Films have always been a brilliant mode of communication and transmitting some relevant information to the audience. Traditionally, the films are made on various social, political and other issues that demand to be listened by the society. Short films are a shorter version of big 2-3 hour films made on a specific issue adding all the aspects of direction, thrill and drama in a few minutes of experience. They stimulate the audience’s minds from one scene to another and in a passage of just a few moments it makes them learn and know a lot. While big films cover a lot in them, short films are obviously big impact movies. Here are some secrets on short filmmaking.
- The shorter the better
While a typical short film lasts for something around 30-40 minutes there is obviously favor given to shorter short films. It is most advisable that you make shorter and precise films because of the secret that these shorter movies show more time commitment than larger short films. These films are easy to watch as today in the modern world, people don’t have time to watch 3 hour films and if you have an option to make smaller but better films then you should go for small feature films. For example, the Neeraj Pandey thriller OUCH was absolutely directed and screenplay was awesome. If a director of such caliber decided to go for a short film, it obviously shows that a short film is good when made good.
- Explicit exposition is definitely required
To simplify, the stuff which is good and relevant should be explained but quickly and efficiently. This is the tricky part about short films. It is the part of any story which takes time to explain the back story or any information that is needed to fully understand what you are watching. When you are doing a short film, overawed exposition is something you want to avoid more than anything and a lot of inexperienced filmmakers make this mistake by throwing in too much expositional dialogue to get things across about the characters that they don’t feel the short film medium is allowing them the time in which do so but it can be done, it just takes practice like anything and with short films, the more you can say without actually having to say, the better it will generally be due to the lack of time you have. For example, if you have a short action film don’t just have characters talk at length about how tough a character is just be sure to effectively get that across when the time comes to use that toughness then the audience just knows by seeing and doesn’t need that extra 30 to 60 seconds eaten up to literally tell them that want to get better at short film exposition make a movie with no dialogue and keep it under 10 minutes get going to telling a story that way in your work where more than likely improve. Remember that never say what you can show. For some of the best examples, how to pull off a quick exposition in a short film a new film maker should take a look to the BMW film series which came out a little over 10 years ago all under 10 minutes each one done by a different major film director who had their own way of doing things is an excellent series if someone wants to know how that’s done.
- Short films can become feature film
If you have got a feature –length script or at the very least a rough idea for one and the idea while not a huge studio epic would still take more resources than you can currently gather at the moment. One of the best things that you can do it to get off the ground is to take a scene from the feature that works on its own and gives a good idea of what a longer project would be about and shoot that scene as a short film. James Wan along with Leaving Now, the creative team behind the Saw franchise had their idea ready but no funding. They made a 7-minute short film that essentially became the head trap scene that opened up the feature and used that to entice the investors or instead of a scene, the director can use a shot to showcase a character and/or a setting.
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