The document discusses the creation of a short film and how it adheres to conventions of the genre. It was created by the author and a production group for an A-Level media studies project. In writing the script and storyboarding, the author researched conventions of short films and tried to follow typical structures. The short film has a limited number of characters, a run-time under 30 minutes, and follows Tzvetan Todorov's narrative structure model. It also uses techniques like stereotyping characters and had a limited budget, reflecting common constraints of student short films.

2. For my main media product at A2 level, I have created a
short film with the help of my production group – Lucy
Clarke, Eman Shah and Hamza Hanif.
I believe that the short film I have created, ‘Lost in the Eve’,
mainly uses the forms and conventions of short films
that I discovered through research before I began the
process of making my own short film. Although, it does
develop and challenge some as well.
In addition to the short film, I have also created a film
poster and short film review alongside my group. Again,
I have tried to stick to the conventions of these media
products in order to make them successful, but there
are also some developments and factors that challenge
the conventions.

4. PLANNING – SCRIPTING AND STORYBOARDING
I followed forms and conventions of real media texts right from the initial stages of planning my short film –
when writing the script and creating the storyboards.
After we had come up with the narrative idea for our film as a group, we then decided it was best for me to
write the script as I am an English student and am most confident with my writing. Furthermore, writing
is something I enjoy and so I was excited to get started!
The first step I took towards writing the short film script was researching into other existing ones. I looked at
examples over the Internet, most of them created by amateur filmmakers by myself as they were the
only ones which were available to view. I also looked up tips for writing short film scripts and researched
into how to lay out a film script properly. I have evidenced this research on my blog, but some of the
main things I learnt were to keep it short to stick to the concept of a short film, to use Courier font for
clarity and to use size 12 font to help me to stick to the format of 1 page representing one minute of
screen time.
When I began writing, I tried to stick to the conventional structure of a script by including factors such as
character names in capitals before their dialogue and editing instructions to the right of the page, when
they were relevant, for the post production stages of the film.
When the script was finished, the group and I decided it would be beneficial to create storyboards based on
the script so that we had a clear idea when it came to the days of filming of what exactly we wanted to
create.
We structured our storyboards using the conventional layout because this layout is easy to understand and
ensures that we include every detail that we need to, including the shot type and length, and what
sound will be in the shot. I have also evidenced the storyboarding stages on my blog.

5. A LIMITED NUMBER OF CHARACTERS
My short film only involves three characters: Richard, the ‘old’ man who finds a girl lost on the
moors; Eve, the girl who is lost on the moors; and David, who is Eve’s father. A limited number of
characters is a convention of short films which I found through researching and deconstructing
short films before I began to create my own. Short films generally have so few characters
because their narratives are limited due to their short run time. Every character requires an
introduction to establish who they are and their role in the narrative, and this takes up some of the
run-time. The less characters there are, the more time the director saves in this area to use in
other areas, such as in driving the narrative forward or creating elements of suspense.
In ‘The Baby Monitor’, a short film I deconstructed earlier on in the year which is also a
psychological drama, there are only four characters – the baby, the husband/boyfriend, the lady
who we perceive to be the mother, and the strange lady who is seen with the baby initially. The
baby and the strange lady take on major roles, whereas the husband/boyfriend and the ‘mother’
have far smaller ones. This is replicated somewhat in my short film – there are two main
characters (Eve and Richard) and one character who has a much smaller role (David).
For me, it was important to save time when introducing characters because I intended for the
pace of my short film to be very slow in the beginning as the audience is introduced to the
unusual situation and the different characters, so that they have time to wrap their head around it.
The slow pace will also represent the confusion that Richard and David feel because of Richard’s
discovery of Eve, and it will act as a contrast to the fast pace of the final scenes, where Richard
discovers Eve’s grave. I have found the change in pace to be a convention of psychological
thrillers, which is the genre I believe our short film fits into. Therefore, it was important for us to
replicate this.

6. A SHORT RUN-TIME
The run time of our short film is around 13 minutes. This is in line with short film
conventions because although short films don’t have a definite definition in
terms of length, short film festivals tend to have a cut off point of 30 minutes
and most short films are under 30 minutes because of this reason. I tried to
keep our short film well under 30 minutes to use this convention, to fit the
brief we were given by our Media Studies teacher, but also because the
narrative we came up with as a group wouldn’t allow for a 30 minute run-time
without getting boring.
In terms of short films, my short film could be considered to be relatively long.
Most of the ones I looked at when researching short films initially were
between 5 and 10 minutes long, particularly if they were made my amateur
film makers, such as A level students like myself. I challenged this convention
and made my short film longer than 10 minutes because I wanted to allow
time for our narrative to develop slowly in order to create suspense.

7. A NARRATIVE FOLLOWING TODOROV’S
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
My narrative follows Tzvetan Todorov’s narrative structure, which suggests that successful
narratives should have these stages:
• A state of equilibrium, where everything is as it should be, in a state of equal balance
between powers of any kind within the narrative.
• A disruption of the equilibrium caused by an event.
• A recognition that the disorder has occurred.
• An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.
• A return or restoration of a new equilibrium.
The state of equilibrium in my film is when Richard is driving down the moorland road without
a care in the world, listening to loud music. When he sees Eve, the disruption has occurred.
Richard recognises the disorder by stopping and speaking to Eve, then he attempts to repair
the damage of the disruption which has shocked and frightened him slightly by taking Eve
home to see her father. A new equilibrium is present when Richard learns about Eve’s story
and finds his coat hanging over her grave.
This narrative structure is a convention of short films, as most follow it. Therefore, in this
respect, my short film uses conventions from similar products.

8. USE OF STEREOTYPING
Stereotyping is a technique used frequently in short films because it allows characters to be established more quickly
and understood more easily, which is essential in short films because the time-scale for characters to be
introduced is extremely short. For instance, if a short film maker wanted to create a character that is intelligent
and geeky, they would probably make the character have glasses and braces, as these are things that geeks
stereotypically wear and the audience would recognise and understand this immediately.
In my short film, I have used stereotyping for the reasons described above. This is another example of how I have
used short film conventions to create my final product.
I have chosen for the lead of my short film to be a young girl. This is because stereotypically, young girls are seen to
be the most vulnerable, and it is important for the storyline for the lead to be seen this way. However, this did
create some problems for me as I intended for the character who picks Eve up to be male, and I did not want
there to be any signs of a love interest between these characters and so when I was scripting, I made special
effort to make sure that anything that could be read as a sign of romance was removed. To do this, I made the
male character, Richard, come across as a father-figure who loves his wife dearly, and who is more interested in
the girl’s well-being than her happiness or appearance.
I wanted the character who picks Eve up from the moors to be male because stereotypically, a male is more likely to
be driving down a moorland road in the late evening than a female because men are generally more interested
in cars and are also seen to be more brave whereas females are seen to be scared of more things, including the
dark. Furthermore, they are not typically the primary care-givers for their children so they would be less likely to
be at home at this time with them.
When casting, I also made sure that Eve’s father had some resemblance to Eve, to make it clear to the audience
who he is as soon as he opens the door. However, in case this wasn’t clear I did include his relation to Eve in
the dialogue (Richard: “Oh, hello. You must be Eve’s father.”) The main resemblance between the two
characters is their pale skin, but also their hair colour. Eve has blonde hair and David has strawberry blond hair.
I gave Eve blonde hair and pale skin to represent her being a ghostly figure, but also to give the audience the
impression that she is in a bad state before they find out what happened to her and that she is a ‘ghost’.

9. LIMITED BUDGET
Most short films have a small budget, as usually they are used as a gateway for
filmmakers to become more successful and source more funding to be able to
create a feature length film, if their short film is good enough This is no different for
our short film. We were limited to part of the budget the media department receives
from the school, which is only an insignificant fraction of the budgets of big,
successful Hollywood blockbusters meaning that we had access to limited
resources.
For instance, there is only one jib within the school media department which we had to
share between the two A2 media production groups, and also all of the year 11
GCSE students who were producing film trailers and although school has got a
number of decent film cameras, which are capable of recording cinema-quality
footage, they are still on the lower end of the spectrum and are nothing in
comparison to the quality of the cameras used in feature length films.
However, this didn’t affect the crafting of our short film. We were still able to use the
conventional planning processes such as scripting and storyboarding, which we
then sought feedback on to make sure that we were heading in the right direction
in terms of appealing to our target audience (which we established to be mixed
gender 19-25 year olds after handing out a questionnaire for market research.)

10. EDITING
The editing techniques I used are largely in line with conventions of film, but not specifically
short film. This is because I researched into editing before I began the process and found
many helpful videos explaining the most effective ways to edit films, but these videos
weren’t specific to short films and I learned how to use some editing techniques that I felt
would be really effective in my work, even though they weren’t designed for short films.
One of the best clips I found was about editing dialogue scenes and it was really useful
because my short film involves a lot of dialogue to move the plot forwards. The main
thing I remembered from the video was that it’s important to include reaction shots within
dialogue scenes, and it’s okay to have a reaction shot of the character who isn’t speaking
on screen whilst the other character is speaking, because sometimes it is more beneficial
for the audience to see the reaction to the words, rather than them being spoken. I
definitely took this on board when I was editing the dialogue scenes in our short film and
included reaction shots wherever I felt was appropriate, including when times when the
other character was still speaking.
My editing skills have developed a lot this year as I have progressed through the A2 course
because I have gone from editing a film trailer in year 11 to a whole short film in year 13
and there were many more tools and techniques I needed to know how to use in order to
do this. Especially in relation to my short film specifically, because I needed to know how
to do things such as colour grading and editing different shots from different angles
together smoothly to create a scene. I mainly learned how to do this through clips on
YouTube and the experience of other members in my production group.

12. REALISM
Realism is a media theory that suggests that an audience has to be able to recognise
things within a media text and identify with it so that connections can be made with
their own lives and the world they live in. Therefore, for my short film to be
relatable and thus more enjoyable for my audience, it requires a level of realism.
I have developed the conventions of realism within short film because my short film
involves the presence of Eve who is represented as a ghostly figure and defies
realism because the supernatural isn’t believed to be in the real world by most
people. The ending of my short film also develops the convention because it is
something that couldn’t possibly happen in real life – a dead girl couldn’t leave a
coat draped over her headstone after being rescued from the moors by an old man
in a campervan.
However, this does fit with the genre of a psychological thriller which often involves the
presence of the supernatural, and most people watching my short should be aware
of its genre. Furthermore, I have included elements of realism elsewhere within the
film, including David’s reaction to Richard’s news which involves a mixture of
emotions which go up and down from angry to sad and reminiscent, and Richard’s
reaction to seeing Eve on the moors, cold and fragile in the first place.

14. VLADIMIR PROPP’S 7 CHARACTERS
During the research stages of my production, I studied Vladimir Propp who is a media theorist. One of the
theories he came up with suggests that every film should have seven different character types in order
for the narrative to be successful.
• The hero
• The villain
• The magical helper
• The false hero
• The princess
• The dispatcher
• The donor
He studied Russian folk stories to come up with these character types, but he suggests that they apply to
every narrative, no matter what its genre. He also stated that one character could represent more than one
typical character type, which is relevant to my short film.
I have challenged this narrative convention in my short film because I haven’t used all 7 characters. There is
a lack of a false hero and a princess because nobody in our short film pretends to be good and then turns out
to be evil, and nor do any concepts. Also, there isn’t an instance when the female in my film, Eve, is given as
a prize like Propp suggests that the princess is.

15. TYPES OF SHOT
The types of shot used within my short film is one of the ways that it challenges conventions.
Generally, short films use a variety of shots to create an interesting and dynamic piece,
particularly in psychological thrillers and horrors, but I decided not to do this to the same
extent. Instead, I have used mainly medium shots, but also some close up and long shots to
mix things up and make my film more interesting.
I didn’t want to use a variety of too many shots because I felt that this would disrupt the
initially slow pace and unusual nature of my short and make my audience more confused.
Using mainly medium shots meant that the shots taken from different angles could flow nicely
into one another to maintain the slow pace, making it easy for the audience to see exactly
what is happening, so that they can pick up on the subtle representations I have included
(including the white of Eve’s dress representing her purity and ghostly form) to try and work
out what is going on.
However, I did include some close up shots, and some long shots otherwise my film would be
boring. I used close ups mainly to give my audience more detail – a closer look at what’s
going on to help them figure it out, such as when I used close ups of Eve’s facial expressions
in the van or Eve’s hand on the door handle. I used long shots mainly to establish setting and
to show the movement of the van, and through doing this, the passing of time.
Moreover, it would have been easier for me to create suspense by using extreme close ups
and a wider variety of shots, but I decided that I wanted to challenge myself and let the
narrative to speak for itself and achieve this effect in a different way. This should be
something new and refreshing for my audience who are likely to have seen many other
psychological thrillers because they probably enjoy this genre.

17. LARGE IMAGE – GHOSTLY FIGURE, LOW
OPACITY
My film poster belongs to a distinctive genre with very specific codes and conventions.
I felt that due to this fact, it was extremely important to stick to these codes and
conventions so that my audience would immediately recognise the genre of our
film, and therefore understand the narrative more if they go to see it, as they will be
less focused on realism which isn’t a convention of psychological thrillers.
My group and I followed conventions of psychological thriller film posters by including a
large image that takes up the majority of the page. This image is of the protagonist
of the narrative – Eve, which is also conventional. We have also included an image
of the second lead character – Richard Lewis in the sky, and lowered the opacity.
This gives the impression that there is a ghostly theme to our film, giving our
audience some insight into the narrative. It also connotes that he is watching over
Eve, particularly as he is looking towards her in the photo, enforcing the fact that
he is a kind, caring, fatherly character, not a love interest or someone creepy or
scary.
Eve is pictured on the rock that she is found on in the film. I consider this photo to also
be conventional as it uses the setting of the film and gives the audience some
insight into the actual film.

18. STRUCTURE
The structure of my film poster is conventional. Film poster structures are often
changed around for effect, but from looking at and deconstructing other film
posters from a similar genre I can see that ours follows the typical structure
because:
• It has a large heading in bold, clear typography which tells the audience the title of
the film.
• It features one large image.
• It features an image with low opacity to connote a ghostly or supernatural element.
• It has a list in a banner at the bottom of everyone who worked on the film, including
the production team and the actors and actresses. The typography here is much
smaller so that it doesn’t ruin the aesthetics of the poster, but is still large enough
for the audience to read.
• It features the ‘BBFC’ age rating of the film using the BBFC logos which are easily
recognisable and understandable.

20. LOW OPACITY IMAGE
Although film posters belonging to the psychological thriller genre generally
incorporate a low opacity image to represent the supernatural, the low opacity
image is normally of the character/thing that is ghostly. I have challenged this
convention by making the image of Richard have a lower opacity than the one
of Eve, despite Eve being the ghostly figure.
I did this on purpose to represent the supernatural within the film, and tied it to
Richard’s character because he is the one who sees Eve, which could
connote that he is in some way chosen by unnatural spirits. Furthermore, I
wanted Eve to be the main focus of the poster as she is the protagonist and
therefore she needs to be easily noticeable, and it would be harder to see her
if the opacity was turned down. The photo of Eve also shows her sitting on a
rock, like she is when she seemingly crosses over into the ‘real world’.
Therefore, to make the poster relevant to the scene, Eve shouldn’t be
represented as ghostly here.

22. IMAGES
Again, I feel that the film review I have created alongside my production group uses
most of the conventions of the media product.
For instance, as the film review is released after the premiere of the film, it meant that
we could use actual stills from the film within the review to compliment the text
which talks about the film, and specific elements of it. This is a convention of film
reviews. It helps the reviewer to refer to specific parts of a film which others may
not remember, or may not have seen.
The addition of these photographs made our review more successful as it provided
context for those who haven’t seen the film before, encouraging them to read the
article because they can still understand it, and go and see the film if the review
presents it in a positive light, which my film review does as I am proud of my work
and feel that it has been successful in many ways.
There are only two images in my short film review. Whilst it isn’t a convention to have
two, it is a convention to have few of them because otherwise the film review is
likely to give too much away about the film, encouraging people to not go and
watch it because they already know enough about it.

23. PERSONAL OPINIONS
All film reviews include personal opinions; it is in the very nature of film reviews
as it is a personal reflection on a film, and therefore personal opinions are a
convention.
I included personal opinions about the film in the review to stick to this convention
and make my product successful.
However, personal opinions aren’t the only style of text that should be included in
a film review. Non-biased information about the film should also be included,
such as its plot which also helps to provide context for the audience of the
film review. This shouldn’t be the main focus of the text though – the personal
opinions should be. To stick to this convention, I have also included a plot
summary and other unbiased information such as ratings from other
people/establishments.

24. RATINGS AND PULL QUOTES FROM VARIOUS
PEOPLE/ESTABLISHMENTS
A conventional film review includes at least one rating of the film in terms of stars,
usually out of five stars, but sometimes three. This is to give a different
personal opinion on the film to the one presented in the main body of the text
in order to allow readers to make their own informed decision about the short
film.
Therefore, I have included a rating from ‘The Times’ who frequently review many
different things, including short films, and a rating from other short film
reviewers, ‘The BBFC’ and ‘WatchFilm’ in order to give my audience this
different perspective. I have included a variety of ratings in order to give my
audience a better grounding of how good the film is, according to different
people.
I have also included pull quotes from a variety of reviewers next to the synopsis
of my text. I have done this to attract my audience’s attention to yet another
opinion about the short, making opinions of the film obvious before they even
begin to read the main body of the text.

25. IN CONCLUSION
Overall, I am confident in saying that my short film mainly uses conventions of the
short film genre in order to make it successful. I made particular effort to stick
to the forms and conventions because they are well established and will help
my audience to realise immediately what I am trying to do, but more than this,
the conventions successful and therefore I didn’t feel any need to mess with
them.
However, I did decide to develop and challenge some forms and conventions to
differentiate my film from other short films of the same genre which already
exist. My development and challenges helped me to achieve the outcome I
wanted to create, such as in helping to create a slow pace or representing
characters in a way that portrayed them like I intended.
The same goes for the film poster and film review that I have created for my
ancillary tasks. To fit with the short film, I mainly stuck to conventions of these
too which I feel has helped them to achieve their intended purpose - to give
insight into the film and hopefully encourage people to go and watch it.