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Writing problem for a short film

H

Harry

For my college coursework I have to create a 5 minute short.

However I am having trouble writing/coming up with ideas. I simply cannot fit a good beginning, middle and end into 5 minutes!

Does anyone have any experience with making films this short? Or does anyone have any ideas on how I could structure it so it would work well for such a small amount of screen time.
 
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Harry said:
However I am having trouble writing/coming up with ideas. I simply cannot fit a good beginning, middle and end into 5 minutes!
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You need to watch more short films. It's not going to be easy, but
this is what college courses are for - force you to do something
difficult. Why aren't you up to the challenge?
Harry said:
Does anyone have any experience with making films this short? Or does anyone have any ideas on how I could structure it so it would work well for such a small amount of screen time.
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I've made three five minute films - all award winners at festivals.
Alcove is correct. A quick set up, the story and a punch line. Even
if it's not a comedy a short film fits that structure. Horror, drama,
thriller.
 
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analyze some movies, books, video-games, etc. you'll either get a good idea or a sense of story structure. each scene has to lead into another scene. for example: you have a whole bunch of scenes and they go "this happens, then this happens, then this happens." you must be able to make them say "this happens, therefore this happens.... BUT THIS happens.... therefore, this happens.


They all have to tie together, otherwise it isn't a coherent story
 
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Alcove Audio said:
...you need a quick set-up and a punch line...
Click to expand...

As Alcove has mentioned above, you can think of your short as a joke. One idea that get used a lot is to have your punch-line come in the form of a twist ending. Set something up for a few minutes, then... BOOM! Twist it around so that whatever we thought was going on, we were wrong. That's essentially how jokes work.
 
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Harry, you will be writing roughly 5 pages, and your first page needs to be really loaded. Your reader and your viewing audience should have a solid idea what the story is about. It should be simple without a lot of details to keep track of. Sometimes it helps to think of the ending, then work back to how you got there, and that is your story.

I have written over 200 of them with several produced. PM me and I'll help you work something up.

alex

http://thestarvingdramaturge.wordpress.com/
 
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I've actually just done something similar, because I and another filmmaker on here are teaming up to submit to Virginia Film Festival.

Exposition should really only be a few lines of dialog. The best way to show it is through dramatic performances.

I recommend randomly coming up with log lines, and then take it from there.
 
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Like others have said, you have no room for needless exposition. Any exposition needed to set up your story should be included in dialogue pivotal to developing the plot. Also, make sure you follow the old screenwriting rule to show, not tell. It takes up less space in your script and is more effective at conveying things to the audience.
 
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I once took an intense 2 week scriptwriting course with some industry professionals and one of the exercises they had us do was write a script without dialog. Have the concept ready, but write the action first and do as much effective writing as you're able in order to tell the story as completely as possible. THEN, go back and write in the dialog. You'll be amazed at how little you'll find that your story actually needs it. This might help keep things short, as someone already mentioned, dialog can easily eat up pages and in short scripts, the less dialog is typically better.

Lisa
Video Production
 
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Dude, five-minutes is TONS of time. Think of how many commercials fit a beginning/middle/end into 30 seconds?

And when you really start to analyze feature films, they aren't so simple as beginning/middle/end. It's not at all unusual for an individual scene to be broken down into beginning/middle/end. Within the larger context, there are a whole bunch of smaller beginnings/middles/ends.

For something five minutes long, you just have to be diligent. Every second you spend should serve a purpose.

Oh, wait -- that's also true of longer works.

Why don't you toss out some of your story ideas, and maybe we can offer ideas on how to keep them under five minutes?
 
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