What makes a great short film?
Short films are not small features. Seven qualities that festival favourites share, with examples from the films Greenhorn screened between 2011 and 2015.
Watch enough short films and a pattern appears. The ones you remember almost never look like the opening of a feature. They feel complete, and they take a risk the long form couldn’t afford. Here is what the best of them tend to share, using films from the Greenhorn programmes as examples.
1. One idea, all the way
The great shorts commit to a single idea and push it further than seems sensible. Two Films About Loneliness splits the screen into two different films and never explains why. Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared takes a children’s song about creativity and keeps going until it breaks.
2. A world in a small space
Good shorts suggest a much larger world than the one on screen. Charity shows a few days in a travelling family’s life. Through them we sense the whole of a community the film never fully shows.
3. Form that means something
The technique is part of the meaning. On Loop builds its images from nine separate frames, and the fractured collage is the experience of a racing mind at 3am.
4. Patience
Short doesn’t mean fast. Sandyman is willing to watch a man rake sand for a long time. The patience is the point: we watch with the same concentration he gives his drawings.
5. A premise you can say in a sentence
“A mammoth is thawed out into a future it doesn’t belong in.” That is Tusk. A clear premise helps programmers, audiences and the filmmakers themselves. It isn’t a limitation: a simple premise leaves room for ambiguity and feeling.
6. It ends at the right moment
Most first shorts run too long. The best end slightly earlier than you expect, and the last image stays with you. Read how long a short film should be.
7. A distinct voice
Above all, great shorts sound like someone. Festivals that champion new filmmakers, as Greenhorn did, are looking for that voice rather than polish. A rough film with something to say beats a slick one with nothing.
If you’re making your first, start with how to write a short film script.