Short Films

    Films made with new technology, with minimum budget, with contemporary themes.......

                                                             

A few days back, I viewed a short film on face book uploaded by high school students, who are hardly in the 7th grade. This short film of three minutes duration is done with their mobile phones. Though the film is crude and abruptly finished, I appreciate their sincere efforts in finding the subject appropriate for their age, writing the script for it, selecting the locations- the whole approach seems innocent and funny but at the same time honest and beautiful. Due to television, computer and mobiles, today children have been gaining a lot of knowledge of various subjects. Internet has become a boon to everyone as it covers and enlightens on all subjects. Compared to the feature films, these short films are crisp, beautiful and budget saving. Short filmmaking helps one who is passionately interested and desires to make a career in feature filmmaking as these are less time consuming, budget saving and give firsthand experience to the film makers. With small budget or no budget, these short films provide lots of scope to youngsters especially, to experiment and prove their talent, and these short films making works as a stepping stone for the feature film making. The short film duration ranges from 5 to 20 minutes, in some cases up to 40 minutes maximum. Film making is a tedious collective work as it has various departments to handle and collaborate.

Laurel and hardy, Charlie Chaplin short films have stood the test of time and are popular till today, and whenever time permits I still enjoy these films with children. Some of the laurel and Hardy films are silent and some with sound. The silent movies are equally powerful as sound films one. The animated films like Tom and Jerry and Uncle Scrooge have been accepted and appreciated all over the world by one and all, irrespective of age. With newly introduced technology, film making has become a lot easier today. Now we are getting more and more animated films because of the easily available technology. The world famous Oscar Awards are also given to short films and animated films every year. The Oscar Award short films like The Crush,It is a wonderful life, The phone call, Wasp, are some of the beautiful movies to watch again and again. There are some interesting and novel Indian short films; one will enjoy these films because of the time and space that have been handled excellently. Ahalya, The bypass Road, The spoon, Kriti, Roadside Ambanis, Black mirror, Tubelight ke Chand – the list goes on.

I have been seeing the short films regularly on T.V since a long time. For this I have to appreciate film maker Nagesh Kuknoor, who has a made a name for himself with his unusual content and different way of treating in the films. A lot of short movies with outstanding content and novel treatment are selected by Nagesh Kuknoor and screened on T.V. consistently. Regular screening of these shorts on T.V. and You Tube has inspired youngsters to make short films with minimum budget.

I have viewed a number of short films these days and enjoyed them because there is novelty in the selection of the content, treatment and photography is excellent. Now in visual art, painting, sculpture, theatre, music, photography all has been combined. Now, short film makers are focusing on current issues like arranged Marriage, gay Marriage, dementia, old age and gender discrimination. The films based on these topics are really crisp and narrate the content with no nonsense frills, so these films are touching and convey the messages very directly making the audience to reflect on these topics. Within a short period, these films try to narrate the stories of the multifaceted society and lay them bare before the audience. These films are informative and educative. With the advancement of technology, there is lot of scope for short films making these days and You Tube provide a platform to screen.