WRIT2120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Dramatic Structure
Lecture 8 – 3/5/18 – Short films
Experimental genre
At the heart of ost short fils is a character’s story
They take many shapes, but the over-riding factors are the ones audiences/judging panels look for
- An interesting character with a clear problem
- Rising action
- Resolution
- Within a tight time fram
The short narrative screenplay
- Different to feature film except that it tells a story
- No time to develop an elaborate three-act structure or backstory/sub-plot
- Protagoist’s desire has to coe early
- In the first 20-30 secods e hae to ko hat’s happeig – the first scene has to convey
a lot of information
- Many short films are focused on a single defining moment
Three main points
- The shorter the better
o Can be anything from 15secs to 45mins in length (but no avenue for showing
anything that long)
o Making your film shorter makes it cheaper to produce
o Festivals usually have about a 10min limit
o Short does’t ea o eotios or ideas
- Keep practicalities in mind
o Outside the uni
▪ Chase action scenes
▪ Car crashes
▪ Fires/explosions/space travel
▪ Visions of white horses of horses galloping in the moonlight
o Will be outside the scope of your credit card
o Short films are usually intimate and small in scale
- Make it visual
o More than a feature film, it relies on images to tell the story
Questions to ask
- Who is the protagonist?
- What is the active question that is the basis of the action?
- Who or what opposes the protagonist?
- From whose point of view is the audience being shown the story?
- What is the theme?
- What is the style of the film?
Remember
- No tonal shifts
- A short film has a look and a feel and a tone, not many of each
The short as a calling card
- Can be an exercise trying to show what the feature film might look like, and how the
production team would go about it
- Trying to get noticed by the big players
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
At the heart of (cid:373)ost short fil(cid:373)s is a character"s story. They take many shapes, but the over-riding factors are the ones audiences/judging panels look for. An interesting character with a clear problem. Different to feature film except that it tells a story. No time to develop an elaborate three-act structure or backstory/sub-plot. In the first 20-30 seco(cid:374)ds (cid:449)e ha(cid:448)e to k(cid:374)o(cid:449) (cid:449)hat"s happe(cid:374)i(cid:374)g the first scene has to convey a lot of information. Many short films are focused on a single defining moment. Make it visual: more than a feature film, it relies on images to tell the story. A short film has a look and a feel and a tone, not many of each. Can be an exercise trying to show what the feature film might look like, and how the production team would go about it.
