SHORT FILMS II

Here are some classic short films compiled with the help of Peter Rea and David K. Irving’s excellent book, Producing the Short Film and Video, Second Edition (Boston: Focal Press, 2001):

Block, Mitchell: No Lies (USA 1972, B&W, 16 Minutes). It looks like a documentary, as the director crudely presses a raped woman for an account of her misfortune, but it’s all acted and for a purpose.

Bunuel, Luis: Un Chien Andalou/The Andalusian Dog (France, 1928, B&W, 20 Minutes). A surrealist experiment in shocking imagery, undertaken with Salvador Dali that avoids any linear story logic.

Davidson, Alan: The Lunch Date (USA, 1990, B&W, 12 Minutes). A deceptive encounter over a salad between a woman and a homeless man at Grand Central Station.

Deren, Maya and Alexander Hammid: Meshes of the Afternoon (USA, 1943, B&W, 13 Minutes). Seminal work in which the mother of American experimental cinema plays a woman who dreams of being driven to suicide by loneliness and adversity.

Enrico Robert: An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge/ La Rivière du Hibou (France, 1962, B&W, 27 Minutes). A soldier in the American Civil War makes a miraculous escape from hanging—or does he? A fine film and a veritable catalogue of judiciously used sound and picture techniques. From a tale by Amrose Bierce.

Godard, Jean-Luc: Tous les Garçons s’Apellent Patrick/All the Boys Are Called Patrick (France, 1957, B&W, 21 Minutes). Two girls find they are dating the same man.

Lamorisse, Albert: Le Balon Rouge/The Red Baloon (France, 1956, Color, 34 Minutes) A lonely boy in Paris makes friends with a balloon, which begins to reciprocate his attentions. No words.

Marker, Chris: La Jetée/The Jetty/The Pier (France, 1962, B&W, 29 Minutes). A film almost entirely in stills about a survivor of World War III, whose childhood memories allow him to move around at will in time. One shot has motion, and Georges Sadoul rightly says “the screen disarmingly bursts into sensuous life.”

Metzner, Ernö: Überfall/Accident/Police Report/Assault (Germany, 1928, B&W, 21 Minutes). A man wins some cash in a beer hall, but it brings him nothing but bad luck. Almost a catalogue of camera techniques.

Polanski, Roman and Jean-Pierre Rousseau: The Fat and the Lean/Gruby i Chudy (France, 1962, B&W, 15 Minutes). This allegory about a fat and thin man explores the relationship and dependency between master and servant, and what  stops the servant from escaping.

Polanski, Roman: Two Men and a Wardrobe/Dwaj Ludzie z Szafa (Poland, 1957, B&W, 15 Minutes). Another allegory in which two men appear out of the sea, struggling with a bulky wardrobe, avoiding humanity and unable to solve their problems.

Renoir, Jean: Un Partie de Campagne/A Day in the Country (France,1936,B&W,37 Minutes ). A Paris shopkeeper takes his family for a day in the country, and his daughter— who already has a fiancé—falls in love with another man. Sadly, the relationship has no future. From a tale by Guy de Maupassant.

SHORT FILMS!

I think short films has grabbed its due respect these days, not just as ‘calling cards’ as it used to be. Though many are produced from Film School backgrounds, the influence and popularity of YouTube has induced many aspiring film makers think prospectively about shorts; and independent low-budget or no-budget shorts are increasingly being made. Another emerging trend I find is TV channels promoting short films (approx 11 and 22 minutes). Short film festivals call for many rewards I this film making segment.

Recently when ScreenWrite.In participants attended a seminar organized by Goethe- Institut Max Muller Bhavan, on ‘Locating South India Cinema in an International Context’, 24/25 August 2010, I remember Ms. Dorothy Werner of the Berlin Film Festival suggesting how German film industry still see short as a director’s medium, a ‘calling card’ demonstrating their abilities to go on to make their first feature.

The whole idea of why I write about this topic comes from my recent involvement with novice writers both at LV Prasad Film and TV Academy and my own ScreenWrite.In, who venture into writing shorts; and probably sharing my thoughts may help them with some little thing or the other in their writing endeavor.

My strong belief from experience is writing for shorter duration movies is more difficult than for longer drama. The writer needs a new outlook to consider the shorter time at disposal (normally shorts span from 5 minutes to 30 minutes). The cleverness with picture-making is more demanding in short-film screenwriting when compared to long feature.

For the same reason the rules and systematic approach (if I may call them so) of screenwriting are of greater significance for shorts. You have approximately five to thirty pages and needs the craft for the same intensity of story telling like any other longer forms; here the brevity and prudence in structure and expression are everything. The imperative is to place the character immediately into the thick of drama, move along a specific incident of his/her life which provokes the viewer to imagine a more elaborate world of the character.

The ideas and its expression have to fit into space of time disposable. A longer story cannot forcibly be compressed to fit the allotted time or a sketch idea artificially stretched. Nor is it a promo for some future envisaged feature – a good tactic if can pull it off (this line perhaps is for Ekta, LVP-FTA).

Last but not the least, for a short the emotion is more precise, and therefore more intense. As a screenwriter, the emotion building is of very high importance as the duration is short. The emotion provoked with a couple of scenes in a longer drama has to meet the target with just a shot or so in the short; that’s the difference, as also the craft required.

Please find a couple of shorts to watch. Would like to get your opinion on these as to the emotion and structure:

Love Field - Short Film

Inside - Short Film