Short Film Research:

Below is some general information on short films, ranging from how long they are, to the categories they fall under.

Sub-categories:

Animated short (hand-drawn or CGI)
Documentary short subject
Experimental or abstract short films
Live action short
Musical short
Soundies
Sponsored
Travelogue

- North America refer to them being 20-40 minutes long
- Europe, Latin America and Australasia to be much shorter
- In New Zealand the duration is referred to as longer than one minute and shorter than 15 minutes
- Often focus on difficult topics
- Distributed on Internet

However, because the short film we will make with consist of no sound and will last for no longer than 5 minutes it will be important will make the content of our films attract and not bore our audience.

We will be making a silent movie with no dialogue. Therefore the pictures of the locations and the mise en scene around our shots need to tell our story specifically as we want.

- The location and the surroundings can tell an viewer a lot into the film, for example if we was filming in a busy train station with thousands of workers flooding through the station with their suits and briefcases just by the location of the train station, and the costume and props of the people walking pass the camera makes the audience think and believe that the station is in a big city centre like London.

- Another example of where we will need to be spot on when creating out film is our costumes just like in the point above the type of clothes the people in the shot are wearing can also give clues to where the people are heading to if unknown. For example: Several Men walking down a street in football shirts and flags. Instantly the audience believes they are on their way to a sports event.

- I believe that because our film will be silent, with the only noise coming from our soundtrack. A soundtrack can give away a lot to the audience, it can give away the mood of the film, just by the tempo and the words of the song. The song can create the atmosphere for the film.



The video above is of a scene from 'Saving Private Ryan' although this movie is not a slient film, the music still adds another dimention to the film, it adds in to the emotion of the film, and what is happening during the scene with the other sounds around such as gun shot fires and shouts (typical war setting). Halfway through this seqence the dialoge and digetic sound disappear, leaving the soundtrack and video quiet, the effect on the audience seeing these images with the resulting soundtrack is very sad and filled with emotion.

This Video below, is just a composition by a piano player.