An evaluation of how my film, After Hours, follows, breaks and challenges the conventions of short films.

1. FOLLOWING THE
CONVENTIONS
O F SHORT FILMS

2. TIMINGS
Short films are typically between 5-20 minutes long, although there tends to be a rule
which states that people become put off watching a short film if the time extends to
over 12 minutes. ‘After Hours’ is 18 minute long film, meaning that, although we are
following the conventions of short films, we are posing a risk to ourselves in which the
audience may be deferred by the length before even turning on.
To ensure that our film was successful, we had to be extremely harsh on ourselves
whist editing: is there a section where your interest drops? Does the film instantly
engage it’s audience?
These questions were extremely important to ask ourselves as the length of the film
would become severely noticeable if there was any point in which the interest
declined.
Whilst editing, there were a few sections in which I thought that the level of interest
may have dropped in our audience. To address this issue, I had to make the call on
how to increase the energy of the scene. Occasionally, I achieved this through adding
in music, changing the pace of the edit or boosting the overall look of the shot
through it’s colour balance.

3. SIMPLIFYING THINGS
Another main convention of short films is the necessity to keep things simple: no
convoluted plot that will lose the audience’s engagement… not too many characters
that the audience is expected to wrap their heads around… no tricky subplots to
attempt to weave into your storyline.
The reasoning for this convention is due to the lack of time you are given in short
films. Truthfully you have a maximum of 20 minutes to tell your story. You simply don’t
have time to be complicating things by aiming to tell a 90 minute tale in less than a
fifth of the time.
We followed this convention by keeping our short film extremely simple, whilst
keeping the interesting themes and messages in the nuances of the film’s presentation
to ensure that the plotline did not come across as being too childish or basic. When
we analyse ‘After Hours’, we initially see a film which follows the life of one character,
Don Walters, and how he deals with being locked inside a school overnight.
Nonetheless, when we look into the film further, we see the journey he takes:
transforming from a cynical and introverted man who only cares for the exclusive
relationship he has with his daughter, into the much more open-minded and self-
accepting man at the end of the film who understands that he has the capability to be
happy and believes that he deserves it.

4. ADDRESSING YOUR AUDIENCE
The general stereotype for audiences of short films follow these demographics:
- Social Grade of A to C1, or unemployed students who have come from an A to C1
upbringing
- ‘Succeeders’ or ‘Aspirers’ – people who are already in the business and are looking
for talent that they can snatch up, or creative people who aspire to make it into
the industry and are looking for inspiration.
- Stereotypically British due to the representation of short films by British film
festivals and independent companies in the UK.
With these demographics in mind, I believe our film has successfully appealed to our
target audience as the characters represented in the film are of the same A to C1
demographic and therefore the audience should be able to identify with the action on
screen closely. Additionally, our film is very British in it’s nature, identifying with
everyday British culture as it is set in a typical public school and equally, it deals with
the problems in family relationships that are common to modern British lifestyles.

5. CONCEPTUAL CONVENTIONS
The conceptual conventions of short films are as follows:
- Normalistic setting, characters and plotline – short films tend to be realistic and
believable
- One main protagonist throughout the film
- A plotline twist to make the film more exciting and engaging for the audience
- No or very little CGI, including explosions, fantasy or magic
- Basic equipment is used to film
- Often narrators are used to help tell the story
Our film follows all of these conventions due to our budget and the equipment
available to us.