About a Girl

Directed by Brian Percival 'About Girl' was created in 2001 as a direct opposition to 'About a Boy'. It is a 9 minutes and 50 second long thought provoking piece. It tells a story of a young girl that is struggling with growing up in an environment which is not suited for raising children. She is forced to grow up too fast which the viewer can see by the constant on going dialogue from the protagnist. The film starts with a Britney Spears song being resighted by the protagnist, Britney Spears, suggests innocents and purity, however during the time of when this film was made, she was having the break down, so this could send a message to the audience that the protagnist is having a hard time. The constant breaks in continuaty tells the audience that something is not right, but this is one convention of short film, to be innovative. When she states "I'm not a kid" her father takes no notice, but because she says this as if to break the ice, it tells me that shes gone through something which would make her believe as to why she isn't a kid. Its obvious she finds her father a joke, because she speaks of him in a way which is extremely under-minding. As she sits out the pub on the bench, the camera slowly moves out which reveals all of the empty space around her, this connotes how lonely she feels. At 2:55 she is on the bus and says she is not that innocent, which also helps to identify reasons as to why you would believe her when she states she is not an kid. Even though she mocks her father, as the film carries on we see that she is extremely hung up on the "99" flake with the "hundreds and thosands" that her father bought her. The film then ends extremely abruptly, because when she throws the baby in the canal it shocks the viewing because it makes you wonder what she had to go through all alone.

Ideas related to Short Film

Anything under 50 minutes is/can be classed as a Short film, they tend to have little if any cast, but most importantly whenever they are created, they tend to encode, some type of thought provoking message. Short films, tend to tell a story through treating their audience as if they are intelligent, whereas mainstream cinema tends to appeal to a passive mass audience, which are drawn in by 're-worked' storylines, vast amounts of computer graphics and explosions, which are funded by huge budgets, however using smaller if not any budgets, Short Films tend to gain their audiences attention within the first few minutes by jumping straight into the narrative and manages to contain this attention.

Unlike Hollywood, short Films cater for the niche market, which are interested in new storylines, ideas and styles of work. They tend to be a lot more realistic and gritty, and just as real life is, can be based on anything.

People create short films because it allows for their work to be exhibited, technology has come so far that short films can be viewed on the internet now, with host sites like 'youtube' and 'vimio' short films now have a place where they can be, uploaded and viewed. Alongside such sites, there are sites dedicated to the exhibtion of just short films. Short films are also created because it is a way for someone to gain more experience within making films, it could also be a way of being found by a big film company. Short film equals less risk.

Video Activism

Video Activism came around during the up and coming fame of Short film. Created by protest groups they were made to shed light on something the spesific protest group were against. They are created in such a way that they manage to grasp the views interest and shock them, allowing for room to leave a provoking idea.

Click here to view a Video by the 'Fed Up' protest group on food.

This example of video activism, shows exactly how to turn its viewers/like minded people to see the real truths about American food ingredients. Here is a quote used by The 'Fed Up' organisation ("About 70% of the food we eat contains genetically modified ingredients and is not labeled. The biotechnology industry is spending $50 million a year to convince us that this technology is our only hope for feeding the world and saving the environment.") which works well to create a thought provoking idea, and when used alongside the video footage it manages to sway its audiences thoughts about these spesific products.

However this video is rather tame, when compared to this one posted by a Video Activist group.



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Ballet Mecanique

This video was a short film of abstract images which she tell a short story that is completely ambiguous. This is just an idea of what Short film could look like. It reminds me of looking through a kaleidoscope which is rather interesting because it is hard to understand what the story is aobut.

Avant Garde

Avant Garde, being French for "A head of the crowd" also referred to as experimental film is a type of film created by film makers who wish to experiment with "new ideas, forms, techniques and expression". In some ways they could even be compared to being the short films eqivialent of French New Waves 'La Nouvelle Vague', this is by trying to be innovative in their ideas and experimental process of making a film. Avant Garde filming is seen as experimental, expressionistic art work which in some cases could be viewed in exhibitions. Political, sexual and other views were also the inspirations of some Avant Garde films. Laura Mulvey's writing and film making constantly reflected the American society of post WW2.




In 1929 artist Salvidor Dali and Luis Bunuel created a thought provoking set of images to create an experimental art form piece. Raising the profile for Arthouse, Avant Garde film making.

Salvidor Dali


Avant Garde films grew with the success of a film by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, called "The Meshes in The Afternoon" with its sucess in 1943, it established a model of what experimental cinema could do.
Meshes

History of Short Film

In 1895 the Lumiere brothers, recorded the first piece of visual footage, even thought it lacked sound and everything we as a 21st century society are used to, due to being created. Nonetheless, it was the birth of film as they knew it.

In this modern day and age, we are used to films being 120 minutes long, (a common feature length time) therefore making "Sortie D'lusine" by the Lumiere brothers, not only the first film in history, but the first short film too. The short film industry began to grow, within a number of years, short films being presented had become a common event within society, however before a few years had passed, the technological advancements had gone so far that techni-colour had been used within the film of "The Wizard of Oz" in its entirety. Once this huge advancement in technology had taken place, even thought Hollywood had been around and was already a booming industry, this film gave Hollywood a re-birth, sending its success sky high. Therefore putting the making and success of Short film into a steep decline.

Along with the success of Hollywood, cinemas grew extremely popular and due to the fact that films of a full feature length were created, people were less likely to pay money to see a short film with a possibility of having some artistic content which would obstruct the passive audiences mind. Cinemas contracted all films to be no longer than 100 minutes so that they could have two hour blocks, to get the people in, buy food, watch the film, toilets and leave. This process allowed for quick turn over.

Hollywood currently see short film as a cut price lab for experimentation and innovation. Whereas in the past, companies would force owners of short films to sell their short film idea to big companies, this was call Block Booking and eventually made illegal. Short films are also seen as a way of finding new and interesting filmmakers.

Throughout this struggle of trying to survive alongside a booming industry like Hollywood, Short film has survived and is currently starting to create its own industry and idea of film making. Short films are not only made by inspiring film directors, but also by, artists, protest groups, video activists and other people wishing to present their ideas or theories to the world.

Love Through a Magnifying Glass

Today I went on google and searched 'Short Films', I then found a link to a Shortfilm website set out rather like youtube. It allowed people to sign up and upload Shortfilms of any type. I chose this Shortfilm mainly because it was uploaded today and when watching the piece, I felt that the actual animation was rather emotive, it presented a constant flowing narrative which had a start middle and end, it also delved straight into the story, which all coinside with codes and conventions of shortfilm.

Future Shorts

“Future Shorts is one of the leading and most innovative short film labels.” Beginning in 2003, Future Shorts created a network that enabled filmakers to have their work displayed worldwide. Future Shorts are seen by film industry professionals, critics and actors alike as the cutting edge short film label. As well as distribution, Future Shorts also is a worldwide monthly film fest.

Films are submitted by their creator to the Future Shorts website, in hopes to be chosen and placed onto the shortlist for the monthly programmed screenings worldwide. There are 20 screening venues in the UK and in over 65 cities Internationally which take part in this innovative way of screening everyone’s work. By doing this, Future Shorts are entering a realm of presenting work worldwide, therefore allowing enhancing people’s understand an acknowledgment of short film.

“Future Shorts is involved in the organisation of cinematic events as a new way of exposing people to short films in different environments, combining a variety of creative ideas.”