On short film storytelling (formatted) DOCX

Title	On short film storytelling (formatted)
Author	Richard Raskin
Pages	3
File Size	203.4 KB
File Type	DOCX
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Summary

Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, 2014, Vol 4, No 1, Anyone who has used screenwriting manuals or pp. 29-34. websites is familiar with the view that “all drama is conflict” (Syd Field, n.d., emphasis added) and that conflict is a basic element of “all film making On short film storytelling and all sto...

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Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, 2014, Vol 4, No 1, pp. 29-34. On short film storytelling Richard Raskin Preliminaries It is important to distinguish between the short film (kortflm) defined here as typically running under ten and max. fifteen minutes in length, and a longer form with no proper name in English and generally called the novelleflm in Scandinavia – a favorite format for graduation films at film schools and typically running between twenty and forty minutes. The novelleflm is essentially a miniature feature film, while the short film tells its stories in ways that differ radically from those of longer cinematic narratives and three of those differences will be the first subject dealt with in the present article. In keeping with this journal's focus on Scandinavian cinema, the examples that will be cited are all prize-winning short films from Nordic countries: Matka/A Journey, dir. Pirjo Hokkanen, 1983, 9 min., Finland Eating Out, dir. Pål Sletaune, 1993, 7 min., Norway Avsporing/Derailment, dir. Unni Straume, 1993, 7 min., Norway/France Kom/Come, dir. Marianne Olsen Ulrichsen, 1995, 5 min., Norway Natan, dir. Jonas Bergergård and Jonas Holström, 2003, 12 min., Sweden Bak lukkede dører/In Chambers, dir. Aleksander Nordaas, 2008, 9 min., Norway Links to these films will be found in a reference section at the end of this article and material on each of them is accessible in another Intellect journal, Short Film Studies. While specific short films will be cited to exemplify properties of that art form as concretely as possible, feature films (with one exception) will be characterized more generally through widely used narrative models devoted to that predominant cinematic form. My reason for focusing on those models rather than on specific feature films concerns one of the underlying purposes if this article: namely to discourage the use of those models as a basis for short film script development. Three differences between the short ilm and feature ilm 1. Confict NB. In the present discussion, the term confict will be used in its most simple, interpersonal sense, meaning an opposition between characters. Anyone who has used screenwriting manuals or websites is familiar with the view that "all drama is confict" (Syd Field, n.d., emphasis added) and that confict is a basic element of "all film making and all storytelling" (Michael Hauge 2010, emphasis added). Sequential models, indicating rising and falling levels of tension along a timeline, generally prescribe the setting up of a central confict at the beginning of a film, its escalation to a climax in the middle, and its resolution at the end. This applies for example to Syd Field's "3-act dramaturgical paradigm" and to the so-called berettermodel, widely used throughout Scandinavia. It is undoubtedly true that the feature film is generally confict-driven. There are however remarkable short films containing no trace whatsoever of interpersonal confict, such as Kom and Derailment, in which an interaction initiated by a woman leads smoothly and by increments to sexual fulfillment. Similarly in Matka there is at no point any opposition between characters, who in this film constitute a kind of chorus in a collective catharsis. Furthermore, even 'inner confict' is in no way a driving force within these films. There are other short films that do involve confict, such as Eating Out in which an armed robber barks instructions at a burger-joint cook and is irritated by his hungry accomplice's insistence on getting a burger to eat; in Natan, in which a shy and vulnerable loner is bullied by a domineering boss who tries to take over his life; and in In Chambers, where policemen clad in rubber aprons hunt down victims whose time has come for lethal injections. Since there are exemplary short films that are confict-based and equally exemplary short films that are entirely free of confict, it should be clear that confict is no more than an optional component of short film storytelling. This is an essential, qualitative difference between the short film and feature film. Consequently expecting or encouraging screenwriters to incorporate a central confict in their short film scripts would be inappropriate, just as it would be unwarranted to apply to the short film confict-based sequential models designed with feature film storytelling in mind. 2. Character arc vs. character moments Just as it is generally taken for granted that all cinematic storytelling is based on confict, it is also commonly assumed that there must be a character arc in any film – that the main character must undergo a fundamental transformation, evolving along a trajectory or journey from one mode of being to another. For example, in The Last Samurai (Edward Zwick, 2003), Nathan Algren (played by Tom Cruise) is at the beginning of the story a self- hating alcoholic, and through his contact with the...