Short films typically follow a few conventions: - They focus on 2-3 main characters to allow viewers to relate to them within the short runtime. The film will follow 3 main characters - 2 males and 1 female that represent modern technology stereotypes. - They include a twist to make the short plot more interesting since they don't have time for a full feature length plot. This film will take a postmodern turn rather than include a twist. - They have a low budget since they are independently made, using few locations, actors who work for free, and locations that don't charge for filming. This film's budget will be close to nothing by using friends and free locations. - They are short, typically 5

1. Codes and Conventions
of Short Films.

2. Characters
Characters is a clear convention of ‘short films’. Short films
tend to stick to two or three main characters. With the idea
of the film being ‘short’ it means there is not enough time to
create deep back history for the characters, therefore
character numbers are often kept low in short films to allow
the viewer to relate to the characters within the small amount
of time.
We intend to follow this convention as we aim to use three
main characters, two males and one female. We also aim to
make them follow the typical stereotypes of people within
modern technology.

3. Twist
Short films nearly always contain a ‘Twist’. The reason for
twisting the storyline is to make the short film more
interesting, simply because of the fact that they are short and
don’t have enough time to fit in a full plot like a large length
film such as Inception.
Without a twist in a short film the storyline would be too
uninteresting and not gain interest from their audience.
We don’t really have a twist in our short film but instead use
a postmodern turn on our film. This is because we aim to
create an engaging plot throughout without interfering the
storyline with twists and turns.

4. Budget
Short films typically have a low budget. This is based on the
fact that most short film directors are independent and as a
result of this don’t have the sufficient backing in terms of
funding. They keep their budget down by sticking to only a
few locations and sticking to a couple of actors. Having such
a short film allows costs to be little to nothing in some
departments; some actors will work for free if they really like
the storyline.
Lucky for us we aim to use people we know in order to act in
our film, and use locations we know do not charge anything
to film there and as a result of this our budget for our short
film is close to non existent.

5. Length
Short films are typically ‘short’ and usually have a max length
of 35 minutes. They are typically around 5-10 minutes in
length. If these short films were any longer they wouldn’t be
classed as short and would instead be named feature length.
For our short film we aim for it to last around 5 minutes. With
this it means we have more flexibility when it comes to the
editing of our clips. As a result of this it means we are
allowing us to have a bit of a longer short film (6 minutes) if it
is really needed.