A short film is a piece of visual images that last up to 59 minutes, however most short films fall between the duration of 20 to 40 minutes. Trailers for feature length films are often mistaken for being short films in spite of this they are not; fore trailers are just various clips from a feature length film thrown together. Short films must contain an Equilibrium (beginning), dis-equilibrium (middle) and new-equilibrium (end). This is similar to a feature length film as it must contain some basis of a plot/storyline. However the plot within short films doesn’t have to make complete sense and can leave the audience guessing. Although short films need to have a structure to them, they do not necessarily have to have a defiant ending.
Short films can be of any genre and are often viewed as a genre in themselves, the advantage of this means that there are no limitations with what you can do. As long as they have some kind of message or something intriguing to the audience they will succeed, this is because the Director only has a short amount of time to portray their view and has to make a lasting impression.
A good example of a short film that successfully leaves a lasting impression, is “about a girl” Dir. Brian Percival, The story is a simple “in the life of” with no real drama, until the ending where the young girl throws a plastic bag in the canal which contains a dead baby. The effect of this is huge as it is completely un-expected and is a horrifying concept for people to grasp, it goes against our human nature, causing us to stop and think about what the short films trying to portray. Justine has done a textual analysis on “About a girl” below where, she has analysed what Percival is trying to portray to the audience.
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