these. Once the beginning and the end is evident to us, we will need to define and develop the script in relation to...

The Tone Of The Film. Tone is directly connected to the genre. For example, the tone of a horror would not be upbeat and happy, it would be dark and mysterious.

What i learned from this: I have realised that in preperation for my script I need to first define my character, the problem, and their world, and from this I will be able to easily link the beginning, middle and end. I also didn't think about any moral messages that I would have in my film, so this has given me much to think about. Another point that I havent really thought about, was the tone of the film, so I need to give this some consideration in the future.