Codes and Coventions PREZI

Ideas for a Short Film

I am currently in the process of thinking of an idea to produce for me short film product. Obviously, there are set 'themes' which the majority of short films follow:

• A conflict, big or small- a flm without out a conflict often has no base to the story.
• A story or anecdote you have heard.
• Something that has happened to you, possible exaggerated/simplified.
• A generic film
• A rite of passage story
• Subvert the audiences expectations
• A desire you have that either comes true or is thwarted
• A historic event
• A sense of closure
• A tale with a twist

From this list I have narrowed down my choices and will probably replicate the idea or either a sense of closure, a right of passage or a conflict.

I have chosen these, simply due to the idea that the others (such as historic event) are not realistic for me to make successfully with the equipment/props/places I have access too.

ARTISTOTLE'S CLASSICAL UNITIES

Classical Unities, also known as the three unities or Aristotelian unities, are considered the rules for drama which have been derived from 'Aristotle's Poetics'.

He proposed that:

1. " The unity of action: a play should have one main action that it follows, with no or few subplots.
2. The unity of place: a play should cover a single physical space and should not attempt to compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one place.
3. The unity of time: the action in a play should take place over no more than 24 hours. "

He dealt with the unity of action the detail under the general subject of 'definition of tragedy'.

- He wrote:

"Now, according to our definition, Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is complete, and whole, and of a certain magnitude… As therefore, in the other imitative arts, the imitation is one when the object imitated is one, so the plot, being an imitation of an action, must imitate one action and that a whole, the structural union of the parts being such that, if any one of them is displaced or removed, the whole will be disjointed and disturbed. For a thing whose presence or absence makes no visible difference, is not an organic part of the whole"

He only made a small reference to time which was in a distinction between the epic and tragic forms.

- He wrote:

"Epic poetry agrees with Tragedy in so far as it is an imitation in verse of characters of a higher type. They differ, in that Epic poetry admits but one kind of metre, and is narrative in form. They differ, again, in their length: for Tragedy endeavours, as far as possible, to confine itself to a single revolution of the sun, or but slightly to exceed this limit; whereas the Epic action has no limits of time."

SHORT FILM VS FEATURE FILM

Obviously, the biggest difference between short films and feature films is of the length. For a film to be classified as short it must be less than 40 minutes in duration. Where as a featire film can ranges from 70-120+

Another point which differentiates the two is the budget. It's more than likely that a successful feature film will have a considerably larger budget than an short film. This is due to the need to pay the cast and crew, use of equipment and props, setting rent, studio rent, marketing and  much more. 

Feature length films are usually closed ended and tie up any loose ends of the story unless there is a sequel to come. This is because people pay lots of money to watch films and don't want to be robbed of an ending. Short films don't have to do this because of their length and people don't usually have to pay for them.

Feature films are shown in cinemas to generate revenue, whereas Short films are intended for dvd/tv because they are made to convey a message, not make money usually.
Also Short films usually have a lesser known cast and crew, the reason for this is discussed in purposes, there are more purposes, all of which can be seen in the purposes section.


Finally, when seeing a feature film people will expect to see an ending so that the studio releasing it can justify the cost of seeing it. You can't feel cheated out of money if you didn't pay for it and you can understand why there is no ending if there was not enough time to tie up every loose end.

A2 | TASK

WELCOME BACK :-)

For the coursework of my A2 media course, we have been asked to create a five minute short film, along with two ancilary tasks:

• Film Poster
• Film Review

I will be using this blog to keep up to date with work and the progress of my tasks and will aim to post regular updates post and pre production.