Storytelling – Part 3

In my previous post I took a closer look at storytelling on a more meta level. I will continue with a more specific analysis of storytelling in connection to short films. I will look into some of the characteristics of short films and present a few ideas that could help me with my future work on storytelling structure.

There is no clear definition of what a short film is. Usually it is framed opposite of a feature film, defined by its shorter length. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which also gives awards for the best short films, considers their duration to be 40 minutes or less. However, time is not their only attribute. According to Howe (2004), " [] … shorts are often rich in images, have high and often intense production values, have occluded and often tricksy narrative, and are too often at best twee, at worst about not very much but themselves." Their counterpart from literature would not be a short story, but probably a lyrical poem. Their themes frequently exhibit: "[…] existential moments hermetically sealed off from the world of feature films and often the world we live in." (Howe, 2004) Another characteristic would also be a good story twist at the end.

Short films are an established practice among young directors as a potential future reference or a calling card. Sometimes they are shot as a proof of concept to pitch a feature film idea. Most of the authors are between 20 and 30. This shows in the themes they tackle – they have certain narrative interests. The vast is usually composed from children, young adults and there is a lot of "post office heist" type of movies. Some genres seem more prominently featured than others. Because of this Howe (2004) points out most are much better at style then at storytelling. Personally I must agree. I believe maturity in storytelling comes with life experience which twenty-somethings lack.

There are many theories on story structure. From Aristotle's three-act structure and Joseph Campbell's monomtyh to Blake Snyder's story beats and Christopher Vogler's seven page studio memo, "A Practical Guide to The Hero with a Thousand Faces", they can all work together to make a coherent feature film, but the can be a little unsuitable for short films. However, some of the rules still apply. A short movie should most of the time strive to build its story on three elements: a life changing event, an obstacle and a goal. These are basically really impoverished concepts used by their bigger brothers.

Short films can usually be situation or character driven. To sufficiently develop the latter, one would require more time to do justice to the character's story arc. Hence, it is not used so frequently as the action based situation driven story. However, there is a method proposed by Raskin (2006) that suggest an approach based on careful editing. He presents a combination: "(1) a small number of sustained shots that dwell on faces, thereby deepening the viewer’s involvement with characters at key moments in the story and (2) a vast majority of tightly trimmed shots that move the action forward in as streamlined a manner as possible." (Raskin, 2006)

The first idea takes care of the character portion of the story, allowing sufficient character development and viewer's insight into their psyche. This is mainly achieved by longer shots of the characters during key moments, when the viewer can speculate what is going on in their head. The second idea simply builds on a core editing principle of "less is more" that proposes cutting out everything that is not absolutely essential for the story or aesthetic nature of the film. Another expression that is used is "cutting to the bone". This should not be confused with "killing your darlings", which applies to writing of passages of text that could be of great personal importance to the author, but do not work in the larger context of the book/film.

A combination of these two techniques allows both a situation and a character driven narrative, while at the same time the film works as a whole and is at the same time deep enough to have a more prominent meaning.

One of the biggest criticisms of short movies is their reliance on inambitious writing material. For example, "A short film can be challenging and epic and truly cinematic not just in its imagery but in its intentions." (Howe, 2004) In the future, short films should not be shy to try on some more difficult, feature worthy, stories.

SOURCES

Raskin, R. (2003). On pacing in the short fiction film. Journal of Media Practices, volume 7, number 2, 159-160, Intellect Ltd.

Howe, J. (2004). Shorts and the real world – the relationship between the short and the feature film. Journal of Media Practices, volume 4, issue 3, 177-180. Intellect Ltd.