Short Film Cliches or What I'd like to see less of from stupid "artsy" directors

Short films don't give you a lot of time to develop your setting and characters, which leads to the movie makers going for easy to understand bases and ideas. Unfortunately this gives us a lot of similar ideas as a result, which means a lot of repetitiveness and eventual disinterest.

-Lets get down to drama. Quick, we need to get a gripping tale started and addressed as soon as possible. What do we do?! Did you say post-apocalypse setting? Well if I was making a short film you'd be fired (yes my current animation has that setting too. No I'm not going to apologize.) Going for a dramatic setting is one thing, but if you're going to rely on a cliched environment it's likely you've got some elements that are lacking beyond setting.

-Lets go retro! For some reason people think it's cool to try silent films and black and white because of the unique vibe the give. They are cool, but nonetheless still overplayed. It's in many cases an example that the crew is lacking in something and using these ideas as filler. Don't do that. Use retro concepts with moderation.

-Mind blowing. Ha, more like money blowing. Because I blew my money on the ticket to... ahh screw it. Look, it's understandable people want to make a movie that makes you think. Honestly I don't think we have enough intellectual movies out these days, but good lord will you please not take ordinary ideas and people and try to explode them into something deeper than they are? It's like a biology major writing an essay in his first semester. A lot of it is just overblown words for simple stuff.

Cliches aren't necessarily bad, but overuse certainly isn't good. I love many of these concepts that have become cliche, and wish for the sake of future directors that people try to have other ideas first.

Many people take themselves all too seriously, and as a result will often produce this kind of stuff. Don't ever take yourself too serious in your work. If you can't have fun with it, you'll have tons of trouble being creative with it.

Will these cliches change over time? I feel some will, but there's no telling really. Let's hope for all our sake.