Prey

This video was made for an obvious purpose: to help women to think about being careful when getting a cab.  Also, it broke typical mainstream conventions by talking to the camera.  The film looked gritty as it was low budget and had a small cast; only three different people had any lines.  Everyone working on it was an amateur and their equipment was limited.  It tells a straightforward story with music behind the narration.  It uses obvious hand held shots which add to the gritty realism of the film.

Bouncer by Geoff Thompson

Bouncer immediately feels as if it's been made to make the audience more considerate towards bouncers, rather than it focusing on the story it has to tell.  Seeing the two bouncers working out in the gym, the audience feels as if their job is so important to them, they constantly want to get better at it.  However, the ending shows that anger turned towards the bouncers makes them react so much that they end up in prison, but the audience is still left on the side of the bouncers.

   The story is told using freeze frames to keep the narrative more succinct.

Horny by Stephen Hopkins

The title Horny is introduced visually as part of the film rather than an effect put on over the top which could have distracted viewers from any action whilst reading the title.  It immediately engages the audience by having the female protagonist talking to the camera; the audience feel like they're being told her taboo thoughts and are intrigued to know what other characters don't.  The subject of her taboo thoughts, being 'horny' in a tube station, highlights the comic genre of the piece.

    Music plays all the way through the film and constantly sets the pace of each part of the film.

    The film shows, unlike most mainstream films, a woman being in control of a man due to his lack of self control.  This is especially comic as the man appears as the most respectable in the tube carriage and this would probably be behaviour he would look down upon had it been someone else in his situation.

Quotes About Short Film

Catherine Des Forges

"Spare economic narratives, interesting storytelling, well structured work which draws in the audience quickly."

Gareth Evans

"Short films are long films that end earlier.  A good idea, succinctly told; less is more."

Codes and Conventions

Intro to Short Film