OUTLINE

To most, the thought of writing a film so short probably lacks excitement. How can I express a character arc within ten minutes? How can I fit a three-act structure into ten pages?

This can be done. The film just has to be short, snappy and punchy.

First of all, think, what is the purpose of this film? Think of the ways you can amplify this message without it being a long-winded portrayal. With short films, the emotional response they create tends to be amplified due to the story being compact. A fifteen-minute set up of the world isn’t necessary, by fifteen minutes the beginning, middle and end needs to be reached.

A tip to keep it snappy- don’t involve too many characters. Introducing the audience to too many characters in such a short space of time will most likely side-track them from the narrative.

Below are some award-winning short films of various lengths:

WHY YOU SHOULD

Short films are the perfect opportunity to collaborate with first-time filmmakers and get your foot in the door within the industry. Many festivals seek short films, to have your name mentioned at a festival- whether it be runner-up or winner- is a great achievement as a writer. It also looks impressive to have under your belt.

A much lower budget compared to producing a feature film comes with short films. This is a major reason why first-time filmmakers seek to create them.

Once you know the three acts to your story, this could even encourage further development into a feature film. With the ending known, you know where you have to drive your story to. Even if it means adding more twists and turns along the way, enough content can create a path to a feature film.

For instance, the opening scene of UP conveys Mr. Fredrickson’s life. His relationship, his career, his goals. The opening portrays the entire story of his relationship with his wife Ellie, from before they were married up until her death. That alone, could be classed as a short film. However, the fact that Mr. Fredrickson never achieved his goals created a spectrum for a feature film.

Just a little recap of the sequence for those who haven’t been emotionally prepared to watch it again since the cinema…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2bk_9T482g

This has been the case for several short films. Examples can be found here:

https://www.raindance.org/7-short-films-turned-feature-films/

PREPARATION

The hack behind a short film is that the story must be clear. In order to get the story clear, the ideas fuelling the story must be just as clear. Sometimes, too many ideas come at once and you may find you put all your eggs in one basket to get each idea portrayed. A simple way to lay your ideas out before you is to brainstorm them. Each and every one. If there’s too many to cram into one short film- remove the weaker ones. Keep few of the strong ideas that only become stronger when they’re together.

Note down bits of the narrative that play out in your mind. Even if full scenes play out, write them down as this will help with organising your structure. The clearer the image plays out in your mind, the clearer the film will be.

INSPIRATION

If you’re running dry on ideas for your short film, there are a few methods that myself and other writers I know use to spark inspiration.

PERSONAL MEMORIES, anecdotes from your childhood that play back now and then in your mind that you would love to share with an audience would be perfect for a short film. Also, it might appeal to you more to create a story so personal to yourself with more meaning.

OVERHEARD STORIES, as a nosey person, I love being stood in a public place, or even a lift somewhere, and being able to hear the drama going on in another person’s life. The louder it’s spoken about, the less guilt I feel for listening. It’s mad to believe, the most interesting of stories can come from people you don’t know a single thing about. Perhaps this is what makes the story more interesting, because you don’t know the person the story roots from, they can be anything you want them to be- a blank canvas. The perfect start in the creation of your character for the short film.

NEWS STORIES, personally this one has recently worked ideally for me. There was a headline suggesting a big, major change in the future. One that would knock everyone off their feet. I thought about this headline for the rest of the day and during my drive home I decided I wanted to create a world that revolved around this headline.

SOCIAL MEDIA STORIES, now, the most absurd of stories can be found on social media, for instance: due to Snapchat Maps, I discovered that at a canal five minutes away from me, somebody decided to take their jet ski for a trip along there (only in Salford.) As ridiculous as it sounds, it makes for an interesting character- the person even contemplating to take a jet ski along a canal.

And no, I’m not kidding:

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/salford-jet-ski-canal-bridgewater-18265670

The perfect factor for these sources of inspiration, is that they are always there. Like a bookshelf in your mind, you can take one out as and when needed to pluck some inspiration for the next short film you write.

RESEARCH

If you have gathered your inspiration and got some form of idea of what your story is about but you are struggling on how to piece it together within ten minutes, watch some short films.

The best research is watching and learning from others that have been in the same shoes. I really recommend exploring Vimeo or YouTube for short films of a similar genre to your own to help influence your structure of the story.

With this, you will be able to gather your own opinion of which aspects worked or did not work and apply them going forward with your own film.

GET IT DOWN

Personally, ideas tend to launch into my mind from nowhere, when I least expect it. For example, when I was swimming laps once, I was midway through the pool and an idea for a feature started to form. I couldn’t write this down and I still had many laps to go. I knew that if I didn’t note these ideas down then bits would be forgotten, then my enthusiasm for the idea could’ve fallen. As soon as I’d finished my swim, I wrote what I could remember of the idea into notes on my phone.

Half the time, writers find that if they don’t note down the idea somewhere then it is likely to become lost in the mind.

During the development phase, once I get all of my ideas of the world, story, characters etc. formed and my beat sheet, I try to begin the writing process as soon as possible from there. Otherwise, I’m at risk of constantly putting off the writing and before I know it, another idea has taken the spotlight and I prioritise the new idea over my developed one. Even if it’s a rough first draft of script, the spelling isn’t perfect and you feel it’s a bit all over the place, as long as it is there as a script, the development process is a better place to be than stuck trying to force yourself into the writing process.

EXTRA TIPS

A few extra pointers for writing a short film:

CREATE A SIMPLE STORY, THAT’S A COMPLICATED SITUATION FOR THE CHARACTER. If the audience are aligned with the main character and root for this character, then even if the story is simple, they will engage with the complication that the character is experiencing.

For example, a short film I recently wrote titled ‘ARTISTIC’ is about a teenage boy with autism, the story is that he breaks a glass kitten that his little sister collects, and he wants to get her a new one. SIMPLE story. However, for the character, he breaks the kitten in the first place due to stacking his sisters’ things in her room (a symptom of autism) and it falls and breaks. He is bullied for his autism; the bullies tend to take his dinner money. He works extra hard for enough money to replace his sister’s kitten and does so. Only, the bullies decide the take the kitten rather than his dinner money. During lunchtime, the bullies are hosting a competition of who can make a stack cards into the highest pyramid. For once, the main character is at an advantage, he takes on the bullies and his disability worked to his better gain. He won the competition and wins the kitten back. The story ends with him giving his sister this kitten and winning back her respect.

SIMPLE story, COMPLICATED for the character!

(TITLE CONTEXT- I titled it ‘ARTISTIC’ because the bullies mocked him by calling him Artistic rather than Autistic.)

Another tip is to only involve the vital information needed about the character. In ‘Artistic’, I made it clear that the Father was in the family picture, but the audience didn’t necessarily have to meet him. Having the Father appear wouldn’t add to the purpose of the story and would mean an extra person to cast. The audience didn’t have to know what the main character’s favourite tea or favourite colour was, they just needed to know that he suffers with autism and cares for his sister despite not always showing this through their interactions.

This is mainly important due to the minimal time given, information can’t be wasted.

Reiterating a point just made, minimum characters and locations are useful for the production of a short film. Less production budget needs to be used to fund actors and less time scouting locations can be spent. An issue that I came across with ‘Artistic’ is that licenses would have to be given to access schools for filming and placing the roles to actors under sixteen.

Factors like this need to be considered in order to keep your short film as simple and practical as possible.

PRACTICALITY

Now, you’ve wrote a short film with a high-action chase scene, the main character is infiltrating the government, only he’s been captured by a spy federation and now with just a stun rod, they must plan their escape.

This would to toooooooooo much for the ten-minute production.

It’s not necessarily a wrong idea, or the wrong genre. But, for a chase scene alone to be intense that would probably take up about five minutes of your script anyway, then that leaves only five minutes to make the rest of your story clear.

Also, with a low budget, how could a car scene be filmed? How would you purchase a stun rod?

As previously mentioned, the accessibility of locations should also be considered. If a slugline connotes a cave as the location, is there a cave that you know of where filming could pursue? Or a location where a license would need to be held in order to film?

There is also the practicality of actors to consider as well as locations. If there is a cast with over ten actors, this will be a lot of characters to introduce to the audience. Furthermore, these actors could live miles away and be unreliable to commit to the journey for a short film. The less actors, the more practical the production would be.

SHOW DON’T TELL. NOW MORE THAN EVER.

This is a basic rule of thumb when it comes to scriptwriting. However, now, it’s the key to portraying your short film to an audience without shoving too much information down their throat.

Using ‘ARTISTIC’ as an example again, no one actually says that the main character has autism. It is shown through his behaviour: his pristine uniform, stacking his cereal one above the other, rearranging his sister’s room. The audience can engage by figuring out this information for themselves with the puzzle pieces laid out before them.

If information is revealed through dialogue, then this takes up more time that you have not got. Plus, as mentioned, if you give the audience something to put together themselves then it will keep them engaged- and that’s what you want.

AVOID CLICHÉ

With the compactness of a short film, clichés are easier to spot now more than ever. Endings run the risk of being more predictable, and cliché dialogue that’s used in many other films can’t be brushed under the carpet.

A major cliché that I have notice from short films I have watched in festivals is that a lot of filmmakers tend to go in the post-apocalyptic direction. They revolve their short film around a world infested with zombies, in the future, portraying how people now live.

Raindance Festival have also revealed clichés that they have come across:

https://www.raindance.org/1short-film-cliches/

Have a read and take note of what production choices to avoid!

Perhaps another way to avoid making it cliché would be to make it topical to what’s going in the world currently. That way, it’s not something an audience would have seen over and over if it was a fresh idea based on new affairs.