One-Minute Film, how to write?

K

kede

Active member
Hi eveyone,

I'm not a good writer, but I need to write some one-minute film scripts. For you, what's the best way to write some funny things for a one minute film?

Thanks for your help.

Quentin.
 
The less time you have, the less 'rules' you have to deal with. It's pretty hard to bore anyone with a minute story. Just let 'em rip.
 
any story, short or long.

any story, short or long.

3 Act Structure.

Act One- Crisis : A Problem occurs. Your friend slaps you for no reason. Its the "New Thing".
Act Two- Complication: It gets worse. The "new thing" is...getting.... complicated. More pain.
Act Three- Catastrophe/Climax- you're getting your ass kicked by all your friends now.
Conclusion- "EXPLETIVE!!!!!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk9UTjrtCNk

Blew your mind didnt I.

A story is a PROBLEM. That gets worse. Until its hopeless. Then the hero fixes it. Or fails.
 
While posters here can argue until they're blue in the face (and have!) on whether or not a 3 act structure is necessary for a feature-length film, I'd argue that the shorter a film is, the less standard structure pertains to it. Often times shorter than 15 minute films start at or after the 'inciting incident'; they often end at or just before the climax as well. The over analyzing of structure mostly pertains to the problem of holding an audience's attention for longer spans of time. You have much more leeway with a one-minute film, and there are plenty of entertaining ones that never change mode from beginning to end. Even with commercial intentions, this is an experimental realm.
 
You are correct, I should not have posted that.

Larry Rutledge said:
Not to come off rude, but ... that was a pointless post. It is extremely reasonable for someone to browse to a filmmaking site, then to the screen writing section of that filmmaking site, and finally to ask a question related to screen writing.
Click to expand...
 
mood pieces

mood pieces

vcassel said:
While posters here can argue until they're blue in the face (and have!) on whether or not a 3 act structure is necessary for a feature-length film, I'd argue that the shorter a film is, the less standard structure pertains to it. Often times shorter than 15 minute films start at or after the 'inciting incident'; they often end at or just before the climax as well. The over analyzing of structure mostly pertains to the problem of holding an audience's attention for longer spans of time. You have much more leeway with a one-minute film, and there are plenty of entertaining ones that never change mode from beginning to end. Even with commercial intentions, this is an experimental realm.
Click to expand...


Its true that you have more room to experiment if you will, but people need guidance. I went insane trying to find out how to write shorts, because very few screenwriting books explain it. Lots of bad advice out there about it- "just give it a twist" being the most useless and annoying.

Also , structure is not only flexible, but relative. I just wrote a short that starts with a crisis and ends with a climax, (its a page long), but the event can also be looked at as the Climax of a larger story, since all the exposition is truncated.

People need something to go on. Not every short ever made needs to work the way I suggested, but if youre stuck about how to go about it, its a roadmap.

I would argue that people not using structure, are doing it automatically, without trying to. I don't think you can run from what the human mind considers a good story (Eraserhead is structured in Crisis, Complication and Climax). I advocate a simple, flexible view of structure- I don't think you can engineer art.

but yeah, I agree a short could be a mood piece.

Then again I dare you to look at your last favorite mood piece and see if it doesn't progress from a Crisis to a Climax.
 
memento515 said:
Its true that you have more room to experiment if you will, but people need guidance. I went insane trying to find out how to write shorts, because very few screenwriting books explain it. Lots of bad advice out there about it- "just give it a twist" being the most useless and annoying.

Also , structure is not only flexible, but relative. I just wrote a short that starts with a crisis and ends with a climax, (its a page long), but the event can also be looked at as the Climax of a larger story, since all the exposition is truncated.

People need something to go on. Not every short ever made needs to work the way I suggested, but if youre stuck about how to go about it, its a roadmap.

I would argue that people not using structure, are doing it automatically, without trying to. I don't think you can run from what the human mind considers a good story (Eraserhead is structured in Crisis, Complication and Climax). I advocate a simple, flexible view of structure- I don't think you can engineer art.

but yeah, I agree a short could be a mood piece.

Then again I dare you to look at your last favorite mood piece and see if it doesn't progress from a Crisis to a Climax.
Click to expand...

I'm not against structure as a component; it's a necessity in standard cases. I speak a lot against the modern shift towards structure as this sort of rigid focus that the glut of new screenwriters seem hung up on. A one-minute film is far from a standard case though.
 
I see one minute dramas played out all the time - in or through the windows of - public transportation. Due to this thread I can think of three that would follow the rules. Wouldn't it be more fun and/or challenging to attempt to follow momento's advice? Think it would be more worth everyone's time.
 
We do a one page screenplay contest every year at MoviePoet.com. Some of the winners are truly amazing. You might want to check them out for inspiration.
 
I do a lot of sketches that are around a minute or under. Comedy is well suited to the length, since you can just end with a punchline.
 
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