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Why people go to the trouble of making short films in the first place?
One of the main reasons why most people make short films in the first place is to create a ‘piece of art’. Derek Jarman and Peter Greenaway .• A chance for directors to showcase their work.
The situation with short filmmaking when shorts were still being shot on celluloid:
• It’s expensive, it was difficult to funding. E.g. Film 4’s Shadowscan cost £90,00. Costs were difficult to justify for films seen by only a handful of people.
The impact that DV technology has had on the short film:•
The UK Film Council have set up a 3 year scheme to support digital shorts (August 2001). They have pledged £1.5 million to support 100 digital short films a year.
The distribution and exhibition possibilities for short films made in the UK:
• Its expensive to distribute. It will need to have been shot in a certain format in order to be shown in cinemas.• However, a steady introduction of digital projection equipment into UK cinemas will save money as the film could be downloaded straight to the cinema.• Some cinemas host monthly ‘shorts’ events, e.g. The Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh.
The limitations of the format (what, according to some, can’t shorts achieve that features can?):
• Short Films used to be easily accessible due to the films being streamed online, however, many websites have had to close down due to loss of money.• iFilm offer short film makers the option of paying to upload their film for a 3 OR 6 month period.• Streaming helps the film reach a larger audience.
The conclusion reached by the writer about the situation of short film in the UK at the time of the article’s publication:
• DV cameras have enabled 100s of film makers to create short films.• However, it can be very time consuming and funding can be hard to get hold of.
How up-to-date you think the article is (providing reasons)? –
Written May 2004• It needs to be updated; YouTube (which came out in 2005), for example, is one of the largest sites to upload and view short films in this day and age.• Most cinemas now use digital projections which means short films are easily watchable.
Find two contemporary articles which examine the importance of short films and their effectiveness as stepping stones to longer format films for emerging filmakers.
Article 1:http://telugu.galatta.com/entertainment/telugu/livewire/id/Short_film_is_a_stepping_stone_in_filmmaking_48491.html
PART 2
Funding & Support
• What was the UK Film Council?
The UK Film Council is the Government-backed lead agency for film in the UK ensuring that the economic, cultural and educational aspects of film are effectively represented at home and abroad.
• What did it do to support short filmmakers and short film making?
The UK Film Council strongly states that they have 15 million pounds a year to invest in new and upcoming directors who create distinctive and entertaining work. As suggested in the 'Eat My Shorts' article, a great way for new film maker to propell themselves onto the scene is to create short films.
• What was the position and role of the BFI prior to the creation of the Film Council?
The UK Film Council and British Film Institute became associated with eachother in the year 2000 when the UK Film Council took responsibility for providing the BFI's annual grant-in-aid. The BFI had been running a long time before this however, and was actually founded in 1933. At this time, the institution was a private company, yet it still received public donations throughout its history. The BFI went through a major change in 1948 following the 'Radcliffe Report' which suggested that it should concentrate more on developing the appreciation of filmic art, rather than creating film itself. In 1983, the institute received a Royal Charter. In 2009 the government wished for the UK Film Council to 'take over' the BFI, however this never happened. 
• How has the position and role of the BFI changed since the recent government decision to dismantle the UK Film Council?
After the UK Film Council was closed on 31 March 2011 many of its functions and fundings passed to the British Film Institute. The BFI was therefore responsible for all Lottery funding for film. UKFC invested $1.6m for a 34% share of net profits, which will pass to the British Film Institute, making it more profitable and important amoungst the UK film industry.
• In what respects and to what extent does the UK Film Council continue to exist as an institutional and cultural film body?
Currently, the UK Film Council has no input or involvement into the funding or distribution for films in the UK. A passage on its website's homepage states:
'From 1 April 2011 the UK Film Council's responsibilities for ensuring that the economic, cultural and educational aspects of film are effectively represented at home and abroad transfer to the British Film Institute (BFI) and Film London'.
• What were the Regional Screen Agencies (RSAs) that Film Council funding was delivered through?
During the year 2000 the UK Film Council set up 9 regional screen agencies to deliver support for film-making, exhibition and related media activities. The agencies were set up in different regions of England, they were:
Screen East
EM Media
Film London
Northern Film and Media
Vision+Media
Screen South
South West Screen
Screen West Midlands
Screen Yorkshire
The agencies focus on activities such training schemes, administration of funding for activities, and the operation of investment funds and local services designed to make a region an attractive place for film-makers to bring inward investment.
• How have these been/will these be affected by recent changes in power structures?
Although the agencies are still up and running, many of them are not as prominant as they were, as they are now feeling the effects of the loss of the UK Film Council as this was where they recieved most of their major funds.
• As a short filmmaker, what funds could you yourself apply for?
Because of the situation I am in and the level of film making I am involved in, it would be extremely hard to find someone or an institution to fund me to make a short film. However, due to the ever growing number of new upcoming film makers, there are many competititions available on the internet (most famously the 'Virgin Media Shorts') which are easy ways to get yourself noticed and many of these competitions give away a huge cash prize which the winner can put towards funding for their next film.
PART 3
Other Funding Sources
Outside of the UK Film Council, are there any other schemes that exist to help fund short films?
There are many institutions and competitions available on the internet that help support and fund short film makers as oppertunities for them to be propelled onto the platform of film making. However, many of them will only concentrate on the very best film makers as they want to be sure that the money is going to a worthy cause.
British Council
http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-film-short-films-scheme.htm
The 'British Council' has a unique scheme which recognises the best new and upcoming film makers. A handful of the best films are chosen out of the hundreds submitted each year and are then promoted to 48 major international film festivals. As they state on their website
'The British Council plays an instrumental role in finding and nurturing talented new filmmakers and has long recognised the need to provide them with a platform for presenting their work at key international events.'
This is a great way to get your film noticed and potentially funded, however this would take a lot of time and dedication in order to have your film chosen as it must be above average and stand above the rest.
Virgin Media Shorts
One of the most famous short film competitions in the UK is 'Virgin Media Shorts'.
http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/#page=1&filter=date
The competition has been running for four years and proudly names its self 'the UK's biggest short film competition'. Anyone can submit a film up to 2 minutes 20 seconds and it is then passed through various different stages depending on how good the judges think the film is. The judges pannel is made up of various successful film directors, producers and critics. If a film makes it to the final 12, Virgin gives the film makers of each film the oppertunity to showcase their work in cinemas for a whole year. The grand prize winner gets a 30,000 pound prize that can go towards funding for a larger scale film in the future. This is a great way for different film makers to get noticed or help boost their ideas to become reality.
Here are some examples of Virgin Media Shorts winners films:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Un20p1NGuw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSuDktau67o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG14SAIWPKQ
South West Screen
Another company similar to Film Council is 'South West Screen' which helps new film makers by offering lottery funds to make their films bigger, better and more known. Here is a link to their website:
http://www.swscreen.co.uk/how-we-can-help/short-film-funding.html
PART 4
Festivals
Make notes about the kinds of festivals that short filmmakers can apply to, to have their works entered in.
• Which are feature film festivals that have important shorts sections?
Leads International Film Festival
http://www.leedsfilm.com/
London Short Film Festival
http://2011.shortfilms.org.uk/
Kino Films
http://www.kino.com/
Encounters
http://www.encounters-festival.org.uk/
• How do the festivals market and promote themselves?
It is extremely common for film festivals to promote themselves through the use of advertising in magazines and posters. However, due to the huge boom in social networking sites, a large amount of festivals are using them as funnels to reach their audience. Sites such as twitter, facebook and youtube now enable advertising on their websites, which is a easy and effective way for festivals to reach out to their target audience and make people aware of them. Festivals can also promote themselves through the different venues they are held at.
• Why is it important to be screened at one?
There are many different reasons for why it is important for short films to be screened at festivals. Most directors use short films as a way of showcasing their talent and almost showing what 'they're about' in terms of filmaking, and use the option of having them shown at festivals as a 'stepping stone' to propell them to future projects. This also makes their name known more amoungst the industry and get noticed. If a filmaker has an idea for a feature length film but is not quite sure about how some elements of it will turn out, the chance to make a short film (based on the same theme and style as the feature) and showcase it at a festival is a great template for how the feature film will look and feel. In this scenario, feedback can also be given by the audience and film critics to the film maker as a chance for them to review their film and perhaps change certain elements of it to help improve their original feature length film. For some others however, making short films and showing them at festivals can just be for fun and be turned into an almost hobby. This can also add on to the expierence of someone in the industry enabling them better oppertunities in the future.
• Who attends them?
A huge number of different people attend festivals, ranging from different ages genders and cultures. Many companies in the industry will attend to festivals to see the level of talent and analyse the new upcoming film makers and what they're doing to make great films. Other directors, producers etc. will attend for similar reasons. Other people go to festivals simply because they like watching films and they are a great way to view a large amount of different styles, genres and techniques used in the films shown.
• How are they supported?
Festivals are supported through various different sponsers and partners. They can also join up with different companies through the venues they are held at. For example, Soho Shorts is held at the Apple store in Regent Street, London. This is a great well known place to support the festival and help it grow.
• What have you noticed about the structure/style of the sites?
All of the sites are extremely modern and unique, complete with bold, diverse colour schemes and futuristic style logos and fonts. However, they all share elements in common. They all have an 'about' option which is a brief description of what the festival is and what it does. They are all easy to use and contain images, videos and music relating to the events they hold. The overall theme of the websites coincides with the style and feel of the line of work they are in, they all seem to come across as fun, bold and diverse.
• What are the other key national festivals for short films?
Most of the key national short film festivals have already been stated above, however there are two more that I found. The first is Soho Shorts (Rushes) which is on for ten days a year and welcomes new talent offering to show films up to 30 minutes. It has been running for 13 years. The other is Hull International Short Film Festival which was created in 2001.
http://sohoshorts.wordpress.com/
http://www.hullfilm.co.uk/
• What are the key international festivals for short films?
Arguably one of the biggest and best international film festival for short films is the 'Berlin Flim Festival' which attracts over 16,000 proffesional film makers each year.
http://www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html
Another Extremely famous international film festival is the 'Cannes Festival' which gives away the most prestigious award in the industry, the Palme D'Or which has been won by the likes of Pulp Fiction in 1994.
http://www.festival-cannes.com/
Other festivals that I could find are:
Ferrand International short film Festival
Flickerfest International short Film Festival
Los Angeles Short Film Festival
Over the Fence Short film Festival
Worldwide Short Film Festival
• Find out about any national or international student film festivals.
In recent years there has been exponential growth in the number of online short film festivals. Find and investigate some (using the above criteria). What advantages/disadvantages do such festivals have when compared to their traditional theatrical counterparts?
PART 5
The following sites offer a range of short films:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/
http://www.film4.com/videos/film4-shorts
http://www.triggerstreet.com/gbase/Trigger/Homepage
http://www.atom.com/
http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/
http://www.vimeo.com/
http://www.youtube.com
•What sorts of films are exhibited at these sites and where do they come from?
Both Film4 Shorts and TriggerStreet mainly focus on a range of short films for people to watch. BBC Film Network and Atom contain many short films too, however they have much more too offer. For example, the BBC Film Network uploads educational videos about the making of films and biographys of directors.
Virgin Media Shorts is one of the most successful short film competitions in the UK. Leading filmakers from all over the world compete to make a short film and win a prize of up to thirty thousand pounds. Many great short films have come out of this competition such as 'The Black Whole', 'Sign Language' and 'Bus Baby'.
Youtube is the biggest place where films can be uploaded and viewed and is the second most visited website in the world. It contains amatuer videos, to aspiring young film makers and even TV shows and feature length films. Many successful youtube viral videos such as 'Charlie Bit Me', 'Sneezing Panda' and 'Laughing Baby' have recieved hundreds of millions of views. As well as uploading videos, users are able to like, comment and favourite videos making it a very tight nitted community. Over the past few years youtube has introduced a 'partnership programme' in which creators can enable advertising on their videos giving them a shared revenue which the advertisers pay which is split between youtube and the creators. This has made more and more people want to upload new, unique videos to the website and many successful youtube stars actually make a living off making youtube videos. Vimeo is very similar to youtube however does not have the same audience size or veiwing figures.
•Who are the audiences?
For Film4 Shorts and TriggerStreet their main audiences will be people interested in short films. This audience will also be attracted to BBC Film Network and Atom however they may also enjoy comedy and how films are actually made. Virgin Media Shorts attracts a large audience of people who enjoy short films, feature length films, students and any other people who want something entertaining to watch. The reason I say this is because the films made are very commercial and are of a very high quality. Virgin is also a huge company making the audience feel safe when browsing the website. Vimeo and Youtube both have huge audiences. Youtube is one of the most popular websites in the world with over 20 hours of video footage uploaded every minute. Nearly everyone in Europe and America has proberly seen a youtube video. The reason for this is the vast difference and range of videos being uploaded which appeals to many different types of people.
•What is the submission process?
BBC Film Network makes the user have to create a membership in order to upload videos. However the other websites enable users to create a page or channel in which they upload their videos to. Many complaints about these websites from users however is that it can take too long to upload videos. A lot of these websites also have time limits which a video can run on for restricting the creator in what they want to make.
•What are the benefits to having a film screened on one site as opposed to another?
The websites such as Virgin Media Shorts and BBC Film Network are for high quality proffessional videos, some may think this is the best place for an aspiring filmaker to get noticed, however they have their drawbacks. These websites as opposed to websites such as youtube and vimeo get considerably less views on their videos, this is mainly because the videos uploaded to youtube and vimeo are much more entertaing for a larger audience. Now that youtube enables the chance for creators to get paid for their content many people choose this website as the place to try and 'get big' amoung the community.
•What is the implication of shorts being offered alongside features for direct download at sites such as MUBI?
This is a quick and easy way for short films to gain popularity and success. MUBI is a huge company that can highlight great short films that people don't neccessarily know about.
•What have you noticed about the structure/style of the sites and their presentation of the material?
Most of the websites have similar layouts. All of them are very easy to use and navigate around. The easiest for me to navigate around was youtube purely because this is what I spend a lot of free time on. The homepage of youtube along with some of the other websites like vimeo change once you become a member or user. The best thing about youtube is it recognises what videos you have been viewing and suggests more videos for you to watch along the same theme as the previous videos. This is a very logical way to keep their new audiences attracted to the site. The only website thaat is very different to the others is Virgin Media Shorts which is still easy to use however has many links to divert the audience to be able to vote in the big competition. It also has news feeds which helps capture and engage people.
Evaluate the sites’ effectiveness in terms of the exposure they achieve for the films and their makers, and also in terms of their potential audience.
I think Film4 Short Film, Virgin Media Shorts and BBC Film Network are more effective in terms of exposure for the films and its makers due to the way they present the films and the content on the sites. They are all generally large websites which will attract large audiences. Websites such as Youtube and Vimeo have large exposure for films and filmakers however are not the best places to get started if someone wants a career in the industry due to the large difference in content uploaded and how much content is uploaded.
PART 6
Short screenplay writing
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tours/shortfilm/tour1.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writing/tips_shortfilm.shtml
http://www.netribution.co.uk/features/howto/scriptwriting_5_short_film.html
Investigate the advice given to support new writers. Make notes.
Screen Online takes a tour which states six questions that every film maker should ask themselves before making a film. They are:
•Who is the protagonist?
The protagonist is the central character in the heart of the story. Every story needs one, however it is hard to have two protagonists especially in a short film as the audience might losetheir connection with one of them.
•What is the active question, which is the basis of the action in film?
This question is linked with 3 key things that every filmaker should have about their protagonist. A want, need or obligation. When these three things are established, it should be the basis for driving the action of the whole film.
•Who or what opposes the protagonist?
Nearly anything can oppose or challenge the protagonist. People, places or events. However, the challenge for the director is to get this message across to the audience so they truly understand why this is a challenge for the protagonist. The audience must also understand why this is hard for for the protagonist to overcome, giving fuel to the film.
•From whose point of view is the audience being shown the story?
Nearly all films are shown the story through the protagonists point of veiw, especially in short films. This is to maintain a strong connection and emotional bond between the audience and the protagonist. If the point of veiw is shown from more thatn one person, this connection may be lost losing meaning for the audience to carry on watching the film.
•What is it about? or, What is the theme?
These types of questions should always be answered by the filmaker early on in the creation of their idea. These things are the basis for the whole story.
•What is the style of the film?
Films can either be based around a style, however this can sometimes not work, or the film can be how the makers wanted it to be and it creates its own style, tone and film all together. This usually works, however sometimes this can occur in a vast difference of styles that a director can get confused with and the whole feel of the film is then lowered.
PART 7
Investigate other agencies and organisations that offer support to filmmakers and make notes on the training they offer and how they help to develop projects.
Examples:
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/
The 'Lighthouse' company is a leading agency based in South East England. The company offers two types of support for filmakers, which are commission; where a programme is offered to artists and artist groups to develop new work in a supportive environment, and training. This offers a huge variety of training courses, workshops and mentoring for filmmakers, screenwriters, digital artists and animators, which are aimed at both beginner and intermediate levels.
http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/
This organisation offers various courses which eventually enable a person to gain a recognisable certificated diploma by the end of it. The courses are taught by professionals from within the industry, which combine traditional filmmaking with new digital technology. Raindance also runs a anual film festival which helps young filmakers get noticed for their talents.
http://www.skillset.org/
Skillset covers many areas such as computer gaming, photo imaging, publishing and animation as well as film, but their main aim is to up hold a high standard of people who wish to pursue a career in the creative media industry. The organisation also offers qualifications to students aged between 14-19, and also offers funding to kickstart the careers of young aspirational talents.
http://www.scriptfactory.co.uk/
The scriptfactory is one of the largest filmaking organisations in Europe which offers training and development to aspiring script writers. It has been a company since 1966 and holds events where various different filmakers take to a stage to express their ideas to an audience.
PART 8
The ratio of shorts that make money through more conventional channels of distribution and exhibition to those that don’t is diminutive. Why do you think this is?
Many of the thousands of short films made every year make money, however most of these are television advertisements and music videos in which the filmakers have a considerably large budget compared to the short film makers who want their films shown the tradional way through festivals etc. TV adverts and music videos are shown throughout the day on popular channels, which therefore give them a massive audience. However, other short films will only be viewed by short film enthusiasts who want to go to festivals to watch films. However recently, this could be changing. On channels such as Film 4, it is not uncommon now for a short film to be shown just before the feature film is played. This is making more and more short films and their makers more popular and known about. The only problem with this is that nearly all of the short films shown this way are award winning and the 'best' short films made.
In what contexts have the following anthologies/collections of short films been created and how have they been put together?
http://www.cinema16.org/home.php
Cinema16 have created various short film DVD's which have been subcatagorised into 4 seperate sections. World short films, American short films, European short films and British short films.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/teaching/movingshorts/
http://www.futureshorts.com/htmlViewer.php?id=15
http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/index.php?aid=720
http://shootingpeoplefilms.com/content/bvb1and2
Sgort films allows viewers to illegally view free movies online.
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