In this article, I explore the landscape of short fiction film in the frame of two broad categories, Classical and Art shorts, and present a chart identifying how styles and devices are at play. Finally, as a brief case study, a short fiction film example is scrutinized and tentatively categorized according to the chart.
Introduction
In my experience as a short film festival director, the short is a format that covers the full range of what the film medium can offer, with only its brevity as an overall defining delimitation (Walde 2021). For the purposes of this article, the focus will be on the short fiction film, rather than short documentaries, animation, purely experimental works and hybrids of the latter categories. After outlining a geography of styles and categories in the light of empirical data and theoretical references, I will consider a particular film as a case study for demonstration.
The dominant scene for short fiction film exhibition is the film festival. To get an idea of the number and share of fiction shorts among the short film entries, the submissions for the world’s largest short film festival, Clermont- Ferrand in France, is helpful: in the period from 1986 to 2022, approximately 70 per cent of the 167,314 submissions were categorized as fiction (or fiction was a dominant category). (Note that the profile of Clermont- Ferrand has a clear preference for fiction shorts, which might influence the validity of a generalization based on these numbers alone.) During my 29 years as a festival programmer and curator, I have viewed and scrutinized at least 20,000 short films and, based on the 70 per cent estimate, it adds up to approximately 14,000 short fiction films. It is within this formidable mountain of fiction short films that I find my basis of experience for this study.
For some time, I have thought a relevant taxonomy/typology for the short fiction film would be useful, especially given the lack of a short film canon of noteworthy works that are widely familiar and can be used for reference. In addition, such an overview will help bring new knowledge to the field, and provide a tool to enable more precise communication, both for short film ‘newbies’ and ‘savvies’, and for filmmakers, mediators and academics.
In my proposed taxonomy, I will use two categories and terms proposed by Cynthia Felando (2015): the ‘Classical’ fiction short film (i.e. ‘mainstream’) and the ‘Art’ fiction short film (which the shorts scholar Richard Raskin refers to as the ‘Modern Fiction Film’). Felando notes that these categories are useful for short fiction films, since they are familiar to feature-length fiction film scholars and critics.
The Classical Fiction Short Film
Simply put, Classical fiction shorts are those that follow the narrative and aesthetic strategies of mainstream Hollywood cinema. Referring to feature films, for example, Kristin Thompson states:
The most basic principle of the Hollywood cinema is that a narrative
should consist of a chain of causes and effects that is easy for the spectator
to follow. This clarity of comprehension is basic to all our other
responses to films, particularly emotional ones. (1999: 10)
At its best, according to Kiss and Willemsen (2018: 57), such clarity enables the viewer to appreciate such qualities as immersion, identification, empathy, the arousal of emotions and the satisfaction of closure. Also, for his part, Paul Schrader (2018) claims that the manipulation of empathy and action are dominant narrative strategies in mainstream films. Specifically, he notes, for example, that empathy can be obtained through the use of music and the casting of attractive people, and action that can be orchestrated by following a ‘chase’ and using continuity editing strategies.
In other words, the basic strategies of mainstream films favour linear and easily understood narratives that grab and hold our attention, and skilfully engage our emotions, and also appeal to our voyeuristic curiosity. The result, according to James Cutting, is ‘a highly effective format that allows rapid processing of complex narratives’ (Cutting 2016: 6). The format is so common that François Truffaut said: ‘We love the American cinema because the films all resemble each other’ (Truffaut et al, 1964: 16).
Likewise, focusing on short fiction films, Felando (2015) notes the following features of the classical category: easily discerned meanings and transparent situations; linear organization; closed endings; characters with clear goals and motivations that are broadly drawn (simplified, stereotypical).
The Art Fiction Short Film
Unlike classical fiction shorts that follow the narrative and aesthetic strategies of mainstream cinema, the art category is more open and can be by what it is not rather than what it is. The fiction art short, for example, does not require dialogue, character arcs, three-act structures or even conflict (Raskin 1996:1). Felando (2015) identifies the following features of fiction Art shorts: enormous diversity and a range of storytelling and aesthetic strategies (arguably more than art feature films) – from naturalistic to surreal, along with the frequent use of narrative ellipsis and open endings; a unity of impression and an emphasis on carefully selected moments and fragments of time. Similarly, in his seminal book The Art of Short Fiction Film, Richard Raskin uses the term ‘The Modern Short Fiction film’ (2002: 1) to categorize shorts that combine ‘the originality of the experimental short with the telling of a coherent story’. In the introduction to the initial issue of p.o.v.: A Danish Journal of Film Studies, Raskin included more detail, as follows:
This other type of film uses little or no dialogue (of a traditional kind), is highly metaphorical, and generally leaves the viewer wondering about the underlying meaning of the film. […] [The shorts] are more experimental […] with respect to action and characterisation, camera work and editing, sound and the creation of atmosphere. When at their best, shorts of this type have the haunting quality of an elusive fable or poem. (1996: 4)
I propose the following terms to describe this ‘other’ kind of short fiction film: ‘fiction told with experimental means’. As for the distinction between the Art short fiction film and the purely experimental shorts familiar in galleries and specialized festivals, one may imagine a narrative continuum that stretches from the Classical, to the Art, to the entirely non-narrative experimental film. For the purposes of clarity and based on my experiences as a film curator, I propose a more detailed account of the useful differences between the Classical and Art short fiction film categories.
Comparing The Characteristics of The Classical VS. Art Shorts
In the first two tables below, I have assembled a tentative overview of characteristics in the two main categories, storytelling and aesthetic strategies, along with a third table labelled ‘Spectator experience’ that focuses on spectatororiented effects and impressions. The tables are influenced by the short fiction scholarship of Felando and Raskin, along with some useful feature-film terms provided by David Bordwell (Bordwell 1985, 1997; Bordwell et al. 1993), which are interpreted and supplemented according to my own praxis-based empirical research.
It is important to note that following characteristics are not essential, since few or no films will include all of them. Furthermore, a particular short fiction film may include characteristics found in both the Classic and Art categories. To label a particular work as Art or Classical is, in part, a subjective process, based on one’s own discernment and experiences with short films. For example, one fiction short might have little dialogue and an open ending, with a linear narrative, while another might have extensive dialogue, but a frequent use of ellipses. So, with such caveats in mind, these are my in-progress charts.
Table 1: Storytelling strategies.
Parameter
Classical short fiction film
The Art short fiction film
Narrative focus
Content: what (primacy of the tale); ‘Film is all about telling the good story’
Style: how (primacy of the telling); includes carefully selected moments and fragments of time
Use of dialogue
Dialogue-driven; omniscient voice-over
Little to no dialogue
Plot: storytelling complexity
Linear plot, causal logic, straight forward. Favours simple, direct presentation of content
Greater variation, may be plotless; uses ellipses; information withheld
Conflict
Primary conflict obvious; conflict/s are resolved
Conflicts ambiguous or non-existent; unresolved conflict/s; open ending
Character motivation
Clearly motivated and consistent character
Unclear, inscrutable character motivation
Director’s agend
Moral imperative, takes a clear position
Ambivalent, no ‘right’ choice
Table 2: Aesthetic strategies (visual, auditive and editing devices).
Parameter
Classical short fiction film
The Art short fiction film
Casting and acting
Larger-than-life, hero/heroine protagonist
Amateur cast; ‘being’ instead of ‘acting’; stylized
Visual aesthetics
Standardized (classical image composition)
Innovative (from simplistic via naturalistic to surreal, etc.)
Editing choices (pacing/beat
Conventional editing for a consistent story with a flow ‘as expected’
Innovative; breaks the expected flow (e.g. unexpected shot duration)
Use of music and sound effects
Non-diegetic music
No music or diegetic music; heightened sound effects
Table 3: Spectator experience.
Parameter
Classical short fiction film
The Art short fiction film
Emotional distance
Low distance; manipulating empathy
High distance; neutral, alienated, ‘cold’, ironic
Viewer activation
Passive, unself-conscious viewer
Active, self-conscious viewer; encouraged to contemplate and co-create
Tables 1–3: Comparing the characteristics of Classical vs. Art fiction shorts.
Case Study: Exam
To test the proposed typology, what follows is a brief case study of the film Exam. In Exam, we closely follow a schoolgirl on a day with an important exam. Surprisingly, she is also a drug courier, and at this most inconvenient point in time she gets an assignment that puts her under great pressure so as not to be exposed by her strict high school teachers. Exam’s narrative focus is on the content, with a linear plot, a clear primary conflict and strong emotional identification with the protagonist (i.e. low emotional distance). These are all Classical traits. However, although the visual aesthetics and editing choices are conventional, the storytelling is based on visual information, and the film is naturalistic in style with the use of a documentary-style handheld camera. Furthermore, there is little dialogue throughout, and the narrative alludes to moral questions rather posing definitive judgments about morality; the protagonist’s motivation is muted and the ending is open. There is also no music or score. These are all Art short traits.
All in all, I would categorize Exam as an Art fiction short that uses some of the Classical short’s mode of storytelling. The lack of any absolute categorical distinction in this case is to me a good illustration of the challenges of such an endeavour.
Conclusion and Next Step
In this article, my aim has been to identify the devices that are at play in the short fiction film, which ranges widely from the Classical to the Art short. Towards that end, I have examined and charted a short fiction film, Exam, which provides the foundation for the next step, in which I will work out a proposal for a tentative, more fine-grained taxonomy/typology of the short fiction film that uses the devices I have identified. Along the way, I hope I have shed some light on the specificities of the short fiction film in particular.
Referenses: Charting the short fiction film
Bordwell, David (1985), Narration in the Fiction Film, Madison, WI: University
of Wisconsin Press.
Bordwell, David (1997), On the History of Film Style, Boston: Harvard University
Press.
Bordwell, David, Thompson, Kristin and Smith, Jeff (1993), Film Art: An
Introduction, 7th ed., New York: McGraw-Hill.
Cutting, James (2016), ‘Narrative theory and the dynamics of popular movies’,
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23, p. 6.
Felando, Cynthia (2015), Discovering Short Films: The History and Style of Live-
Action Fiction Shorts, London: Springer.
Hadad, Sonia K. (2019), Exam (Emtehan), Iran: Three Gardens Film.
Kiss, Miklós and Steven Willemsen (2018), ‘Wallowing in dissonance: The
attractiveness of impossible puzzle films’, in I. Christie and A. V. D. Oever
(eds), Stories, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 55–84.
Raskin, Richard (1996), ‘Introduction’, p.o.v.: A Danish Journal of Film Studies,
1, p. 1, https://pov.imv.au.dk/Issue_01/POV_1cnt.html. Accessed 25 July
2022.
Raskin, Richard (1998), ‘Kortfilm og novellefilm: der er forskel!’, Dansk
Novellefilm Programavis, November, p. 13.
Raskin, Richard (2002), The Art of the Short Fiction Film: A Shot by Shot Study of
Nine Modern Classics, Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland.
Raskin, Richard (2013), ‘On short film storytelling’, Journal of Scandinavian
Cinema, 4:1, pp. 29–34.
Schrader, Paul (2018), Transcendental Style in Film, Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press. Thompson, Kristin (1999), Storytelling in the New Hollywood, Cambridge, MA:
