What makes a successful short film

In order to ensure my short film is successful as possible I have done some research into what makes short films successful. Due to the film I am creating only being a few minutes long I have to make it as engaging as possible in the short amount of time that I have, I will also need to have a simple but interesting story line and plot that I can portray in the time that I have.

Due to films of an ordinary length having much more time then I have they can include a lot more detail to events that are being shown during the film, they can have many different events that lead into each other which for the audience can sometimes be predictable. For example in horror films when hearing a noise when home alone the person will move to the place in which they have heard the noise in order to see what they can find on their own while shouting hello, whereas in a short film something a lot more unpredictable would have to occur as there is not enough time to have someone walking around an empty house waiting for something to occur. Short films are a lot more ambiguous with the next steps which is what makes them so much more engaging as the factor of knowing what is going to be occurring next is no longer there. Short films have to be a lot more experimental with the concepts that are created however most of the time it works due to being different but still understandable. Being so experimental can also be a risk due to the charters not having a large amount of time to convey the personalities that they have so the audience is unable to guess that typical actions that they would take due to having a strong idea of their personality. You can not make the film so different that the audience start to get annoyed or bored of the outcomes that are occurring due to them being so far fetched that it isn't what would be able to occur in reality.

Some short films have very engaging story lines however the ending doesn't explain to you what has occurred in the film or why it occurred. Meaning you have been engaged during the film however as you have got to the ending it has left you confused as to what you have just watched and the reasons for many of the events that had occurred.