Analysing Short Films

Ambush (2007) Action:

First of all, the Duration of this short film is a convention that is followed, as the upper maximum of short films is 35 minutes, with the average being between 5 and 10 minutes. The time is more than ample enough, to fully portray some of the other conventions of both it being a short film and under the genre of Action, including a shoot out scene that effectively conveys a sense of suspense, where the audience wonders at every time a shot Is heard, whether the protagonist will be injured or killed.

Genre is another convention of short films that can be seen rather clearly in this piece, through medium of a car chase scene, that as mentioned previously, heightened the audience's sense of suspense within both this moment, and the other similar moments throughout the piece. Even the inclusion of weapon props is a form of action, as it clearly hints at the possibility that something risky and massive for the plot, is about to occur.

     

Yet another convention though on the more obvious side of things, would be the characters, theres a clear defining line between protagonist and antagonist, with side characters being used to allow the audience to question what they would do in similar situations to the protagonist, thus allowing for a feeling of empathy between the audience and the characters. Furthermore, within the image above, you can see the clear panic of the side character while the protagonist is distinctly calm despite their situation.

Furthermore the storyline sticks rather linear, with a clear difference in areas of no conflict, and areas of heightened conflict within the plot, as well as including subtle plot convinces to further the story itself, for instance the appearance of an Exit sign when the protagonist is getting shot at and yet not leading up to that point, the use of this does indeed help further the plot and also sustains the feeling of tension within the situation as there it is, the protagonists only escape route, with that same risk of it also perhaps being a trap.

Lastly, theres a slight twist at the end of the short film, at the rising conflict section, the side character tells the protagonist that he swallowed his products, and that the antagonists would kill him to get to them, though this fact is revealed to have been a lie the entire time, at the end of the short film, though it is revealed in a more comedic way , the twist was rather unexpected and catches the audience off guard

Offside:

Duration, this convention is quite a clear and obvious one, though the short film being right in the middle of the two averages for short film duration, the lower being 5 minutes while the upper is 7 minutes. This duration has been effectively used to get both a rather solemn message across about how sports can even temporarily pause most conflicts, taking probably inspiration of the world war one truce for a game of football, which is also shown within a Sainsbury advertisement similarly. Though this one isn't an exact copy as it also shows the tenseness of both sides in the conflict, and how even despite that brief friendship, war will still cause them to claim each others lives, thus allowing for the audience to feel nothing but sympathy for the soldiers who have laid down their lives.

Genre is quite possibly the most apparent convention other than duration for this piece, almost everything within the short film shows or hints toward conflict and war, bearing in mind war is the genre, the props such as guns and other military equipment comes in as quite an obvious show of conflict. This doesn't exactly have that much of an effect on the audience emotionally, but it does allow for a deeper level of concentration on the plot and a deeper level of understanding about it.

Storyline wise, Offside is also rather linear, showing a clear build up in tension from a state of equilibrium to disequilibrium, and also allowing for the audience to further develop their understanding of the situation between both sides of the conflict, while one is well equipped with adequate equipment for their troops, the other one appears to be struggling, as if they are a resistance group. The touch of the football match being a temporary was a really nice addition to the plot, allowing the audience to detect similar emotions to sympathy and also excitement, seeing that the two sides at least share some common interests, despite their state of conflict.

Another convention of short films that Offside follows would be its use of Emotion, it plays on the empathy that some may feel toward the soldiers bearing in mind they are in a state of conflict risking their lives, furthermore it adds suspense to the standoff between the characters we have been introduced to at the start with their opposing force,  the way in which it plays on empathy and sympathy allows the audience to feel nothing but suspense however a heightened sense of relief when we realise they don't intend to kill each other but rather intend to listen to the football, at least before they go back to their conflict, this pause in the conflict as mentioned previously is reminiscient to those who have seen the Sainsbury's Christmas world war 1 advertisement, where two opposing sides of the conflict pause their battle to enjoy a good game of football together and enjoy their Christmas, though Offside doesn't appear to have any Christmas themes. This invokes a fairly strong emotion within the audience of relief throughout, up until the end, where the twist occurs.

The twist is yet another convention used commonly by short films, in Offside's case however there is a very unexpected twist, where the two opposing forces actually shoot at each other during the football match and everyone present within the scene dies, despite their earlier camaraderie to stop for a moment to hear how the football match is going, this has been done in such a way that does invoke a sense of sadness within the audience alongside the surprise given by this brutal and harsh twist, yet also shows a sense of reality where these forms of armistice rarely occur.

Money Box:

The duration of this short film is only around 5 minutes, in which this keeps to the usual / standard format of duration used by most short films. This Duration has been used rather effectively in showing a more hidden meaning of how one's greed can lead them to a horrible end. In the Case of this short film, the main character got a bit too greedy and ended up losing everything he gained and just put into the machine. This has had quite a surprising effect on the audience as it wasn't expected to have happened, it wasn't a predictable end.

Another convention shown within this short story would be the storyline, the storyline following this character who slots money into a machine for a drink but ends up instead getting even more money out of it than what he started with. From the way the character responded, in giving it more money to get even more profit, the audience can relate, as most people if that happened, would willingly do the same thing, after all free money is free money.

The Character conventions followed here are the singular / limited character amount, minimal background with little to no discernible detail on the character or their background, other than from what the audience can see of the character's actions and clothing. The way the character acts is a believable way and helps engage the audience even more as they relate to the character on a more 'human' level, rather than the character being some protagonist of an amazing story, they are a normal human being with nothing special about them.

Sound is also used throughout the piece, this counting the ominous droning sound and other such diegetic and non diegetic sound effects. This had helped keep the audience in track of what's happening even if they don't pay attention, the usual noise of money being taken in by machinery etc and even the droning helps to build tension for later scenes.

A twist was utilised at the end of the short story, this being quite unpredictable, the character puts all the money that the machine gives him, back into the machine to make more however ends up getting nothing but a bottle of Coca Cola in exchange, having ended up wasting all of his 'profit'. This has as mentioned prior within the point about duration, come as quite a surprise to the audience, as this wasn't an expected twist, one would usually expect some form of action or horror twist where a creature or demon climbs out the machine especially with the ominous music helping to build up tension, but instead its much more soft yet still gets the point across.