did we actually follow the conventions

1. Did we follow the
conventions of a
short film?
Maisie Bloor

2. Characters
We followed the conventions with the characters as we only had
two main characters. The bullies we did not classify as a main
character as they are not named and do not have a lot of screen
time. The main characters we made likeable and a character
that the audience could relate to or just agree with their
decisions or actions.

3. Twist
Our twist in our short film was that Sam, our main character, still
wants to meet her real dad. That nearing the end when she
receives a letter asking to see her again. This makes our movie
more interesting as the audience will want to know what she
will choose.

4. Budget
Our movie cost up to £1 to film as we managed to get a free set
as we knew the actors parents. All of the props were owned by
ourselves apart from a card which only cost £1. The costumes
were all owned by the characters who used them meaning we
didn’t have to spend any money on the costumes. This meant
we followed the conventions of a short film in the budgeting as
most short films do not spend lots of money on their films.

5. Length
Our film is nine minutes and twenty seconds long which means
our film follows the convention of the length. As it is below ten
minutes but above five minutes this classifies it as a short film.
We made sure that all of the shots were needed before we
checked the run time as there could have been shots that we
didn’t need that would shorten the run time.

6. Situation
We took the situation of foster care and made that our main
plot of the film. We made it more intriguing by making it very
realistic. To make it realistic I research into the psychology of a
child who is in foster care. This allowed our actor more
believable.

7. Theorists
Looking at the theorists our film does follow Vladimir Propp’s
theory of having certain groups of different characters. Our
movie has the Villain which is the bullies, it has the hero which is
Sam, it has the Helper which is the foster dad, the princess is not
a person but it is what Sam wants which is to meet her real
father. Finally, we have the False Hero which is her biological dad
because he ends up not being the nice guy that Sam had always
believed in but instead was a bad guy in her eyes by the end of
the movie. As for Tzventan Todorov our movie does have an
equilibrium as it has a happy almost calm feel but the happiness
and normality stops when the disruption of Sam’s real dad not
showing up happens. There is then a chunk of the movie which
is finding a resolution to the disruption and then the new
equilibrium where Sam is happy living with her foster dad.

8. Overall
Overall, I think our movie follows the conventions of a short
film. This is because like most short films we have only two main
characters, we spent little to nothing on the budget , we
included a twist and we took a everyday situation but made it so
it would keep an audience’s attention. The length also follows
the conventions as it sticks inside the boundaries of what most
short films stick to. Lastly, we looked at how our film fits in the
conventions of theorists and saw that