C O N T E X TPhoebe Stannard

People make short films to gain experience and learn new techniques that they can use in later in their career.

Short film are also made due to the person being a student in which the project requires a short film.

But it is also a way to show off your level of skill and talent.

Creating a short film lets you have a lot of artistic freedom over it and allows you to be creative with it and lets you put what message you want in it.

Short films also help people in the industry to identify new talent.

Unique and risky ideas can be experimented with in short film whereas it wouldn’t be allowed to be done in a feature length film.

Why do people make short films?

What key changes have there been in the short format over the past decade?

A lot has changed over the past decade to short films.

The most important key change is the digitalisation of the film industry.

A increase in technology has changed traditional methods of every aspect of film, (production, exhibition, marketing, distribution etc.)

This in turn has caused the decrease in cost of production, allowing anyone the possibility to be a film maker.

People are now able to distribute their films with ease and are able to reach a large audience, due to the internet growing over the past decade.

Also short film is now being used more often in the form of dramatized music videos, many artists and musicians now use this format to show their stories rather than just music.

They can be produced on small budgets, causing more short films being created. Still allowing you to display your ideas and opinions to your audience.

The short format is a good platform for new wannabe film makers to begin on, so they can experiment with different genres and what ideas they want to explore with a low budget, also they don’t need a experienced film maker to make create a short film.

The strengths and advantages of the short format.

Due to feature films being more popular short films are generally absent from mainstream cinemas.

The narrative for a short film can be very complex because of the short duration, this can cause the audience becoming confused towards the story and finding it boring, leading to negative comments.

Because short films are needed to be condensed it is considered to much more difficult to create a successful short film.

The weakness and limitations of the short format.

The ingredients of making a successful short film depends on what your target audience want. Some may want exciting story line or others want to be made a certain way.

But successful short are those with interesting visuals and alternative audio.

Camera work is also important, having unique camera shots is a ingredient to making a successful short film.

What ingredients make a successful short film?

People who are passionate about film are the general target audience, as this audience are interested in seeing different themes and issues explore in a variety of ways through film.

Young film students are the majority who watch short films, as they will watch them to gain inspiration and ideas.

Also those who use social media are another target audience for short films as most short films are distributed through the likes of YouTube, Vine and Facebook.

Who are the audiences for short film?

The short film format has not always had enough support by the film industry, but now with new technology on the rise it has been made possible for production and finding funding a lot easier. Short are now seen as a key to successful filmmaking as they allow you to experiment and develop your own skills and ideas, making you ready for future productions. Shorts now are reported to be reaching a much wider audience than it has ever before, due to the internet and social media. Which is perhaps why the short film is still around, however though short films a most likely not going to be introduced back into mainstream cinemas.

The situation of short films in the UK.

Publish date: May 2004 http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feautur

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BFI

BBC – Film Network

Publish date: http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmn

etwork/filmmaking/guide/introduction/why-make-a-short

Rain Dance Film Festival Publish date: 2012

http://www.raindance.org/site/index.php?id=479%2C9358%2C0%2C0%2C1% 2C0

The Daily Telegraph

The guardian

The Independent

Publish date: April 2010 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/fi

lm-life/7593291/The-long-history-of-short-films.html

Publish date: January 2011 / April 2013 http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/

2011/jan/14/best-short-films-london-festival

http://www.thequardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/apr/08/short-film-makers-long-story

Publish date: February 2012 http://www.independant.co.uk/arts-entert

ainment/films/news/britain-enters-a-golden-era-of-the-short-film-7179535.html