Simple steps

Check out the BBC Film network². It has short films made by students and professionals.

You can view a variety of Australian short films³, many award winners, from young and emerging film makers in a variety of categories. There are also film scripts⁴ to download and read.

Trop Jr⁵ is a short film festival open to young people aged 15 years and under. It has links to watch past finalist films. It also has forms you need if you are thinking about entering the competition.

Tropfest⁶ – The world’s largest short film festival is a great resource to view past winners, interviews and general information about making a short film.

Connected Learning Awards⁷ each year has a short film competition open to all high school students. You can watch past award winning films here⁸.

SchoolTube⁹ has short student films to view.

The Adobe Showcase Gallery¹⁰ features short films made by school students in a number categories.

For animated short films, have a look at brickfilms¹¹ and put your Lego to good use. The tutorials are helpful and easy to follow.

You can also try stop-motion animation to make a short film. The SAM animation site¹² has films to view, software downloads and tutorials to get you started on stop-motion animation.

After having watched lots of short films you may still need some inspiration. Here are some suggestions to get you thinking and brainstorming:

• genre films: crime/detective, comedy, romance, fantasy, action/adventure, science fiction, horror

• documentary eg a school issue, such as use of mobile phones

• interviews with students, teachers or visitors to the school (real or imagined!)

• classroom activities, such as discussions or presentations, solving a problem

• demonstrations or tutorials of practical activities

• athletics or swimming carnivals days

• music performances, video, festivals

• drama productions

• a news/current affair style segment to explore an issue

• an advertisement

• experimental

• parodies

• adaptations

The Adobe Video Production Resource Centre¹³ has many ideas, projects and help to inspire student film making. 

Making Documentaries¹⁴ is a film making resource to support students in writing and producing a short documentary film. It includes interviews with documentary film makers and short films to view and critique.

Short Films¹⁵ is a multimedia resource introducing the short film genre to Stage 4 English students. The resource focuses on the eight-minute film 'Bound' produced by The Australian Film and Television Radio School (AFTRS). Students are familiarised with the features and format of a screenplay and the importance of plot, character, setting, metaphors and symbols.

Capture! A guide for producing audio and video files¹⁶ supports video makers in the production of audio and video files for quality low cost resources. It includes advice, examples, information, tips and useful web links.

Digital Media¹⁷ is an interactive resource which demonstrates methods of manipulating digital data and using it to design and develop a digital story in the form of a short factual documentary.