6 Techniques on How to Write a Short Film Script
They are obviously shorter than features, so you don’t have as much time to layer in nuance and texture. That’s typically all there is—a problem, a task, or an occasion. The script for the short movie has to carry out its storyline simply and tastefully, which is why it’s such a great showpiece. The simple short film typically doesn’t have many frills to obstruct it.
The likelihood is that if you’re interested in creating a short film script, you’re also interested in making it, whether as the director, actor, cinematographer, or all three. This is because there isn’t a huge market for filmmakers looking to option short films. This signifies that your script was written specifically for you.
As they move through the production process and onto the screen, features frequently go through a sort of transformation. It’s yours if you’re creating a short film for the pleasure of production or to expand your resume.
It follows that your story need not take place in a production-free environment. The short film script does not need to be adaptable to another person’s vision, however, a feature movie that you wish to sell needs to be.
In other words, you don’t have to adhere to all the scriptwriting guidelines you would have to if you wanted your screenplay to appeal to everyone. Writing freely and expressively is liberating; this is where your true gift may be seen.
However, there are several things you can do to present your best self.
Check out this video if you need a little assistance coming up with your idea:
Otherwise, let’s get on with How to Write a Short Film Script.
6 Techniques on How to Write a Short Film Script
Focus On Your Concept
Techniques on How to Write a Short Film Script
Feature scripts frequently require what they require, such as a precise number of characters, particular settings, and possibly a few small special effects. All of these components go into the writing of the script, and production afterward decides how to make it all come to life.
However, a short film showcases your skill and eye as a director. Therefore, the only components that are essential are those that you choose to include.
Short films typically don’t need as large of a team (or none at all), so you can adapt your idea to fit the resources you have. Do you have any acting friends? OK, but just one? Okay, start by coming up with a concept for only one actor. What about the backdrops? Do you have access to free, public natural areas nearby? Where could you be able to shoot? You now have a setting where you can set your sole character.
If you just have one camera and one microphone, avoid using production designs that you know you won’t be able to execute to undermine your screenplay. Determine what you have and what you can accomplish with it, and then use the limitations of the medium to help mold the concept that will eventually become your script.
As you can see from the short film above, it’s a small story about a bunch of vain actors. This short film paved the way for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia to become one of the greatest comedy shows of all time, and it started with a conversation about cancer, and it only cost $200 dollars for this pilot.
Streamline Your Arc
Techniques on How to Write a Short Film Script
When it comes to long-form storylines, the accepted wisdom is to repeatedly punish your characters. You want to put more difficult barriers in their way until the story’s climax. Books, movies, video games, and serialized content all demonstrate this.
You just don’t have time to pound away at your characters in a short film script, though. A short movie is more akin to an occasion or an encounter. It should undoubtedly convey that the universe differs between the beginning and the conclusion, but it should do it overtly rather than gradually.
You’ll need to streamline your character arc for short films.
Reduce the complexity of your character arcs to direct development, immediate conflict, or abrupt transformation. As soon as you can, go right into this experience with your character(s), give it your all, and then leave. It doesn’t take much to create a satisfying story arc in a short film: a character notices something in the world that can’t (or shouldn’t) be the way it is; the character tries to alter it; and either way, the character learns from the experience.
Connect your story’s arc to the queries you addressed when you were scoping out your concept. Where could you shoot? With whom may you film? What tools do you possess? What intriguing conflict can you imagine based on these responses?
Beginning Worldbuilding
Techniques on How to Write a Short Film Script
The worldbuilding process is one of the most enjoyable parts of telling stories on screen.
From the decks of spaceships to haunted amusement parks, all of our best movies include vivid, distinctive environments that the characters live in. These worlds operate in various ways.
Perhaps you should see the fusion drive on the generation ship because it will eventually explode. We must understand how the fusion drive functions in the real world. The monsters might hear you if you make the wrong kind of noise. The monsters are they blind? Why is it crucial that they hear you? For every story, similar queries arise.
When creating the world of your story, consider minimalism.
In a short film, there isn’t much place for expository establishing shots or infodumps. If they do it quickly and it makes sense for the world they are creating, the correct kinds of stories can do this. However, trying to cram too much knowledge about how things operate typically merely takes up space.
Instead, use meaningful looks to create the worlds in your short films. Consider the camera to be an eye. As the action progresses, it will occasionally observe things in the outside world. If you’re doing your job correctly, everything this eye sees is behaving in accordance with the laws of this world, even if you haven’t taken the time to explain what those laws are.
You can tell me it’s raining outside without having to introduce the dripping umbrella. When the figure enters the room, they will certainly do something with a wet umbrella. Tell me about the rain, please, with this thoughtful glance. Is it necessary for the character to immediately enter a chemical shower? Okay, so the rain is lethal.
Write your play as though you are a resident of this world and are subject to its laws. Keep the rules straightforward, and they’ll flow smoothly onto the screen.
Reduce Everything To A Minimum
Techniques on How to Write a Short Film Script
Your initial script draft will definitely be overly detailed.
When you’re initially drafting, it’s very tempting to get carried away with scenes, lines of speech or events that you believe are crucial to the story.
Usually, if you take a second look, you can simplify things—and then simplify them again. This is not to imply that you don’t want, for instance, complex and nuanced speech (it is still a film, after all), but do you need 45 seconds of it, or will 20 seconds of excellent performance have the same impact?
Focus on that one moment, that one problem, and work toward its resolution and the direct arc of the character in the setting you have created utilizing meaningful looks. Also, keep in mind that the universe you are constructing is a crucial tool for the narrative. You can be working with a small cast of characters or shooting in a location that has certain limitations.
Your characters are affected by the environments they live in, whether it is in terms of their psychological well-being, physical security, or something more metaphysical. A character can get beat up by the world just like they can by a pointless antagonist. Alternately, it can make them just as crazy as a gaslighting monster.
Do more with less by making every aspect of the subject you are recording work for you.
The Ending is Crucial
Techniques on How to Write a Short Film Script
Short films must establish themselves because they are more like exercises than experiences.
They’re emphasizing filmmaking and storytelling methods that we often only encounter in the context of much longer-form media, such as movies or series, so it makes sense that we would evaluate the experience in light of what we are used to.
Should a short film attempt to provide the same cinematic experience as a feature since people (in general) watch more features than short films? Most likely not.
A short movie essentially makes a point. What was it attempting to achieve in terms of what features achieve? What is the filling if the short film is only a slice of filmmaking? What justifies its value?
Exhibit the uniqueness of your project.
Of course, there are the typical components that will demonstrate the project’s quality: strong writing, effective blocking, effective use of the available space, and strong performances.
The conclusion, though, is what ties everything together. Here, the short film essentially completes what it set out to accomplish.
The final, lasting impression is crucial since there isn’t as much opportunity for this type of stuff in a short film as there is in a feature film, when events, characters, and scenes all work together to create something greater than the sum of their parts.
It’s basically what people will take away from your presentation.
Each project will interpret this differently. But starting with a decent ending is a fantastic approach to ensure that you’re progressing in the right direction.
Scoping your idea should begin with the conclusion. With the people you have and the space you have, what great thing are you going to do? Once you are aware of this, begin writing your script from the beginning. By doing so, you can make sure everything is proceeding according to plan for that impactful conclusion.
Find Time To Write
Techniques on How to Write a Short Film Script
This final piece of advise is only some useful guidance on how to tie everything together. Finding the time to sit down and write has never been easy for any of us. Despite your best efforts, the project drags on for months without being completed.
Set aside an hour, turn off your phone (it’s only an hour! ), and avoid using the internet during that time. The only actions you are permitted to do are play some music and stand up to use the restroom. Either you write, or you sit there and lose all sense of reality. You’d be shocked at how quickly you get started.
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About the author: Trent (IMDB | Youtube) has spent 10+ years working on an assortment of film and television projects. He writes about his experiences to help (and amuse) others. If he’s not working, he’s either traveling, reading or writing about travel/film, or planning travel/film projects.
