Short Film Writing

Mj882

Mj882

Well-known member
There is an abundance of books on story/script/pre-production books on feature films such as Robert Mckee's Story and Syd Field's Screenplay, but are there any books of this ilk for 'Short films'?
 
McKee's Story is fantastic; and if you read carefully in Story you will see how he does get into short film, short screenplay, in that you might only need one act, or two, etc, as he discusses.

Mj882 said:
There is an abundance of books on story/script/pre-production books on feature films such as Robert Mckee's Story and Syd Field's Screenplay, but are there any books of this ilk for 'Short films'?
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Short films don't bear the same rules as features. You can go abstract, wild, all Picasso on us and it's fine.

The best thing to keep in mind is to make sure your story has a beginning, middle and end.
 
While that is true and rigid rules shouldn't apply, I still think there are a certain principle of forms; i.e exposition still applies obviously and an opening scene generally needs to convey a lot of information, right away.

I've read it's best to start it at the vert last moment that you can enter a story and still have it make sense.

Charli said:
Short films don't bear the same rules as features. You can go abstract, wild, all Picasso on us and it's fine.

The best thing to keep in mind is to make sure your story has a beginning, middle and end.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah it is great so far, really changing my views of Story. I'm only on Chapter 3 at the moment, taking it slowly and really absorbing all of it.

I haven't come across any mention of short film, care to mention page or chapter?


Randall_Oelerich said:
McKee's Story is fantastic; and if you read carefully in Story you will see how he does get into short film, short screenplay, in that you might only need one act, or two, etc, as he discusses.
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So true imho. I cut out the first five pages from a fifteen page short screenplay I shot this summer. I mean, it was a short, not a feature, no need for buckets of setup and backstory.

Mj882 said:
While that is true and rigid rules shouldn't apply, I still think there are a certain principle of forms; i.e exposition still applies obviously and an opening scene generally needs to convey a lot of information, right away. I've read it's best to start it at the vert last moment that you can enter a story and still have it make sense.
Click to expand...
 
I don't have Story in front of me at the coffee shop here, but I do not recall McKee getting into a short film specifically, but he does get into the number of acts, and with a short you might often just have one act shot at one location. Concise, short, one act. That one act can have a beginning, middle, end, as should occur in each and every scene. The more acts, the longer the story/film, the more twists and reversals.
 
I've ordered How To Not Make a Short Film. I've contacted the author Roberta (Former Raindance programmer) and she's convinced me the book has what Im looking for; structure, exposition etc.

So we'll see if its a useful piece of hard copy.
 
i'd convince you too that my book was what you were looking for :P can you let us know if the book *is* any good after you're done? thanks mate
 
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Hmm

Hmm

I was not a big fan of that book. It has some good information, but mostly I felt that it was extremely obvious. It also wasn't my writing style, but then again most of these are not. I don't care for the really conversational tone, I prefer a properly written book without slang, without a lot of that more blog-like writing. I'm pretty formal in my writing and I like to read material written at that level as well. But I suppose I'm probably in the minority on that. I'm just accustomed to reading more serious text and a lot of this stuff comes off as filler.

I thought that reading screenwriting books would probably be really useful, but so far all it has told me is that I already know everything I need to know and really should just be spending that time writing. In other words no, I'm not some sort of expert, but I will learn the rest I need to know by reading more screenplays, studying them, and writing a lot more. So it's probably just delaying that hard work by reading more and more books on the subject. I also think so much of the material is really obvious, to me at least, I don't understand how so many people mess it up.
 
I've checked out the author's YouTube and there's several comical videos depicting what NOT to do in short films. However, advice such as "Don't use ninjas" and "Don't do a full rotation of the camera of people taking crack" is a bit worrying, I hope there's more formal and useful advice in the book, in the ilk of Mckee's Story.

I also saw a preview of the authors short film, it seemed like one of those "My first film with a HPX170!" film...slightly worrying. But I'll let you guys know if I fell into a trap with this book.
 
"When writing a short film, I just write less pages than a feature..." zing, bop, bong, cymbal crash, "I'm here all weekend folks, right next to the salad bar and the women's restroom. And let me tell you, women do in fact fart, I've heard it nine times already today." :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

Seriously though, if I'm writing a short, what I usually employ is the basic set-up, rising tension, and then climax/resolution model. Not exactly the same type of 3-act structure that a feature would use, but similar yet simpler. So it comes out to something like this for an approx. 10 minute short film screenplay:

ACT I: Intro protagonist/story world (1-2 pages)
ACT II: rising tension/conflict/thematic discussions (5-6 pages)
ACT III: protag and antagonist square off/resolution (2-3 pages)

Usually, there is one plot point that transitions the end of ACT II into ACT III, while with a feature you have more plot points, namely the one at the end of ACT I and also the end of ACT II. Of course, features can also have more plot points or smaller twists due to the fact that they have more time to develop this stuff organically within the world of the story.

So basically for short scripts it is best to KISS -- keep it simple stupid (not that you're stupid, just using the acronym).
 
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I've almost complete the book How Not To Make A Short Film. I'm not going to give my opinion on the book overall yet, but will share a few words for it's advice/information on pre-production.

If you are looking for a short film writing book that would delve into structure, story events, exposition etc then this is not the book for you. It sparsely dedicates a few paragraphs to the actual script writing process and how it differs from feature film scripts.

For creative aspects, I wouldn't recommend this book however it does have a lot of useful information on hiring cast/crew, how to go about holding auditions, how to look out for good/bad producers etc etc.

The majority of the useful advice situated in the book are mainly extracts of quotes from quotes by "insiders". The author, Roberta Munroe, doesn't come across as "creatively gifted" per se but more of a newcomer in the field learning a lot and sharing those experiences with us.

It does have useful information on Distribution, On-set attitudes, hiring etc, but if it's the left brain creative aspects you're looking for, then this is not it in my opinion.
 
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