Applying narrative theory to short films

When applying narrative theories to short films in particular, it is quite difficult to fully put forward Propp's theory of the 8 characters as from looking at the codes and conventions of short films, the amount of characters tends to be quite low. The narrative theorist Tzvetin Todorov's take on narrative is one that can be applied to a wide range of short films. One of the short films I watched called 'Where You Are' uses sections of Todorov's thesis on narrative well.

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/180000452" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/180000452">Where You Are</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user28501454">Graham Parkes</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

The beginning of the short film or the equilibrium shows a mother and son playing hide and go seek together. The mother plays along with her son as he hides, she knows that he has hidden in the red hamper in the room yet she plays along checking other places in the room to finally come and catch her son in the hamper. All is normal until she goes to the hamper where she seen her son, and when she opens it up, he is gone.

The disequilibrium comes in to play, the mother is so confused and begins to panic, going through the rooms of the house to look for her missing son, in each room she goes into something very unnatural is happening, a chaotic wide shot shows the mother's husband sat at a table covered in paint acting like everything is normal while the mother is even more confused. The mother keeps on looking for her son, she goes upstairs to his discover his new oddly decorated room to see him but he is 10 years older. The scenes get even more bizarre and intense as her son runs off and she keeps searching for him, she ends up in an under-construction housing estate where nothing but disruption is taking place; people fighting, men in cages, slaves and her son sitting on a makeshift throne on a pile of rubble inciting a fight from down below. Things spiral even more out of the ordinary when after her son runs away again, she searches to find him and when she does, he is a fully grown man moving out of the home where he once lived.

The resolution comes internally with the mother as all of her fears of what her son is up to conclude with pride in what her son has become. She sees her son as a man moving out with his partner, starting his own new life and he is fine, this relieves the mother of all of the terrible thoughts in her head. The mother tells her son 'I love you James' 

Some elements of Todorov's theory do not apply to this short film, but the new equilibrium is still a feature. At the end of the film the son comes back out of the red hamper and is reunited as a child from the beginning, The new equilibrium. 

In applying Strauss' narrative theory to Where You Are innocence vs bad behaviour is contrasted, where the mother has the idea in her head that her son is being bad behaved as she goes into her head imagining all of the worst things he could possibly do, but in the end she comes back to the reality that her son is still just an innocent young boy.

Codes, Conventions and Patterns in Short Films.

Short Film- A film that is not long enough to be considered a full-length feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as an original motion picture with a running time of 40 minutes or less.

OPENINGS

After watching a few short films, I have realised that some of them follow similar patterns and structures, for example, the first pattern I picked up on is that many of these short films get straight in to point and are filmed in a way that it seems mid scene. I also grasped a firm impression on the character quicker than I would in a full-length film, as a full-length has more time to build up a character progressively. Short films tend to begin with a title straight away within the first 15 seconds where as most films' titles' are shown after the opening scene, or ending. This reinforces my point how short films get straight to the point. Here is examples of a few short films I watched which began with the title.

 A Short Film I watched called 'Where You Are' by Graham Parkes begins with the title then a mother and son in mid conversation. With no narration or build up we are put straight into the scene, firstly hearing a part of their conversation which is the main theme of the short film. This scene is continued at the end of the Short Film

This pattern continues. When I watched 'Stryka' by Emily Carmichael, the opening scene for this shows 3 people sitting where one begins to laugh, again we are shot in to the middle of a scene where we don't know what happened but we're in the moment. The ending of Stryka is a continuation of the opening also.

CHARACTERS

Short films tend to have a small variety of main characters. The fact that these films are what they are (short), means that there isn't enough time to delve in to more that 2 or 3 characters. If there were more than 3 characters, it wouldn't allow the viewer to relate to all of the characters in the short amount of time that is a short film. Short films usually tend to have one main protagonist throughout the film. For Example, "Lonely Planet" by Alex Burunova only has 2 main characters in the short film, with the girl being the main.

LENGTH

Anything over 40 minutes would be considered a feature film. Short films usually last 5-10 minutes, but can be longer.

"Lonely Planet" - 24 minutes

"Killer" - 20 minutes

"Where You Are" - 13 minutes

BUDGET

Most short films would tend to have a low budget, reason being that most short film makers are independent. Many actors in short films are amateur actors, so they wouldn't be expecting a high payment. As well as having to pay the actors, directors and producers also need to get payed, this 'Budget Breakdown' shows the actors, producers and directors being payed hourly for a relatively cheap price in comparison to full feature films. The Breakdown also shows the costs of props, equipment and location rental. There are a lot of factors involved in creating a short film, but a lot less than a full feature film. The grand total shown for this certain film was £571.50, which is quite cheap compared to full feature films.

TWIST

Short films tend to have a twist or at least an element of the film that is completely extraordinary. The endings of short films are usually clever and leave a message to the viewer. In the short film 'Black Hole', the main protagonist gets more than he bargained  for and this was conveyed in a very smart way, with a message telling the audience that being greedy is immoral.