Types of Short Films / by Michael T Vollmann

NARRATIVE
Fictional Story (sometimes based on real events)

  • actors
  • animation
  • stop motion

 

DOCUMENTARY
Real events - Documentaries still have a "narrative"

  • interviews
  • verite scenes
  • archival footage/still images/graphics
 

 

EXPERIMENTAL
Personal Experience, Introspective or an exploration of film conventions

  • Can combines elements from both narrative & documentary
  • visceral/conceptual
  • found footage
 
 

 

 

Some of the basic building blocks of the short form (and every film) are:

IMAGE:

  • Camera Footage - Interviews/Scenes/Broll
  • Stills/Photographs
  • Graphical (GFX) - Charts/Maps
  • Text - Supers
  • Lower Third - Name/ID
     

AUDIO:

  • Voice Over (VO)
  • Dialogue
  • Sound Effects
  • & Music