Short Film Examples (Incomplete)

Seeing as I am doing a comedy short film, here I will be showing five examples of other comedy short films that I will be taking inspiration from. The first of which is called "Coming Out" by Tom Ridgewell.

The reason why I have selected this as one of my examples is because it is obviously a short film and is a comedy, but also is a surreal comedy about a man who can't help but say he's gay when saying hello. Also it is an independent production and is amateurly made; similar to how mine will be made so it is also good for filming techniques and what I can do without professional equipment. In terms of the micro-features, the two that stand out are the use of sound and editing, and how well the two work together, using a lot of editing techniques including montages, sound bridges, and one interesting transition of using a wipe to change the scene. The effect that this gives is that it keeps the short film at a good pace and helps improve the humour, as the director Tom Ridgewell (Known also as TomSka) is famous for making quick sketches on YouTube and his style is usually fast paced and this is actually one of his slower paced sketches. As well as this, timing the music so it happens in between the dialogue and cuts out just as it changes scenes; which is an interesting use of sound bridges connecting the scenes, even if they do seem unnecessary. In terms of cinematography, one noticeable thing is in the majority of shots, the character of Jack is framed in between people or on their shoulders, this could be because he is the focus of the short film and tells the majority of the jokes.

These would all relate to the language of the short film; in terms of industry, I already mentioned that TomSka makes plenty of independent comedy films similar to this and he commonly posts them on YouTube, which is his source for his audience, similar to the majority of these examples. This is becoming far more common these days, people who produce short films, especially those that are comedies are posting their films onto YouTube and are gathering very large audiences and are able to continue to make short films. The ideology of this text is different from most of TomSka’s films by actually having a message in it (if told in a very strange manor). In this case it would be that the film ends with the message “Support Gay Marriage” so that would be what the text is trying to represent and the values of it.

As for this short film, this is more of a satire comedy, based around a secret agent trying to save his partner from the antagonists; however, instead of using regular spy equipment, they use filming equipment, such as a camera, boom mic, etc. The reason why I have chosen this as one of my examples is because it doesn’t follow the conventions of a comedy, but actually uses the conventions of a spy film and then parodies it by replacing the items they use, making it a comedy. This is interesting because even though they follow through the conventions thoroughly, by simply replacing a gun with a camera it is turned into a comedy. The conventions that they follow are the man saving the damsel in distress, high tech equipment, big fight scene with the antagonist, etc.

In terms of cinematography, an interesting technique that both the protagonist and his weapon are concealed at the start, filming him from behind or from a low angle or extreme close-ups, all to avoid his face, this creates a mystery surrounding the character. The same happens with the weapon, we have a lot of extreme close-ups of it being built and then showing the weapon and the protagonists face at the same time. The reason why it is shot like this is because the reveal of the camera as the main weapon being the punchline to the joke on how obsurd this is, this is enforced when the next shot shows the settings on the camera "Photo, Video & Kill". In terms of Mise-En-Scene, as I said previously, the humour comes from replacing spy equipment with camera equipment, so the props create a lot of the humour, such as using cameras as guns, light reflectors as shields etc. This is how the film creates comedy as the rest of the film uses conventions of spy films, but replacing the props suddenly turns it into a satire of spy films.

As for Editing, the first edit in the film is the use of a swipe edit, with the character moving across the camera and changing the scene, this is an interesting technique to use, however it doesn't have all that much meaning to it apart from it is a commonly used technique by the director TimH who uses this technique in a lot of his short films. Another technique they use is an eye-line match, when the protagonist looks down at the camera and it shows that he's setting it to "kill" and then he looks at the antagonists. This is used to develop the narrative, it shows was his intentions are (to kill someone) and then it shows his targets (the antagonists). Finally, for sound, there is very little dialogue within the majority of the film until the end, so for a majority of the film, the atmosphere is made through the music.