From George Lucas’ “Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB” and Wes Anderson’s “Bottle Rocket,” to Ava DuVernay’s “Saturday Night Life” and Christopher Nolan’s “Doodlebug,” some of our most successful, influential filmmakers kicked off their careers with a short film. If you’re thinking of making your own, the process starts, like everything else in the movie business, with one thing: the script.
Here, we’ll dive into everything you need to know about writing a short film.
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Before we get into the writing side of things, we should begin with the basics: What is a short film? The answer is simple: It’s a film that isn’t feature length.
The folks behind the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, define a short as being under 40 minutes, including credits. What that means for you, the short film creator, can vary wildly. Your project can be 25 minutes, 10 minutes, or even one minute long if you’re aiming to make a micro-short. If your plan is to submit to film festivals, keep in mind that length does play a factor: The shorter the runtimes, the more short films the festival can program. If your story is pushing the half-hour mark, it better justify it.
Script format for a short film
When it comes to screenplay formatting, there’s no difference between a short and a feature. Scene headings, action lines, dialogue, parentheticals—all of that is the same.
The major difference, of course, is time. If you subscribe to the idea that one page of a screenplay roughly equals one minute, a 15-page short film script doesn’t leave a lot of space to set up your scenario, characters, and world.
When in doubt, stick to the three-act structure, but condense it as much as possible. We should know exactly who your protagonist is and what they want within a page. Maybe the inciting incident happens before the script begins and we’re dropped right into the action. The rule of thumb: Get things going ASAP.
How to Come Up With Short Film IdeasA unique concept: Making a short film involves a smaller budget, time commitment, and crew requirements. That means there’s a lot more freedom in experimenting with genre and construction. This is the medium where you really get to play around. Get creative and take your big swings.
Active and compelling characters: Think: simple wants, complex actions. You don’t have time to slow-roll character development. Give your main character one goal or preoccupation and get them on that track right away. It’s not easy, but ask yourself two things: What’s the single thing that will tell us everything about who this character is, and get the audience on their side right away? For a great example, check out Benjamin Cleary’s Oscar-winning short, “Stutterer,” about a man with a stutter who suddenly freaks out about meeting his online girlfriend for the first time.
Simple setup, big payoff: Short films are not the space to get bogged down in complex world-building, B-or-C plots, and expansive narratives. Instead, take your big ideas and keep drilling down until you get to the most emotional core. Remember this quote from writer Richard Price: “The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest manageable part of the big thing, and you work off the resonance.”
For a far more heartwarming version of this, watch the Oscar-winning animated short “Hair Love,” directed by Matthew A. Cherry and Bruce W. Smith. The film deftly touches on cultural identity, self-esteem, and father-daughter relationships in under seven minutes.
Minimal locations: On a practical side, this will help minimize costs. But it’ll also challenge you to figure out how to fit a complex story in a tight window. Think about Joachim Back’s “The New Tenants,” an Academy Award-winning short with practically no location changes outside of the main apartment and the hallways.
Technically, we’d put “brainstorm” as step one because, well, it is. What follows is everything after you’ve figured out your idea.
1. Beats: Now that you’ve settled on your idea and developed your characters (wants, needs, personality, etc.), it’s time to create a beat sheet. Imagine the beats of your story as individual moments (whether internal or external) that shift your character’s motivation and drive the plot forward. Make it easy on yourself with this stage—just think of the big picture.
2. Outline: Flesh out your beats into a full-fledged outline of each scene and a brief description of what happens in each one. Here, you can get a little more into the nitty-gritty of the plot—and maybe learn a thing or two about your characters. Luckily, for a short, the outline doesn’t need to be absurdly long—but it’s still important to have.
3. Write the first draft: Write, write, write. You’ve done all the pre-work, now it is time to bring it to life. This round definitely doesn’t have to be perfect, and it may be too long! Just get everything in your head down onto the page.
4. Notes: Just because you’re writing a short doesn’t mean you should skip getting notes from trusted friends and colleagues. Every writer needs notes. Why? Because you’ve spent so long developing the story that you may have missed something. Maybe a plot hole, a character action that bumps—anything. A second (and even third) pair of eyes will only strengthen the film.
5. Rewrite: They say writing is rewriting—and it is! Take your notes and apply how you see fit. It might be a pain to kill your darlings, but it’ll only improve your work.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5: Notes. Rewrite. Notes. Rewrite. Of course, since this is a short, you’re likely not going to need a ton of drafts. That being said, don’t get complacent. Make sure your film is ready on the page before spending time and money on production.
General tips for writing a short film
Craft purposeful dialogue: As we’ve mentioned ad nauseam, you’re up against the clock when it comes to writing shorts. That means every single line of dialogue has to have a point, whether it’s revealing character or driving plot. Avoid moments of pointless chit-chat, overly long monologues, or stray “hmms” and “OKs.”
Get into scenes late: This tip applies to features, but it is especially true for shorts. A common mistake among newer writers is to start scenes with the classic “Hi, how are you?,” “I’m fine, and you?” sort of fluff. Don’t! It’s a waste of space and unnecessary. Cut the fluff and identify where your scene really starts.
Show, don’t tell: This is yet another classic piece of screenwriting advice that is even more paramount in short films. It is so important for a short to use cinematic images over words to get across plot, exposition, conflict—you name it! It’s a vital skill to have as a writer, and this is the perfect medium to practice.