Best Way To Write a Short Film

So you’re trying to write a short film there’s a lot of bad information out there about writing short films when people want to write movies one of the common pieces of advice is to watch movies but that doesn’t really work with short films short films are their own breed they are written and made for all different reasons many times it’s for a director or cinematographer to show off their ability or maybe the short is really just an ad for something and sometimes the writers seemingly abandon what they know about writing dramatic narratives when they go to write a short film in this post I want to change all of that, I want to give you a clear understanding of how you can write a strong dramatic narrative in a short film let’s begin first off I want to debunk a few myths surrounding writing short films myth 1 short films are too short to be deeply meaningful and dramatic this is completely wrong short films can absolutely be meaningful and dramatic if you focus on building them on fundamental story elements myth 2 there isn’t enough time to set up the story many writers believe they have to skip having any set up in their short film because they only have a few pages to work with this is not true setup is necessary to a story even if you start right in the middle of the action the audience is going to need to know what’s going on who people are and why the action is happening if they don’t learn these things quickly they will disengage from the story myth 3 stunning cinematography woody dialog and cool concepts will create a good short film even if the story isn’t good this is absolutely wrong yet I see this in short films all the time even in a short film the story is still the core element audiences will always grow bored quickly if there’s no story at the core even if the film looks gorgeous however rather than simply showing you an example and explaining why that example works I want to take a short film that already exists and reconstructed from the ground up like you would be doing when writing you’re short the short film I’m going to use is stutterer, now I want to make it clear that I did not make this film this short film was written and directed by Benjay Cleary I am using this short film to build an example of a good process you can adopt to create a short film that has a strong dramatic narrative stutterer is linked below but this might actually work better if you’ve never seen it before also and I’m only going to say this once this is not the only way to build a story or a short film take what’s helpful leave what isn’t this isn’t a formula this is an examination of why stories work to help you write your own story the writer may not have used this exact method to build this short film however this process is one that has been extremely beneficial to me and hopefully will be beneficial to you as well let’s begin with finding ideas can be all sorts of things they can be a scene a character a line of dialogue a concept or a philosophical idea that you want to examine for this short film let’s start with a very simple idea the story is about a man who stutters this is a good place to start, we now have a concept we don’t have our story yet but we have the beginning of an idea now we can move on to building our main character and what they believe just like a longer form story a short film needs philosophical ethical or moral dilemmas this is why we become invested in characters it’s not about their ability to solve problems or the fact that they are in danger it’s about what the characters believe and the actions they take because of those beliefs that engage us with the story it’s good to start by building out the main character the person that your story will revolve around there may be many characters in your story but usually there will be one character that pushes the story forward more than anyone else in this story our main character is a man who stutters his name is Greenwood stutter is an external problem but this isn’t where the conflict of the story is we need to give Greenwood some Lys what does he believe about his stutter that holds him back in life we need to answer this question so we can begin to build strong story conflict but this is hard to figure out without knowing what the character once and why they want it so let’s talk about what Greenwood wants Greenwood wants to be in love okay this is a start but let’s go deeper than that Greenwood wants a deep intimate relationship with someone this is a strong desire now that we know what Greenwood once we can talk more about what he believes what beliefs does Greenwood hold that will stop him from getting what he wants we have the characters want and this major external obstacle we can use these together to help build out Greenwoods philosophical beliefs and the philosophical conflict Greenwood believes that his stutter will stop him from connecting deeply with others he feels disconnected from the world and believes his stutter will always hold him back he is wallowing in self-pity so now we have our central character and the central idea behind the story these are the guiding ideas of almost every great dramatic story a character struggling with their own beliefs as they come into conflict with the world now that we have an understanding of what the story is about philosophically we can begin building the other characters in the story okay so this is a love story Greenwood wants to find a deep intimate relationship so he needs a love interest now we bring in Ellie Ellie is greenwith love interest but she can’t just be the love interest why because that’s not what the story is about the story falls flat if Ellie is simply the love interest because then she wouldn’t be adding to the philosophical conflict she should hold beliefs that oppose Greenwoods Ellie accepts herself for who she is Ellie is willing to be open and honest Ellie is not wallowing in self-pity these are the beliefs that Greenwood must accept and now Greenwood and Ellie’s beliefs are in conflict if this is the case then we need to see proof of Ellie’s acceptance of these ideas Ellie needs to have an external problem just like Greenwood but we don’t know what it is yet we’ll come back to this now we have two major characters but let’s add one more Greenwoods father Greenwood shouldn’t have a father in the story for no reason this character should also add to the philosophical conflict Greenwood now has evidence of someone in his life that accepts him for who he is this is how the father character adds to the philosophical conflict so now we have our concept our philosophical conflict and our characters now we need to think about how we can structure a story in a way that is dramatic interesting and pressures our main character in the best way possible let’s look at a narrative structure short films aren’t any more difficult to write than feature films however some people get confused because they try to apply structural formulas and rules that only work with feature-length screenplays too short films as a storyteller and writer you should be focusing on the fundamental elements of how a story works and that’s why I want to structure this short film using Dan Harmon’s story circle the story circle is a great tool because it isn’t constricted by a certain length of time rather than existing to hit certain beats on certain pages of a feature film the story circle focuses on the fundamental elements of the story the story circle breaks down into four quarters and four points which create a dramatic story number one the character is in a zone of comfort number two but they want something number three they enter an unfamiliar situation number four they adapt to it number five they get what they wanted number six they pay a heavy price for it number seven they return to their familiar situation number eight having changed I’ve talked extensively about the story circle in my previous post because I believe it is the best structural tool for the screenwriter because it moves away from screenwriting formulas and focuses on the innate natural elements of a dramatic story for an in-depth look at the different ways the story circle can be helpful to a screenwriter check out my video on story structure linked below so we already have the first two points on the story circle we have a character Greenwood and we know what he wants to be in a deep intimate relationship and we also know what holds him back his beliefs about his stutter now let’s look at point three we need to place Greenwood into an unfamiliar situation this is where Ellie fits in the unfamiliar situation needs to specifically challenge Greenwoods beliefs this short film uses the fact that Greenwood and Ellie have been chatting online for six months and now Ellie is in London and wants to meet this is a great unfamiliar situation for Greenwood to get what he wants it will mean confronting his deeply held beliefs this is a fantastic dilemma what will Greenwood do so now we moved to for Greenwood must adapt to this new situation now that we know who Greenwood is we understand how he would react at first he simply doesn’t want to respond he wants to go on the date yet he doesn’t want to reveal that he has a stutter he wants connection but feels completely constricted now let’s move to five the character gets what they want Greenwood should decide to meet this is what he wants no matter how scared he is he does want this so he takes a chance by chance i still want to meet me I’d love to meet you however at 6:00 Greenwood will pay for this one of the biggest important elements of a good drama is that characters action must be challenged characters heading towards what they want or getting what they want should always come at a cost

 this keeps the conflict heightened and the story moving forward so Ellie will agree to meet because this is who she is, she is one who has accepted herself and is willing to take a chance however now that Ellie has agreed to meet Greenwoods walls are going to have to come down he won’t be able to hide now we go to seven return to a familiar situation so this is where a lot of people get caught up they are confused as to what the return is sometimes it can be a little will return to a place sometimes it can be a return to the balance before the conflict began and that’s what I want to focus on here the return is bringing the philosophical conflict to its breaking point and reaching catharsis Greenwood must go to meet Ellie this is the biggest challenge to his beliefs if this goes poorly he will retreat back into his old beliefs however if it goes well then he may become a changed person if the goal is to push the drama as hard as we can then it must seem like there’s no way this can go well and then when it does go well the audience is relieved and experiences catharsis not just because a date went well but because the philosophical ideas of self-acceptance honesty and risk-taking are confirmed by the story so now we need to build our ending remember when we were building the character of Ellie we never gave her an external obstacle that she has already conquered to show her philosophical beliefs so let’s do that now when Greenwood goes to the date he must realize that Ellie is someone who has her own problems yet has accepted herself and is willing to be honest and because this is a love story and we want the ending to resonate Ellie’s external problem should complement Greenwoods external problem as if they were made to be together so if Greenwood can’t speak then maybe Ellie shouldn’t be able to hear and this is how this short film builds attending Greenwood can’t speak but he realizes that Ellie is deaf and then at number 8Greenwood has changed being honest and taking a risk worked in his favor he will accept Ellie for who she is and she will do the same for him greenwoods beliefs have radically shifted so now we have the core of the story but this isn’t everything we haven’t actually written it out figured out dialogue made stylistic choices and so on but this is our foundation everything that comes after this point will be built on a strong foundation because the core elements of a dramatic story are here now was this easier than what the story building process is actually like yes of course having the finished product and being able to work backwards is always easier when ideas come to us they are usually messier than this and your story will go through multiple drafts however I wanted to do this so that you have a framework that helps you get through the hard work of building the core of your story now that we have the core I want to do some analysis on how Benjamin Cleary the writer and director actually brings these elements together hello that can you hear me so the first thing we see in here is a man with a stutter struggling to speak on the phone hi my name is Greenwood thirty seconds into the short we know who our main character is we know his name and we know his major external problem already from this we can assume that his stutter is something that he feels holds him back in life then we see Greenwood practicing sign language this further shows us that his stutter is a major element in his life that he wants to overcome it also becomes part of his character and a bit of setup for the end of the story when he finally meets Ellie one minute into the short we see Greenwood on hold with a company we can see that Greenwood fears these situations that many people would consider easy and that his stutter seems to be constantly on his mind thank you for holding your call is important to us now we go to the scene where Greenwood messages back and forth with Ellie again this isn’t just because Greenwood needs a love interest this accomplishes two major things one it shows us that Ellie and Greenwood have been in an online relationship for six months and two it shows us that Greenwood wants to be with this girl in real life whether he is consciously thinking about it or not in the next scene we see the Greenwood is a typographer which doesn’t really add to or take away from the core of the story it’s more of a stylistic choice then we go to this snap judgment scene snap judgment 1224 which happens a couple more times over the course of the short these sorts of moments are where you as the writer begin to decide how you want your story to feel moments like these are character moments where we stop and learn about Greenwood now we meet Greenwoods father Greenwood tells an interesting quote to his father the way his father reacts after Greenwood recites the quote tells us a lot about who this man is I like that one we see that he accepts Greenwood he is not judging him or angry with him for having a stutter he simply accepts him and like I explained before this is his philosophical role in the story this also shows that it is not enough that Greenwoods father accepts Greenwood for who he is Greenwood must learn to accept himself this is also the first time we sit with Greenwood as he says a full sentence this scene helps us empathize and understand how difficult it can be for him to speak music’s pleasure the human soul it experiences from hunting now we enter the unfamiliar situation Ellie asks to meet in person let’s talk about why this moment works when Greenwood reads this message he gets scared and we get scared for him as the audience the fear and the audience’s mind isn’t it’s going to be hard for him to speak on the date the fear in the audience’s mind is she won’t want to be with him after she realizes that he has a stutter and those two are very different things one is simply about an external problem the second is about what Greenwood and the audience believe do you see the difference that difference is everything if you don’t nail that no one will care about your story no one will care about simple external obstacles they only care about how your characters beliefs come into conflict in the story so now we go to another scene with greenwoods father talking on the phone with a company from the beginning this adds to the shame that Greenwood feels if he can’t even operate as an independent person then how can he function in a relationship the internal voice he uses to judge other people exists because he judges himself Greenwood decides to follow his current beliefs he tries to find a way to skip meeting with Ellie okay hey oh sorry only getting back to you now amazing that you’re in London I’d love to meet with you but the thing is my bloody cousins are visiting and my but then Greenwood makes a decision he decides to meet with Ellie he quickly writes a message and hit Send this is his biggest move towards getting what he wants eight minutes into the short Greenwood tries to break up an intense argument between a couple and gets beaten up for it this shows us another moment of how his stutter holds him back in different situations now Greenwood does one of his snap judgments on himself and in this scene he states the philosophical conflict that has been at the center for the entire story snap judgment 1226reclusive typographer invisible to the naked eye communication skills in an infant Excel was in the art of self-pity and then Ellie finally responds and is still willing to meet with Greenwood which is exactly what Greenwood wants and also the scariest thing that could happen Greenwood prepares for the date this is where the short film ties in a scene where Greenwood gets beaten listen to Greenwoods thoughts she feels like a first date I know this is a cosmetic surgery oh yes we had a little bit of work on Greenwood is still trying to cling on to his old beliefs he is still trying to think up a convenient lie rather than be honest this adds to the conflict as Greenwood heads to the date and then the climax Ellie is deaf which isn’t just a reveal for the sake of being a reveal this reveal has a major impact on the philosophical console in the story that’s what makes the reveal impactful Greenwoods external problem isn’t a problem at all he is able to be honest with her about his stutter she will accept him for who he is and he will do the same for her in every scene of this short film Greenwood is dealing with his external flaw and his internal limiting beliefs sometimes that conflict feels big like trying to intervene in the couple’s argument sometimes that conflict feels small like Greenwood sitting by himself thinking either way Greenwood is constantly being pressed by what he believes and how those beliefs shape his life this is a fantastic short film it has strong philosophical conflict good structure and an ending that works perfectly while this is a case study there’s a lot of elements that you can apply to stories that are not in this Article when you look back at the process we covered hopefully you can see how these ideas can work with all sorts of stories with all sorts of lengths and genres and by understanding those fundamental elements of story you can write your short film