Research on Short Films (The Fly, Blue Song, Baby Driver)

To fulfil the brief of creating a short film I will be conducted research on short films. This will help with my understanding of the conventions of short and feature films. I will also try and understand what makes a good or bad short film.  

I watched Baby Driver, The Fly and Blue Song by Blue Mint (music video). These films inspired each other; and as they are different lengths allowed me to understand the difference in conventions between a feature film and a short film.

Blue Song is a short music video and Baby Driver is a feature length film. Both were directed by Edgar Wright. The opening of Baby Driver and Blue Song are very similar; both of them featuring the main characters, who are getaway drivers acting comedically inside a car. The both also feature a gripping sound track which the getaway drivers dance to.

Overall I found Blue Song to have much more exciting cinematography, with the rapid cutting, than the very beginning of the opening of Baby driver. However Baby drivers opening scene overall is much more gripping as it features high speed driving. This demonstrates that Baby is able to back up his comedic silliness with raw talent.

As Baby driver is a feature film it has a much longer run time than a short film and follows narrative conventions of Todorov's 5 act structure. It also has multiple narrative strands and character development arcs. These are features which are not possible to include in short films as there isn't enough time.

One of my all time favourite Youtubers posted a video explaining the difference between a short life and a longer film.

The Fly follows similar conventions to Blue Mint. It's narrative is very simple - a comedic over reaction of a getaway driver to a fly which slowly increases over the course of the film.

It also utilizes similar cinematography to Blue Mint and Baby Driver with lots of cutting between the inside and outside of the car with track & pans looking through the windows. The Fly however differs as it does not utilise a soundtrack. This lack of soundtrack can make the film seem a bit empty after a few viewings. However by excluding the use of a soundtrack it creates a realistic atmosphere. This is effective as it creates a stronger contrast between the dark comedic antics of the getaway driver and the realistic setting. This realistic setting is further reinforced through the use of diegetic sounds.

Some viewers might complain that the Fly is too long - however I feel that it is just the right length; as it allows the tension and escalation to to build before the final scene where the bank robbers walk out the bank. This scene is particularly powerful, using mise-en-scene effectively as the expressions of bewilderment on the robbers masks and the blood stained shirts are captured & emphasised in beautiful slow motion. The scene is particularly powerful as the other criminals have not been shown yet, which contrasts the lone performance of the beginning and middle.

In The Fly I especially liked the way that the narrative slowly becomes more and more extreme. This ramping tension is constructed through an increase in the speeds of cuts and the incessant diegetic buzzing noise of the fly.