Having served on Student Film festival critic panels for almost 10 years now, Spling has graded and evaluated a few hundred student film projects. From amazing high-end student films to tough solo projects, the film critic has seen it all. In judging these short films, there are a few trends that he's noticed - some that raise the question, why do student films often pale in comparison with industry standards.

While it's often the student filmmaker's desire to include guns, someone smoking and shoot in black-and-white, this arsenal of cliches is often for good reason. While it may not always be feasible to have a smoking gun in your film, many of the better short films find a legitimate way to justify the inclusion beyond it looking cool. Budget is typically one of the main reasons that student films don't look as good as their feature film counterparts. Being on the cusp of going professional, this a strong indicator but these short films are also constrained by other elements.

Being a student, this is the proving ground... the time in your life when you still have to work with people you may not ordinarily choose to work with. It's an opportunity to take risks, make mistakes and hopefully learn from them with a view to not repeating them in your blossoming career. The visual aspects of filmmaking are typically where most films gravitate these days with animation and superhero movies dominating the box office. This is usually where student films get things right in the age of Instagram and all things photographic. Here are some of the spaces where things could improve.

Copycat Tendencies

Being inspired to create by contemporary greats, it's only naturally that filmmakers of tomorrow are led to copy certain styles. Even some of the greatest directors are magpies... look at Quentin Tarantino who even cites where he borrowed from. In that desire to replicate, student filmmakers should rather try to add their own spin to create something new. It's all been said and done before but not by you.

Characters and Story

The fundamental building blocks of a film are its characters and story. These should be a priority, mapped out before any thought of shooting the short film takes place. You can have a $100 million budget but your project will be lost if you don't have these elements in place. While "invisible", these critical storytelling elements become visible when your film enters a state of arrested development, where the characters cease to evolve and all that's left to fall back on is style.

Mind the Gap

Then, another classic error (even with feature films) is that the story's golden thread can easily be lost along the way. When you've worked very closely with a project you can lose perspective and story gaps tend to be filled in automatically by the time the 5th draft rolls around. Get feedback, try to get a fresh take and make sure your audience is along for the ride.

Ambition

While some pretty ambitious works are landed successfully, remember to work to your format. A short film has different rules, so rather keep it laser-focused than find you've bitten off more than you can chew. Some student films with a decent budget can pull off small miracles. Yet for the most part, it's a case of trying to ensure a consistency and quality.

Sound Design

Sound is a huge component of filmmaking. Having several different departments dedicated to your soundtrack, it's crucial and monumental in the creation of atmosphere, mood and suspense. Enhancing performances, visuals and world-building, it's often where student films are severely lacking. Not having the right music or not giving the necessary time to Foley work, these missing pieces can be hugely distracting to the lush reality student filmmakers are trying to create. Poor music choices, missing sound effects... make absolutely sure there's nothing that will lift your audience out of the world you're crafting.

Trailers

When it comes to student films, the final product is often the primary focus and with good reason. However, it's important to realise that you can have the best "product" in the world but without a distribution or marketing plan to get it seen... it's dead in the water. This extends to peripheral marketing tools such as the movie trailer. These trailers are often afterthoughts, only attended to late in the game. Be careful to treat your short film's trailer with the necessary respect. Slapping together a few snippets and a title isn't enough and could damage expectations around your film's perceived quality. Give the trailer some thought, try to create a mini movie in the allotted time and pique interest with your trailer's concept.

Titles

These days, there's a propensity for student films to have titles that seek to add more gravitas to the short film. While this can be used effectively, it can be borderline pretentious. While it's cool to have an understated title, be careful it's not too bland or vague. Also be sensitive to naming conventions for when it comes to keywords for search and pages across social media platforms.