Understanding the underlying principles of the short film

University-based screen production education is an unusual pedagogic activity in that educators commonly seek to prepare students to work in the feature film industry yet use the short film- and other short forms, such as the web series, mini-documentaries, music videos, television commercials and so on- as the dominant mode of production project students undertake during their education (sec Charleson 2014 ). Similarly, students entering a university screen production course tend to express an ambition tO work in the feature film industry (see Bell 2004; Bennett 2009; Thornham and O'Sullivan 2004) and, generally speaking, have grown up on a diet of feature films (and increasingly, long-form television series) as opposed to short films. By the time these students arrive at university, they have no doubt seen hundreds of feature films, but nowhere near as many short films, let alone 'quality' short films. Consequently, students are in many ways unfamiliar with the parameters of short form film narratives and how they differ from feature film narratives.