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Writing a Short Film
Writing The 48 Hour Script
Kathryn Burnett is an experienced screenwriter and screenwriting tutor from New Zealand. She’s worked on many TV series, including Street Legal, Lost Children and Holly’s Heroes. Kathryn has also been a judge on the New Zealand 48Hours competition.
Writing a great short film script is certainly challenging. On one hand you have at your disposal the many cinematic story-telling elements and techniques found in feature film, and a certain amount of freedom to experiment, but on the other you’re working within a much, much shorter time frame. Not surprisingly this has a direct impact on your script and what you can and cannot achieve. It should be stated right now – a short film isn’t a condensed feature film and writers (and directors) who are reluctant to accept this invariably fail. Short films take many forms – they can be animated, experimental, musical, documentary or dramatic. But one thing they all have in common is that their success relies on economy and singular focus. And nowhere is this truer than in the dramatic or short narrative screenplay – which is what this article is concerned with.
Trying to tell a compelling story with half decent characterization within ten to twelve minutes is no easy feat. In a feature length film you can take your time developing your characters, creating multi-layered storylines with subplots and exploring a number of themes. Not so in a short film. Thus the key to writing a short film is to keep it simple. This is something I’ll say again and again because it’s just not possible to squeeze a feature film idea or a particularly complex idea into a short format and do it justice. It’s a bit like trying to squeeze a novel into a short story – they’re different animals.
So how short is a short film? A not very useful answer is that it’s a film that’s shorter than a feature film. No one has ever categorically defined the length of a short film – and the pre-requisites of TV channels, festivals and competitions will differ country to country. But ten to twelve minutes is generally considered the conventional length. Actually anything under 45 minutes is considered a short film but there really isn’t much of a market for half hour films unless they’re part of a compilation like Four Rooms (a collection of short version films by different directors).
Obviously a film can be less than that ten minutes but it’s a good idea to check with the specific market of your choice before embarking on your project.
So you have ten or twelve minutes in which to tell a story – so what does that mean for the screenwriter?
That the screenplay has to be simple and focused.
Your screenplay needs to consist of one core idea and everything needs to serve that idea – every action, image and line of dialogue.
In a short screenplay there’s no time to develop an elaborate plot, a raft of characters or lengthy set ups. Multi-layered stories aren’t going to work and neither are stories, which rely heavily on the main character’s back-story. You simply will not have time to explore back-story. It’s also best to avoid subplots, numerous characters, multi-protagonists, expensive set pieces, and stories set in two or more different time periods.
A good short film script aims to tell a simple story well not matter what the genre or subject matter. And a good story relies on a good main character. So once you have a basic story idea there are some questions to be asked and a number of decisions to be made on the following checklist:
Try to write your story idea down in a single sentence as in:
This story is about a _____ who ________ and __________but then ___________________.
This is harder than it looks but is a really good exercise in focusing on what your core idea or premise is.
And then the very next question to ask yourself is – who is the story happening to?
Or to be more precise – who is my Protagonist? The Protagonist in any story is the central character, the character that the story is about and whose life is being made difficult or who simply wants something to change. They might not even necessarily be human but they are the character the audience will be following.
It’s also helpful at the formative stage to decide which genre you are writing which is another way of asking – what type of film will this be made into? And what will the audience expect from a film in this genre? This is not about crushing experimentation or creativity but more as a reminder to self as you proceed that your original goal was to write a short screenplay that scared/moved/amused/shocked the audience. When you get stuck you can go back to this intention to remind yourself of your original goal.
You may also like to clarify for yourself what tone and style you have in mind, as this will influence everything from the way you write your action and your dialogue to tone. In the end the tone will be dictated by the director and the performances he/she elicits from actors but the screenplay still establishes the foundations of the film’s ultimate tone by choices made by the writer in their characters, plot, direction (or big print), symbolism and dialogue.
So once you know your protagonist and have an idea about genre – ask yourself what does my protagonist want; and who or what is stopping him/her? Or more simply – who or what is my Antagonist?
An antagonist can take many forms, anything from another character or monster, to a force of nature or a council with a new bylaw. It or they is whatever’s making the Protagonist’s life difficult.
Another important question to ask at the beginning is whose Point Of View (POV) are we seeing this story through? Is it the protagonist or is someone else narrating the story? There are numerous examples of this type of narration but two that spring to mind are “Ray” (d. & w. Tony Mahony) and “Zinky Boys Go Underground” (d.Paul Tickell, w.Adsid Tantimedh).
Something else a writer has to ask him or herself is – what is the question of this film? That is, what is the question that drives the action of the story? Simple examples of such questions are – will the boy win the girl? Or will the boy ever meet his hero? The question of the film should be answered in some way by the conclusion of the film – even if the answer is ambiguous. The question of a short film can be tiny and very simple. A great example of a simple, universal story with simple question can be found in the Oscar nominated Two Cars, One Night (d. &w. Taika Waititi).
So following on from that – now that you know the question of the film how do you go about revealing an answer. In short how is the writer going to tell the story? What’s going to happen? Trying to tell someone a bunch of surefire instructions on how to create a great plot is the stuff of fantasy. If somebody knew the secret to the perfect plot then there would never be any boring or incomprehensible films but we know this not to be the case. So where do you start?
When thinking about how your story might work brainstorm for possible events in the story you have in mind without censoring yourself. Ask – what could possibly happen to my character given his/her situation? What could he/she possibly do? And then – what might happen as a result of his/her actions? Many elements will influence what happens in your story including genre, pace and what you’re hoping to elicit from your audience. If you’re writing a comedy and you want the audience to laugh then some funny stuff should be happening in your plot. And of course when you’re re-drafting you’ll realize that certain plot points or actions just don’t work in the genre you’ve chosen or they don’t illustrate the theme well or they just distract from the story you want to tell. At this point you’ll change the plot points to find a more satisfying series of events and actions – and hopefully a more satisfying story.
Identifying theme is one of the most difficult questions to answer at the beginning of a project. It’s simple enough to state what the story is about e.g. a man goes to extreme lengths in order to keep his dog. But the underlying meaning of the story is known as the Theme and it infuses the characters, emotional core and plot. It can even be revealed in images, symbolism and setting.
In an idea about the man trying to keep his dog – the theme might be loneliness or the desire to be loved. It could even be about the ridiculous nature of bureaucracy. And once you have identified what your story is about on a deeper level it can help you to improve the piece and give it unity by asking – do my images, symbols, music, motifs, scenarios and locations reflect my theme?
A possible way to find or articulate your theme is to ask yourself – what do I want to say about this subject? Or what’s going on at the heart or emotional core of my story?
So as you start writing the screenplay keep in mind that brevity is king in the short film medium. Because you are short on time any unnecessary business that doesn’t propel the story forward or isn’t necessary to the story should be avoided. For example people driving or walking from one place to another – if the audience doesn’t need to see it cut it out. The writer is constantly being challenged to find and quicker or shorter ways to convey information. Thus consider the following cinematic techniques screenwriters have at their disposal to achieve this.
And finally a short word on Dialogue. Every word has to count so again ask yourself – how can I convey this same meaning in fewer words? When you are editing consider the following:
If your character’s dialogue isn’t moving the story forward, revealing information about them or someone else then it probably needs editing or re-writing.
Tip: Read your dialogue out loud. You’ll very rapidly discover what sounds clunky and long-winded.
Re-writing:
Re-writing is all about cutting. Cutting what doesn’t work and isn’t serving your story well – this includes scenes, characters and dialogue. An overwritten first draft is very common and writers are invariably and understandably resistant to significant editing because they have an emotional connection to the work. So how do you overcome this problem?
Firstly step back from the work (often having a break from it is a good idea) and before you start any re-writing take an hour to ask yourself the following questions:
1. What is the core idea of this script?
Write the answer down and then ask yourself the following questions:
2. What genre am I in?
3. What emotions do I want to create in the audience?
Now examine the main character, main and plot points – do they contribute to the core idea of your script? Is there too much back-story? Is all the interesting stuff happening in the past? If so re-think your core story. What is the story or story element that excites you?
Examine each scene and ask yourself:
4. What is the purpose of this scene?
If you can’t answer the question that’s a good indicator that it might be redundant.
5. Does this scene contribute to the core idea?
6. Does this scene end on some kind of question that will lead the reader/viewer into the rest of the story?
7. If a scene isn’t working – can I brainstorm another idea for the scene?
8. Have I given too much screen time to unimportant or minor characters?
9. Ask yourself – what is the question posed by the beginning of your story? And does my script answer it. If your script’s topic and question revolves around a bank robbery then your climax or conclusion can’t be about the robber’s marriage break up.
Kathryn Burnett © 2008