Short film ideas are a lot of fun to think about and come up with. Short films can give the audience thought-provoking messages and express things that cannot be expressed through mainstream cinema.
A Short Film Should Be…
~ Short
~ Practical
~ Visual
~ Engaging
~ Free from Cliches
As per the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a short film is ‘an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits’. However, there is no fixed criteria for deciding whether a film is a short film or a feature film. Nevertheless, short comedies and animated films were highly popular during the early 1900s, especially those featured in a series.
Idealization and conceptualization can be some of the common issues in the field of short filmmaking. Although, if you have chosen Film and Cinema as your major, and wish to further make the dream of being a filmmaker a reality, then there are certain things you can do.
There are several paths you can take in the course of the short filmmaking. However, it is the choice that often becomes the problem. Often, you can come up with no concrete ideas on which story to present to the audience.
Film Ideas for Students
Short films ideas require perception and skill on the part of the filmmaker, and one will require a team to get done with the eventual scripting and implementation.
Short film to show that friendship does last forever…
Two guys and a girl (Adrian, Peter, and Raine) have been friends ever since junior high school. Raine had met the guys through her ex boyfriend. When she broke up with him, she carried on being friends with Adrian and Peter. None of them ever felt the need to date anyone as somehow they didn’t want anyone to come in the way of their friendship. However, Adrian fell in love with a girl, Marsha. But, since she was fine with Raine and her importance in Adrian’s life, it was all well.
However, soon Raine realized that she is in love with Peter. The day she was going to tell Peter about it, he told her about his girlfriend Monica. Raine put on a happy face for her friend. Monica was not very cool with Raine and wanted Peter to be all hers. Sensing this, Raine drifted apart, and kept her distance from both the guys. However, on one new years when Peter was having a house party, he invited Raine. But, Monica called Raine to warn her against coming. At that time, Peter walked into the room and heard her talking to Raine in a harsh manner. That instant he left Monica and ran to his friend Raine. This is when he knew he loved her too, and the three of them were back to being the trio, only better!
Short film to pass the message that trusting strangers is dangerous…
The boy is five years old and lives with his mom, who is a single parent. She is trying hard to make ends meet and has to juggle multiple jobs to make a decent living for both of them. While she goes for her night-shift at a local diner, a teenage boy comes to babysit her son.
The babysitter watches inappropriate shows on the television and in front of the child. He uses crass language, smokes and drinks, and makes racist remarks on the child. In one such scene the boy spills his glass of milk and starts to cry. The teenager gets so angry at the kid that he grabs him by the collar and locks him up in the closet. The child can be heard screaming, after which the babysitter gags the child, ties his hands, and locks the closet again.
The mother returns home to find that the teenager has disappeared and stolen some stuff from the house. She searches frantically for her son and eventually finds him lying unconscious inside the closet.
Film Ideas for Kids
These film ideas for school are along the lines of simply ideas for children to be able to capture on camera. For the effects, they may need to take help from their parents or teachers.
Short film to show the importance of good health and family…
Jane is an ambitious and successful businesswoman who makes it a point to not miss her kickboxing and yoga classes, because she believes that being attractive and physically fit is the key to a good life. While she is so particular about the things that concern her, she somehow never has the time to pick up her son from day school or go out for the occasional date with her husband, who craves for more quality time with her.
On one such ordinary day, Jane wakes up at her usual time, gets ready and sets out for her morning jog. After a grueling session she stops to catch her breath, however, that’s when she feels dizzy and hears a shrill ring in her ears. She calls her husband to tell him to pick her up but her words do not make sense, and she can feel one side of her face going numb. The numbness creeps down to the rest of her body and she collapses on the sidewalk.
She wakes up in the hospital and finds her husband sitting beside her, who tells her that she had suffered a mild stroke which was averted in time. Jane is shocked beyond belief that she could have fallen so ill despite being physically fit. She looks at her son and husband, and realizes for the first time, that she has been acting selfish for a very long time. She sees flashbacks of her past and is grateful for being healthy, alive, and blessed with such a beautiful family.
This idea is to share a kid’s experience when home alone…
A boy cries to himself in a room. Flashback shot of drinking glass falling to the floor in slow motion shows previously what happened, hence, the reason why he is crying. Focus back on the boy, he looks up at the lens of the camera shocked as he has heard someone coming from outside. The boy knows he will be in trouble for breaking the glass. Shoot a pair of feet slowly walking towards the door of the house the boy lives in. Continuously cut between the boy getting even more scared and these feet getting closer. Have the boy looking really scared by the time the feet are at the door. Show a hand shot of the person trying to unlock the door with keys. The person drops them. Picks them back up. Shoot the person entering the door from the inside out (door swings open from inside, but only show the feet entering). Have a side angled shot of the boy sitting with his back to the door hopefully keeping it shut.
Still focusing on the boy, have the noise of the person in the other room walking on broken glass. Fade on the boy’s face and leave the rest to the audience’s imagination.
When it comes to funny/silent short film ideas, one can simply choose a certain scene from a movie and act it out again silently. The charades of the scene will definitely make it far funnier than the original. Hope this article helped you out. This is where I sign off!! Happy shooting.
