Good post Generic.
On short films...because my summer job is very dull...I need to waste some time...and I havent made a topic on this board for a long time.
The state of short films as I see it
By Genny Skin
17/07/04
Let me start by saying that an effective short film is a very hard thing to do. I know this because every year at college, there are at most 3-4 good films out of 22 made by a class of dedicated film students. Usually less. And I've watched a lot of festival shorts.
The number one problem is subject. Ninety percent of the shorts I've seen are about nothing. Or something close to nothing. When you're putting money into a project, you have to ask yourself if a story about a guy buying a pair of shoes is enough to make a film about.
Film subjects seem to be slight in the extreme- the audience don't care. Why would they? The shoes dont fit? God no!
At the same time, paradoxically, short films have to be simple. You just cant cram too much plot or exposition into ten minutes. The words "slow moving" and "short" should never feature in the same scentence.
To the Tarantino-philes, dialogue rarely pays off in a short. We dont have time to really get into the charachters, we just wanna see something happen.
My personal pet peeves are crime capers, family dramas, broad horror and broad comedy.
These things have been done to death. Try something you wouldnt normally do, you might be surprised.
Work the script. Boring I know. I went through 8 drafts of my 7 page script. But when I see the first draft now...man, thats funny.
Film is a visual medium. Next time you're thinking about polishing your dialogue, think about polishing your visuals instead. A picture tells a thousand words. The audience isn't looking for a radio drama.*
This does not mean cheap-o effects either. This means interesting angles, good lighting,
good use of depth of field, lenses and considered camera movement.
Subtext. I put as much of this into my films as possible. Shorts I enjoy are simple on the face of it, but have hidden layers and a real thought process behind the visuals. You'd be surprised what a half intelligent audience will pick up.
Universal themes are universal for a reason. Try and work them in, but with your own twist.
These are some of the opinions I've formulated in my time at Film School. I used
these ideas in the making of my grad film.
Feel free to add your own thoughts on shorts.
* If they are, kindly explain the principle of cinema to them
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ July 27, 2004 05:50 AM: Message edited by: Generic Skinhead ]</font>
Good post Generic.
>Universal themes are universal for a reason. Try
>and work them in, but with your own twist.
for example?
It has been said (see Georges Polti) that there are no more than 36 dramatic situations.
To make those situations unique, and therefore interesing, we need to tell them with our own voices based on our own individual experiences.
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ July 27, 2004 07:02 AM: Message edited by: Justin M. ]</font>
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, thats the one thing that is usually apparent in a bad script - a lack of understanding of the situation or subject.Originally posted by Justin M.:
To make those situations unique, and therefore interesing, we need to tell them with our own voices based on our own individual experiences.
<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ July 27, 2004 07:02 AM: Message edited by: Justin M. ]</font></font>
Personally i couldn't write a good script if i wasn't able to emotionally connect with the story i was trying to tell.
Characters and situations should relate someway to your own life and own experiences so that what you are writing is more realistic or at least more believeable. This applies to all genres.
I know that some people will disagree with this but it is something that i have thought about and believe in very strongly. My scripts have improved hugely since i approached writing in this way
there are two types of shorts though. One is the fiction-short, telling a short story, usually ending with some sort of twist and being some sort of anecdote at the same time (doesn't mean it has to be serious).
The other type is the visual short, where visuals, rythmic editing are are important. I'm not very fond of these types, but last festival I went to had more of these than 'scripted shorts'.
Last thing I'll tell you (and at the same time I'll tell it to myself) is write/make the damn short the way you want to make it. Listening to advice/feedback is great, and will help you get further and better. But you're the one who is the best critic of your own work, you're the one making it, and you should be the one digging your own work the most. I've literally created 14 drafts of a 6-10 paged short (pages change between drafts) and all of them got good 'reviews', but after each bit of advice I kept changing it. It's fucking hard, but I should be listening to myself and fuck the ones who don't like this tiny bit or that tiny bit, or else I'll just keep making drafts.
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