1) Cigarettes and Coffee tells three intersecting stories in a diner near Las Vegas over 23 minutes, slowly revealing details and never revealing too much too quickly to build suspense. This extension of plot and surprise twists make short films more interesting. 2) Alive in Joburg presents itself as a documentary about alien oppression in Johannesburg slums in the 1990s to communicate the theme of segregation, similar to a news report with interviews. It shows aliens living in poverty rather than with advanced technology. 3) Voice Over features an unnamed narrator describing three separate narratives involving struggles against time: an astronaut running to his ship, a soldier pulling himself to detonate mines, and a sailor caught

1. Research for Short Films
Case Study 1: Cigarettes and Coffee
Directed by future film director Paul Thomas Anderson, Cigarettes and Coffee tells three
intersected stories all taking place in and around a diner near Las Vegas. The core appeal of
the film is that the story reveals itself over the 23 minute period which it takes up. It
presents three small ideas in relatively short spaces of time, never revealing too much too
quickly, such as moving to a different part of the diner in the middle of a very important
story which has had a build-up of almost 3 minutes or only hearing one half of somebody’s
telephone conversation. This extension of the plot to fit a longer running time and to make
the twist at the climax of the film more surprising is a key element to many short films.
Twists often make the short films more interesting and usually circumvent all that has come
before, making them have more impact. Slow reveals are one of the reasons that short films
work so well and I plan to utilise this in my own short film, slowly revealing parts of the story
before the audience can work out what is going on by the end of the film.
Case Study 2: Alive in Joburg
Launching the career of science-fiction director Neill Blomkamp, Alive in Joburg is presented
as a “documentary” about the oppression of aliens living in a slum in Johannesburg. In
contrast to Cigarettes, this film doesn’t have a narrative and instead simply wishes to
present a concept to the viewer in order to communicate a theme. Taking place in the 1990s
during apartheid in South Africa, the film is notably similar to a news report or special
feature, since it is all filmed on handheld cameras and even incorporates genuine
interviews: any of the interviews which do not make explicit reference to the aliens are
actual South Africans giving their opinions on Zimbabwean refugees. The main theme of the
film is segregation, and it side-steps the general conception of aliens’ technology being
advanced and the aliens themselves being highly evolved, whereas they are actually shown
to be dressed in hoodies and coats, sat around campfires and living in small, dilapidated
houses. The theme of segregation being horrible in any situation (which was expanded upon
for Blomkamp’s first feature film District 9, essentially a full-length version of Alive) is the
main appeal of this particular short film and adds to the value of simply presenting a
concept for the short film with no resolution.
Case Study 3: Voice Over
Based around three separate narratives involving a struggle of some sort, a race against
time in all three circumstances, Voice Over features an unnamed narrator speaking about
three stories: an astronaut racing to his spaceship before his oxygen runs out and the alien
in his suit kills him; a soldier in World War One who has lost his legs and is pulling himself to
a detonator for some mines to free some prisoners on a train before he falls unconscious;
and a sailor whose boat has crashed in the middle of nowhere and is teetering off the edge
of a ridge underwater, slowly pulling down the sailor who is caught on a piece of rope

2. attached to the boat. Complimented by a fantastic twist ending, this one, like Cigarettes,
works on the same principle of the slow reveal, letting the story unfold slowly over the
course of the film. One of the most important aspects of the film is the editing that links the
three stories together. This kind of jump-cut style is something that I plan to use extensively
for the flashbacks in my own short film.