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by Shore Scripts Head of Writer Education, Lee
Hamilton.
- Who is it for? If you’re writing
a movie to entertain you and your friends or to practice
filming techniques, go forth, have fun and enjoy. But if this
movie is going to be your calling card as a writer or
director, a product to sell, a competition entry, or a film
festival submission, you need to know your audience and their
expectations. Does the competition or production company have
a remit? A specific genre they’re looking for? Is the festival
more likely to accept something that’s more artistic than
entertaining etc.?
- Have One Big Idea. You have limited
time so try to focus on the story of one individual or a
couple. Simple ideas are best, so develop one major conflict,
problem, or question and forget about complex story threads
and secondary character arcs. Think of your short as one major
scene or sequence from a feature movie, where the focus is on
one dilemma being played out and resolved. Drama and conflict,
whether internal, external, emotional or action, are key to
keeping the audience hooked.
- Length. Technically, a
short film can be anything from a few seconds up to 45 minutes
but film festivals want to cram in as many films as they can
and this means the shorter the better. Ideally, try to aim for
15 pages or less in order to maximize the likelihood of your
film being selected. Shorter films are also cheaper to produce
and have a better chance of holding the audience’s attention
as the longer the film; the better it has to be.
- Structure. Short scripts can
be more lenient on the traditional feature-length three-act
structure but you still need to have a beginning, middle, and
end. While your protagonist doesn’t always necessarily have to
have a visible character arc, shorts are great places to apply
many other smaller structural devices such as the ‘Rule of
Three’, use Setups and Payoffs, Reveals, Reversals and
Montages. As with other formats, a compelling Hook or Inciting
Incident is a must. Grab the viewers and don’t let them go.
- Twists. When was the last
time you actually sat through a whole short film? Our
ever-decreasing attention spans mean that you need to surprise
your audiences and provide them with the unexpected. Having a
plot twist at both the beginning and the end will help you to
hook the viewers in, make them stay for the duration, and make
sure that your film will be a memorable one when they leave. A
great ending can forgive a bad beginning, so make sure you go
out with a bang whenever possible.
- Engage your
audience. If you are sending your script out to be
read, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve done enough to keep
the reader engaged. Normally, writers are advised to do this
within the first ten pages of a script, but when a short
script may not even be this long, you need to do it right from
the start, on page one. This is where the writer’s unique
voice needs to shine off the page. Let your writing style and
word choice create an entertaining read by evoking tone,
atmosphere, and the theme of the story.
- Make it Visual. ‘Show, don’t tell’
is something screenwriters are told all the time but
surprisingly, many scripts are chock full of dialogue and more
dialogue usually means a longer page count. Try to use an
image to convey exposition wherever possible. Short films are
most likely going to be shown on the big screen so creating
visually stunning cinematic-worthy imagery is a consideration
too. There can be a tendency to forgive a poor story if a film
looks fantastic in some festival judging, but audiences will
be a bit savvier, make sure your excellent visuals are on par
with your excellent storytelling as well.
- Budget. Write something
that can realistically be produced. Budget becomes all the
more important if you’re planning on filming the short
yourself. There’s no point setting your story in an exotic
location and filling it with expensive special effects, car
chases, explosions, or period settings if this is something
you can’t achieve. Limiting the number of locations used and
dialogue-speaking characters can help shorten the time it
takes to shoot a production. Don’t feel that considering
budget will hamper your creativity when writing, on the
contrary, it’ll strengthen your imagination and make your
script more desirable at the same time.
- Avoid Clichés. With time being of
the essence in a short movie, it’s easy to slip in clichés and
stereotypes in order to convey a lot of information in a
shorter space of time. Unless you have a fresh and new take on
a stereotype, try not to use them as it shows sloppy writing.
- Marketing. Writing the script
is just the first step of a much longer journey. Don’t forget
that after you’ve written and produced your short, there’s
still the task of actually getting it seen. While still at the
ideas stage, make sure that your end product is something that
your audience wants before going ahead and writing it. If you
are filming the short yourself, do you need to crowdfund
enough money to make it first? If so, you’ll possibly need to
write and shoot footage for a campaign. Also, think about
whether your idea has legs. Can it be made into a profitable
series? Is your short a means of promoting a longer feature
script? Could your story translate into another medium etc.?
Maximize your script's potential to be more than just a
one-off.
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