Above are the conventions, characters and settings. I think that we have stuck to the characters convention because we really only have 2 main characters which are mine and Harry's characters. These are the ones who make the short film work and who the story is based around. We also have Glen's character. I would really class his character as a main one but he is very important for the story to flow throughout. This is because he is the one who causes the disruption in the first place by going off with Harry's wife so this would make him very important. We have done this because we wanted to keep it simple and easy to follow. We definitely haven't followed the settings convention in our short film because we had a lot more than just two as you can see in the photo next to this. However i dont think this is a bad thing because i think by using more locations we have given it more variety in our film and it actually keeps it more interesting and gives it a lot more depth to it.
I think that we have stuck to the budget convention very well. This is because we also don't have anyone who can give us enough money to make a massive production much like a lot of other short films that have been made. We managed to get enough money to pay for petrol to drive us around, a few melons to do the melon smash and a couple pieces of equipment that we used to get some different shots. We didn't really have much choice in the matter as we both only have part time jobs so we had to follow this whether we liked it or not. I think we have kept to the length convention very well because our short film lasted for 5 minutes. We thought this was a good length because then we weren't dragging out the story to much and we can pack a lot of stuff into it so that the audience is constantly interested. As you can see in the picture to the left we have kept to the convention.
Another convention that i think i could use would be having a twist in the film. We have definitely followed this convention because all the way through it the audience is lead to believe that it was Harry's character who committed the murder and framed my character. However right at the end it shows the audience Harry's character recounting his version of events which swaps the whole story around so it looks like my character did it. This then leaves the audience to decide for themselves what actually happened. i think it is really important for the film to involve a twist as it gives the audience something to think about afterwards and it makes it a lot more exciting than making it so that Harry's character just gets arrested. However this has also sometimes not really worked in films and some people say that it has ruined the end because of all the build up to what they thought was actually going to happen.
A theory for films that is used a lot would be Todorovs theory which i also think could be turned into a convention of film. Todorovs theory follows 5 different steps and he believes that the majority of films can relate to this with the story it is telling. I think that there are parts of our short film that we could relate to todorovs theory, for example at the start of our film when Harry is walking out of work everything is in order and is quite peaceful. Another part of it that we could relate to would be the recognition of the disruption. This part would be when my character finds the dead body and realizes that the person who has been driving him is actually a killer. However this would change depending on what you think happens at the end because of the twist that we have applied to our film. The one main part that we really couldn't apply would be the end which is called the repair in todorovs theory. This is because in the end of it all Glen is now dead, Harry has lost his girlfriend and my character, depending on what you believe, was arrested for committing the murder.
Above is a graph that i have created to show you how other people have thought about what codes and conventions i have either followed or i have challenged. I got mixed results back which is brilliant as it gives me more ways to perhaps improve my short film.
i think that sticking to the conventions of a short film has improved our own product dramatically because if we went off and did our own thing and basically broke the rules or guidelines of what a thriller films normally should be like i don't thing that our film would have been as successful as it was. It would have lead to the audience getting bored if we didn't have a twist. However i also thing that by breaking some of the conventions, for example the settings, it has made it better because it gives it more variety and something different for the audience to see.
Another convention that i think i could use would be having a twist in the film. We have definitely followed this convention because all the way through it the audience is lead to believe that it was Harry's character who committed the murder and framed my character. However right at the end it shows the audience Harry's character recounting his version of events which swaps the whole story around so it looks like my character did it. This then leaves the audience to decide for themselves what actually happened. i think it is really important for the film to involve a twist as it gives the audience something to think about afterwards and it makes it a lot more exciting than making it so that Harry's character just gets arrested. However this has also sometimes not really worked in films and some people say that it has ruined the end because of all the build up to what they thought was actually going to happen.
A theory for films that is used a lot would be Todorovs theory which i also think could be turned into a convention of film. Todorovs theory follows 5 different steps and he believes that the majority of films can relate to this with the story it is telling. I think that there are parts of our short film that we could relate to todorovs theory, for example at the start of our film when Harry is walking out of work everything is in order and is quite peaceful. Another part of it that we could relate to would be the recognition of the disruption. This part would be when my character finds the dead body and realizes that the person who has been driving him is actually a killer. However this would change depending on what you think happens at the end because of the twist that we have applied to our film. The one main part that we really couldn't apply would be the end which is called the repair in todorovs theory. This is because in the end of it all Glen is now dead, Harry has lost his girlfriend and my character, depending on what you believe, was arrested for committing the murder.Above is a graph that i have created to show you how other people have thought about what codes and conventions i have either followed or i have challenged. I got mixed results back which is brilliant as it gives me more ways to perhaps improve my short film.
i think that sticking to the conventions of a short film has improved our own product dramatically because if we went off and did our own thing and basically broke the rules or guidelines of what a thriller films normally should be like i don't thing that our film would have been as successful as it was. It would have lead to the audience getting bored if we didn't have a twist. However i also thing that by breaking some of the conventions, for example the settings, it has made it better because it gives it more variety and something different for the audience to see.
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