Conventions of a short film - Themes

Themes

I felt that the theme of ‘Double take’ was “what goes around comes around”. The fact that the thief got his punishment in the end was a testimony to this, and Double Take seems to act as almost a warning to what might happen if you do steal. It also introduces the ideas of vigilantes into the viewer’s mind and makes him produce an opinion about that subject – that’s one of the things that short films are best at, putting interesting ideas forward so that audiences can think about them.

Another short that presents an interesting theme is ‘cherries’ by Tom Harper. It puts forward the theme of how to deal with youths in the context of war. It is quite relevant to today’s society as it seems to be almost a forewarning of what might happen in the future especially considering that it seems that all the themes presented in the movie are simply an extension of themes that are on the top of most people’s agendas right now – such as the CCTV cameras and the war in the middle east. All the shots of the school with the high fences, security, walls and numerous cameras present the UK as almost a caricature of George Orwell’s novel ‘1984.’ However, the worst thing of all is that all the characters in the movie treat such a situation as normal.

Something that we should be mindful of when creating our short film is that tackling important themes will make for a much more engaging story that the viewer would appreciate. If our movie tackles themes that are relevant to society right now then we will be able to give meaning to the message that we're trying to put across to our intended audience.