Codes and Conventions of Short Films

1. Codes and Conventions of
Short Films
By Ashleigh Bennett

2.  Short films normally stick to 2-3 main characters.
Due to it being a short film, they don’t have time to
create a big back story or history for the characters.
As a result of that, short films allow the viewers to
relate to the characters in a small amount of time.
Characters

3.  Normally, short films have a very low budget. This
is based on the fact that most of the directors of the
short film are independent without any funding.
They keep their budget down by sticking to a select
few locations and only using one or two actors.
Having a short film allows costs to be basically
nothing and normally the actors will work for free.
Budget

4.  The films are typically around 5-10 minutes in
length. If the short films were any longer they
would not be classed as short and as a result be
names feature length.
Length

5.  Short films usually take everyday situation that we
as an audience can relate to and then flip it around
in some way. This allows the viewer to relate to the
short film, but at the same time intriguing for the
viewer.
Situation

6.  Short films usually contain some sort of twist, the
reason for this is to make the short film more
interesting as they are so short. Without a twist in
the film the story line would be simple and
uninteresting.
Twist

7.  Todorov’s Theory of Equilibrium is mostly applied
to short films.
1. Equilibrium- Everything is normal
2. Disequilibrium- A problem occurs
3. New Equilibrium- Everything is back to normal
 However the change throughout the film is
noticeable.
Theory