An introduction to short films

A short film can be any film longer than 1 minute and shorter than 15 minutes. Short films or abbreviated to short as a noun often act as a showcase for cinematographers and commercial directors, meaning it like a demo tape for a new band trying to get a record deal. New and aspiring directors create short films to then send to film companies and investors. Recently with the invention of websites like YouTube not only do they send there shorts to directors and film companies, they can upload the videos to YouTube for others to enjoy and to hopefully create some publicity around the video and some attention to it so other investors and talent scouts will stumble upon the video anyway.

I have looked at lots of short films on YouTube (particularly on the Future Shorts channel) and the film below is the one I have chosen to show on my blog because I enjoyed it the most and it has good examples of media techniques.

The Streets - Blinded By The Lights


Although this video is a music video designed to accompany a song the way The Streets song tells a story through a poem or rapping makes it an appropriate example of a short film. I like how the close up shots of the main character as he looks round reveal more of the scene in the background. In these shots its like the camera is attached to his body and as he turns to look around the room so does the camera, this allows us as a viewer to also look around the room but whats behind him. This feels more organic because we discover the location at the same pace as the character. In lots of the shots the screen is obscured by something and because it is closer than the subject being filmed it is out of focus. They could of does this to show how busy the event is and there isn't much space for cameras and it also helps replicate the mood of the character and how he is finding it hard to focus on things and stand upright because of the drugs he has taken. We could use this technique in our film to show how the girl feels when she realises the man doesn't like her at all. Because the girl is slightly insane she could be feeling dizzy and very emotional and the type of shots in this film would also complement the charactersmood.