Codes and Conventions of a Short Film By

Codes and Conventions of a Short Film By Daniel Dunning

Characters • Short films conventionally have a small amount of characters (usually 2 or 3 maximum) to allow the viewer to relate to them in the short screen time they are given • Black Hole has only one character for the audience to watch

Twist • Short films tend to have a twist in their tales in an attempt to make them more interesting for the viewer • For example in the short film ‘Forgotten’ the twist is that the person the boy has befriended is actually his dead brother whom he’d never met before

Budget • A short film typically has a much smaller budget than a feature length film and this ties directly into the characters and special effects of the film. • A smaller budget means fewer actors and effects in an effort to keep the budget low The Black Hole has one actor in a small location meaning the budget was most likely quite low

Length • Short films are, as the name suggests, short in length. They are typically just longer than eight minutes but can extend to 35 minutes in length

Situation • Short films will most often take an everyday scene or scenario and add some mystical twist to it. • Some films buck this trend however such as Kevin Tacharoen’s Mortal Kombat Rebirth, which features a very unfamiliar set of situations.