Narrative within genre

Narrative is obviously one of the most important things about a short film - it is what the entire project is based around!

 

Depending on the genre chosen for the short film dictates the possible narratives that could be made from this.

• action - a narrative in this genre typically explores the ideas of good vs bad and the 'battle' between the two sides. It may be adrenaline-filled like a gun fight or car chase, or a simple dispute between two opposing sides.
• horror - a stereotypical narrative of a horror short film involves helpless female character(s) that become under attack by aliens or by a psychopathic murderer. One of them usually ends up dying and the other survives, escaping from where they encountered the 'bad'. There may not be a resolution to this narrative and we may not find out who or what caused all this.
• comedy - obviously the narrative to this genre has some comical aspects to it, but it can also be combined with romance to create a romantic comedy. A typical narrative to a 'rom-com' features a woman and a man and we follow their relationship. Although it's not actually a short film, Friend's With Benefits, starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, is a very good example of a romantic comedy.

• romance - a romance short film usually features the narrative of a young woman and man. Within this narrative we will see their relationship and the memories they get to share with each other. A typical aspect of a narrative in this genre is that, for whatever reason, the couple may temporarily split, but they usually find their way back together in the end.

 

Narrative in a music video can sometimes be less common, as some music videos may tend to focus solely on performance rather than narrative.

 

An example of a music video like this is Listen to the Man by George Ezra. There is no narrative to his music video, we simply just see the artist and famous English actor Sir Ian McKellen. Another example of a narrative-less music video is Here It Goes Again by OK Go - they simply just drive around in a car singing.

 

 

There are many examples of music videos that feature narrative, one of which being Gives You Hell by The All-American Rejects.