Short Films: Writing the Screenplay E-Book

Patrick Nash

• Herausgeber: Creative Essentials
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 278

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Every award-winning short film begins life with a clever idea, a good story and a screenplay. Patrick Nash analyses the process of writing short film screenplays and gives advice on: - Story and structure - Ideas generation - Plot and pace - Screenplay format - Dos and don'ts - Eliciting emotion - Dialogue and subtext - Character design - Protagonists and antagonists - Character motivation and goals - Conflict, obstacles and stakes - Clichés and Stereotypes - Beginnings, middles and ends - Hooking the viewer - Screenplay competitions - Loglines, outlines and synopses - Rewriting and length - Practicalities and budgets The book also includes a number of award-winning scripts and interviews, advice and contributions from their award-winning screenwriters and a discussion of the benefits to writers of writing short screenplays.

Leseprobe

Every award-winning short film begins life with a clever idea, a good story and a screenplay. Patrick Nash analyses the process of writing short film screenplays and gives advice on:

Story and structure

Ideas generation

Plot and pace

Screenplay format

Do’s and don’ts

Eliciting emotion

Dialogue and subtext

Character design

Protagonists and antagonists

Character motivation and goals

Conflict, obstacles and stakes

Clichés and Stereotypes

Beginnings, middles and ends

Hooking the viewer

Screenplay competitions

Loglines, outlines and synopses

Rewriting and length

Practicalities and budgets

The book also includes a number of award-winning scripts and interviews, advice and contributions from their award-winning screenwriters and a discussion of the benefits to writers of writing short screenplays.

About the Author

Patrick Nash is an award-winning writer of both short and feature length screenplays. An award winner in Hollywood’s Page Awards, runner up in the British Short Screenplay Competition and BBC’s Tony Doyle Awards among others; he has worked on short films and short film selection panels and juries with the Oscar accredited Foyle Film Festival – the UK’s only Academy accredited film festival.

Patrick Nash

SHORT FILMS

writing the screenplay

CONTENTS

About the Author

Title Page

INTRODUCTION

1. A SHORT HISTORY

2. WHY WRITE SHORT SCREENPLAYS?

3. WHAT IS A SCREENPLAY?

4. STRUCTURE AND LENGTH

5. STORY IS KING

6. FINDING A STORY

7. BRAINSTORMING, GENERATING STORIES

8. SCREENPLAY FORMAT

9. BEGINNINGS, MIDDLES AND ENDS

10. CHARACTERS, GOALS AND MOTIVATION

11. CONFLICT, OBSTACLES AND STAKES

12. ELICITING EMOTION

13. DIALOGUE

14. CLICHÉS AND STEREOTYPES

15. LOGLINES, SYNOPSES AND TREATMENTS

16. REWRITING

17. SCREENPLAY COMPETITIONS

18. CASE STUDY #1The Day Sam And Ralf Pushed Max Too Far

19. CASE STUDY #2The Door

20. CASE STUDY #3The Crush

APPENDICES

Appendix A

The Day Sam And Ralf Pushed Max Too Far

Appendix B

The Door

Appendix C

The Crush

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

This book is designed to help short filmmakers understand the importance of finding and telling a great story, writing a properly constructed short screenplay and fully developing both it and the story it tells before shooting their film. It is also intended to help and encourage the many writers who fail to realise the benefits of writing short screenplays and jump prematurely straight into trying to write feature-length scripts. There is so much that a writer can learn by writing for short film. A beginning writer also stands a much better chance of having their work produced in this format. Few spec feature scripts are ever produced. Aspiring directors can also benefit by learning how to write and develop their story before filming. Sadly, too many skip this important stage to the detriment of their finished film.

Short film is an excellent training ground for writers and filmmakers alike. It’s a place where you can experiment, develop and learn, make mistakes, acquire a broad range of filmmaking skills, meet other writers and filmmakers and perfect your craft before trying to join the mainstream. Writing and directing short films is a great way to demonstrate your talent and ability to the industry as a whole. It also allows you to gain recognition by winning awards at film festivals and in industry-related screenplay competitions. Your work will be your calling card. It will help you to break into one of the most competitive industries on Earth.

Short film introduces aspiring filmmakers to the process of filmmaking. It’s where many directors, actors, technical crew and writers serve their apprenticeship. Many successful short filmmakers have gone on to direct feature films. Fifty-one of the 105 directors nominated for the Best Director Oscar since 1990 began their careers making short films. This book is intended to help writers and directors write professional short-film screenplays and to avoid the many pitfalls I’ve observed as a member of a short-film selection panel and jury at an Oscar-accredited film festival.

There has been an explosion in short filmmaking in recent years, stimulated by the technological revolution in relatively low-cost, high-quality filmmaking equipment, by the rapid expansion in the number of film festivals and film schools worldwide and the rapid growth of cyberspace. The Internet and sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, MySpace, Facebook and indeed the countless number of personalised websites provide filmmakers with unlimited opportunities to distribute, screen and promote their work internationally.

The scale of access and opportunity is unprecedented in the history of short film. However, I believe the general public does not really appreciate short film as an entertainment and storytelling medium. There are many excellent short films out there but, alas, there are an even greater number that are not. Why do they fail? The biggest cause of failure in short filmmaking today is the absence of an interesting and emotionally engaging story, and that, I believe, is why many people are reluctant to watch them. Ultimately, story is what audiences want to see and story is what wins filmmakers the awards and accolades. Screenwriters and filmmakers are storytellers and story is king. If you want to be successful, you must find a way to tell winning stories.

LESSONS FROM THE FOYLE FILM FESTIVAL

This book came about as a result of my involvement in, and membership of, the short-film selection panel and juries at the Oscar-accredited Foyle Film Festival in my hometown of Derry City in Northern Ireland. I’ve also been a filmmaker with the local film centre, the Nerve Centre, and have written many short and several feature-length screenplays. For many years the Foyle Film Festival was the only Oscar-accredited film festival in Britain and Ireland. The Encounters International Film Festival in Bristol has recently joined it. The only other way of qualifying for Oscar consideration in Britain is by winning at BAFTA. The full list of accredited and qualifying festivals can be found on the Academy Awards website under Rule 19.

Winning the award for best film in the International Short, Irish Short or Animation category at Foyle automatically makes your film eligible for Oscar consideration and a number of winners have gone on to be nominated and win over the years. This book includes the screenplays from two of the most recently nominated short films – Juanita Wilson’s The Door and Michael Creagh’s The Crush.

I have to admit I love short films and must have watched thousands over the years. I love it when we get together on selection days with our box of discs. It’s like Christmas. Typically we’ll watch maybe 40 or 50 films in a single day. We’ll spend many days doing this in the run up to the film festival in November. It’s always exciting seeing the box of discs arrive and then dipping into it at random, not knowing what each screening will bring. Every day we find gems but, alas, we also find far too many that fail for a variety of avoidable reasons.

THE NEED FOR STORY

In 2009 I decided to keep a notebook and list all the various mistakes, failings and issues we noticed as we watched. I ended up with a list of over 70 points but three things in particular stood out. Bad acting, bad sound and, most of all, the failure to tell an interesting and involving story. Poor storytelling was the number one reason why films failed. They either lacked a story altogether or the story was boring, uninspiring and underdeveloped. Sometimes there was a good idea at the heart of the film but the filmmaker had failed to make the best use of it. It also appeared that a significant number of the films lacked the involvement of an experienced or trained writer.

It makes me sad to see the amount of effort filmmakers have clearly put into their films, and I know how difficult it can be, without getting this important step right. If you want to be successful, you must find a great story to tell. You must write a proper screenplay and develop it to the full BEFORE you start shooting your film. If you do not, your film will most likely be stillborn and all your effort will have been wasted. I can’t emphasise this enough. It is the number-one lesson and reason for writing this book. Find a great story and write a great screenplay. Don’t cut corners.

Ultimately, if you want to make it as a professional in this business, as I’m sure many of the readers do, then work like one, adopt professional work methods and learn how to tell a story. Audiences love story and great storytelling is what wins the awards. Excite, entertain and enthral them. Stir their hearts and passions. Give them a powerful emotional experience. My main focus in this book will be on dramatic storytelling as that is where I believe the core of a writer’s and filmmaker’s business lies.

TWELVEPOINT.COM

This book began life in those selection-day notes and a discussion about writing for short film on the writer’s forum on the Twelvepoint.com website in early 2010. As a result of that discussion I eventually wrote 15 articles on various aspects of short filmmaking for the website. This in turn led, by way of the London Screenwriters Festival and a discussion with my agent, Julian Friedmann of Blake Friedmann Literary Agency, to the current book. I’d like to thank Julian and Hannah Patterson of Kamera Books for all their help and assistance in making this book possible and also to Jonquil Florentin who edited and prepared my original 15 articles for publication on the Twelvepoint website. I’d also like to thank the Foyle Film Festival director, Bernie McLaughlin, and all the staff of the Foyle Film Festival and the Nerve Centre in Derry for all their years of work and for giving me the opportunity to assist and participate. It’s been an invaluable source of knowledge and experience.

In this book I will focus in particular on the need to find and tell a great story. I will explain what a short screenplay is and what the benefits are for the writer in writing one. I will discuss proper format, structure, length and how to find ideas. I will look at the key features of a screenplay and look at some of the dos and don’ts of writing a story for screen. I will look at character, dialogue and conflict, how to begin and end your screenplay, motivation and goals, twists and hooks, and focus especially on the need to give the audience an emotional experience. I will discuss the need to write loglines, treatments and synopses and the need to rewrite. I will discuss the various problems that can occur and also examine short screenplay competitions.

I will finish with three examples of short-film screenplays including those for two Oscar-nominated films, The Door and The Crush. I’d also like to thank Juanita Wilson and Octagon Films for allowing me to reproduce the screenplay for the former film in this book and taking the time to talk to me about the writing and making of this excellent short film. I’d also like to thank Michael Creagh and Purdy Pictures for giving me permission to include his winning screenplay for The Crush and again also taking the time to speak to me about writing and making the film. I hope you enjoy the book and I hope that it’ll help you write an award-winning script of your own and launch your filmmaking career.

Patrick Nash

1. A SHORT HISTORY

SHORT AND SILENT

Once upon a time, all film was short… and silent. The earliest films were little, one- or two-minute ‘actualities’ that showed single shots of everyday scenes such as trains arriving in stations, workers leaving factories, street scenes and so on. These moving images fascinated early audiences but the novelty soon wore off. Audiences wanted more, so filmmakers began to produce longer pieces showing popular vaudeville acts, slapstick-comedy routines, dancing girls, exotic locations and even short narrative stories such as Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon (1902) and Edwin S Porter’s The Great Train Robbery (1903).

With the rapid development in film stock, camera and projection equipment and basic film grammar in both Europe and America, filmmaking became more ambitious. Films now began to tell longer, more complex stories. However, as this was the Silent Era, the visuals had to do all the work – there was no dialogue. Early screenwriters – who were known as scenario writers – began to emerge, typically from theatrical backgrounds. Their job was to create short narrative stories – scenarios – that could be told using simple visual images. They drew heavily on plays and novels for inspiration. The need to communicate also led to the exaggerated gestures, facial expressions and theatricality of the actors that became so characteristic of this era. Slapstick comedy was particularly popular because of its highly visual style.

By 1910, it’s estimated that there were over 10,000 Nickelodeons in the USA alone. One- and two-reel films of 10 to 20 minutes’ duration were the most common type of product screened by them. At that time the standard reel of black-and-white film stock was 900 to 1,000 feet long and ran for between 10 and 12 minutes of screen time.

THE BIRTH OF THE FEATURE… AND ‘SHORT’ FILM

More ambitious film directors like DW Griffith soon realised they could tell longer stories simply by adding more reels. ‘Multi-reelers’, as they were initially called, appeared as early as 1906 with the world’s first officially recorded feature film being John Tait’s Australian-made The True Story of the Kelly Gang. Others followed in the USA, Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Denmark and Eastern Europe, with some, like Italy’s 1914 historical spectacular Cabiria, being up to twelve reels long. However, one- and two-reelers remained the norm.

It wasn’t until 1915 that a feature film appeared that changed the filmmaking landscape forever. DW Griffith’s highly controversial three-hour Ku Klux Klan epic The Birth of a Nation brought together all that was then known of filmmaking and storytelling technique and blew audiences away. It was a sensation in spite of its blatant racism and made a fortune at the box office. It took filmmaking to a whole new level. Suddenly, audiences and producers alike wanted to see and make long films that told more complex, sophisticated and emotionally involving stories. The studios began to churn them out by the hundred with many being tailor-made vehicles for the rising stars of the new Hollywood star system.

One- and two-reelers continued to remain immensely popular but they were now relegated to the role of support act to the main attraction or main ‘feature’ as it was known. They came to be known as ‘short films’ or ‘short subjects’ as opposed to the longer ‘feature films’, and so the term ‘short film’ was born. The most popular shorts were slapstick comedies by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and the Keystone Cops, westerns and serials such as The Perils Of Pauline and newsreels such as Pathé News and Movietone.

A PACKAGE DEAL

Going to the ‘Moving Picture Palace’ was a big deal at that time, a social event, and theatre owners soon realised that, as well as the ticket prices, they could make as much, if not more, on the confections, drinks, popcorn, or whatever else they sold the audiences. The longer they could keep the audience captive in the theatre, the more they were likely to spend and consume. Hence, a shorts programme would accompany every feature with each film separated by an intermission – ostensibly to allow the projectionist to change reels but also to allow the patrons time to buy refreshments. Singers and stage musicians often accompanied these shorts packages as well. Shorts filled a useful commercial niche and were used to warm up audiences and fill theatre time. Some of the most popular even grew to half an hour in length or were serialised, e.g. Laurel & Hardy in the ‘thirties.

The studios found that making shorts was a useful way to maximise the use of their expensive real estate, filmmaking resources and contract employees. Everyone was on fixed contracts and pay in those days, and shorts kept them busy when they weren’t making features. The studios used their control of the theatre chains and block booking to ensure that everything they made was exhibited commercially. Animated shorts – or cartoons, as they came to be known – became very popular in the late 1920s. Walt Disney built a whole studio system around them. The studios recognised that making shorts was a useful way to train and test their production staff, upcoming actors and directors. Some independent production companies specialised in making shorts, which they later sold or rented to the studios and movie-theatre chains.

THE RISE OF THE ‘B’ MOVIE

By the early 1930s, the standard movie programme included live performers, a newsreel, a short or serial, a cartoon and a feature film. However, following the introduction of sound in 1927 and the appearance of colour film, this began to change as the B movie appeared. The B movie was a long film that supported the main feature but was not quite as long and generally not of the same standard. It’s suggested that the name came from the studios referring to their short-film production units as ‘B units’ – facilities that they turned over en masse to making these low-budget support features.

B movies appeared in rapidly increasing numbers throughout the 1930s and 1940s and sounded the death knell for commercially produced studio shorts. Despite the appearance of musical shorts from 1927 to 1933, the studios soon stopped making shorts altogether to concentrate all their resources on making features. Live performers and shorts gradually disappeared, as ‘double bills’ became the norm. Newsreels were retained as a public service and were of particular importance during the war years but they couldn’t compete with the arrival of television news in the 1950s.

With the death of the studio system in the early 1950s, the end of block booking and the rise of television across the developed world, shorts all but disappeared. It was cheaper for owners of movie theatres or cinemas – as they became known outside North America – to programme a ‘double bill’. The short format was now more suited to television where the half-hour slot became a standard programming unit. Half-hour episodes of favourite programmes, soap operas, cartoons, serials and comedy shows like The Lucy Show punctuated by adverts became the norm. Soon, the most common type of short film to be found globally was the television commercial.

ARTHOUSE AND ENTHUSIASTIC AMATEURS

For a time after the war, independently produced shorts were only made by enthusiastic or wealthy amateurs in film clubs, the few film schools then in existence, or by organisations such as the information units of Government Departments. There were few outlets for exhibiting them outside the arthouse circuit. Film festivals were still few in number and tended to focus on celebrity directors, feature films and stars. Studios no longer needed shorts to train and test their employees – they could do that making B movies. Those who entered broadcasting found that the networks had their own programming requirements and restrictions, with little room for independently minded short filmmakers who wanted to do their own thing.

Furthermore, without the help of production companies and studios, making a short film was not an easy thing to do. Film stock and equipment were neither cheap nor plentiful and processing and editing a film was expensive. In the ‘fifties and ‘sixties portable 16mm cameras designed for newsgathering during World War Two did become available together with lightweight Super 8mm cartridge-loaded cameras designed for the amateur home-movie market. After World War Two many second-hand 16mm cameras found their way into the hands of aspiring directors and short filmmakers in Europe and America. The French New Wave and Italian Neo-Realists made use of them. Independently made shorts were produced in small numbers but the quality was sometimes poor due to the filmmaker’s lack of resources and experience.

FILM SCHOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

In the 1960s a number of significant film schools such as those at NYU, CalArts, Columbia and UCLA were founded in the USA. Short filmmaking became a standard training and graduation vehicle. Graduates, including such famous names as Scorsese, Lucas and Coppola, made short films to showcase their talent. Since then there has been a steady increase in the number of film schools established around the world. The pace accelerated dramatically in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of the technological revolution in high-quality, low-cost camera technology.

First, in the 1980s, lightweight video cameras appeared that recorded analog video direct to tape. This was followed in the mid 1990s by more sophisticated digital camcorders recording high-quality video digitally on tape with Mini-DV being the most popular format. Hard discs, DVDs, mini discs and, more recently, solid-state memory cards have replaced tape as the storage media of choice. This ability to film on a low budget was complemented by the ability to edit on a home computer or laptop using editing software such as Final Cut Pro.

This revolution in filmmaking technology and the dramatic reduction in cost, together with the ever-increasing availability of equipment, brought about a renaissance in short filmmaking. Short films are being made on everything from mobile phones to sophisticated prosumer cameras. With almost every family having a camcorder for home movies, the public are much more camera literate. The level of interest in filmmaking has increased exponentially and brought with it an explosion in short filmmaking.

Most countries now have universities with dedicated film departments. Specialist film schools and centres have sprung up in many major cities. Public funding alone accounts for more than 1,000 short films per annum in Europe, not counting those produced in film schools. The UKFC estimated in October 2009 that 2,000 short films had been produced the previous year in the UK with 1,800 through the various film schools and departments of higher education, 150 through public funding and a further 50 privately funded by independent filmmakers. Furthermore, this doesn’t count the vast quantity of user-generated content uploaded to sites like YouTube.

FESTIVALS AND THE INTERNET

Hand in hand with this explosion of interest in filmmaking there’s been an upsurge in the number of film festivals established worldwide offering outlets for short film. Online submission manager, Withoutabox, now lists over 3,000 festivals worldwide with around 1,000 of these hosting short-film programmes, competitions and awards. Some, like Clermont-Ferrand or Tampere, specialise entirely in short film… and then there is the Internet.

The arrival of the Internet presented short filmmakers with a screening outlet unlike any other in history. Films can be uploaded to sites such as YouTube and made instantly available to a global audience. Short films can be viewed on everything from Internet cable channels to personal, specialist or organisational websites, social-networking sites, mobile phones and pay-per-view or video-on-demand sites. Individual short films even have their own websites and Facebook pages charting their progress from pre-production to winning awards. The Internet, electronic-communications media and the proliferation of film festivals have given short filmmakers opportunities for exhibition and promotion unheard of since the early days of film, while the technological revolution has given them the means to realise their dreams, producing high-quality films on relatively low budgets.

But while short filmmaking has returned on a scale unseen since the early days of cinema, something is still missing. Despite the technology, training and opportunities, many films are still poor. As a member of the short-film selection panel at the Foyle Film Festival, I see far too many short films that fail because of bad acting, poor sound recording, lighting issues, but most of all because of an underdeveloped, poorly crafted or uninspiring story. Indeed, some lack a story altogether. All short films need to begin with a great idea and a well-written and carefully crafted screenplay. Too many short filmmakers skip this vital step in their rush to become directors. Instead of finding a good writer and screenplay, many try to write it themselves with little or no screenwriting ability whatsoever. Short films need good writers and screenplays, but what’s in it for the writer? Why should he or she write a short screenplay?

2. WHY WRITE SHORT SCREENPLAYS?

Why write a short screenplay? What’s in it for the writer? Indeed, what kind of short screenplays are we talking about? This question can be answered in several ways, but as this book is about short-screenplay writing this chapter will mainly focus on the writer’s point of view. First, it’s necessary to elaborate on the type of short films and filmmakers we’re talking about.

WHO MAKES SHORT FILMS TODAY?

In my opinion – and these are generalisations – short filmmakers today can be divided into three broad groups:

The ‘high end’ professional short filmmakers who work on commercials, promos, music videos, travelogues, corporate and informational films and other professionally commissioned shorts.The amateur, recreational and fun filmmakers – the average members of the public who upload a huge volume of self-produced content to YouTube, Facebook and other social-networking and Internet sites.The beginning, aspiring or emerging filmmakers who wish to develop a professional career within the film or television industry or those already part way there. This group usually has a particular interest in writing, directing and working in fictional drama.

The first group, the professionals, are already well established in the business and make their short films through established production companies with access to professional crews, high-quality equipment and substantial budgets. Some work for companies who have longstanding client relationships with the organisations that commission this type of material. The end product is usually very polished and professional. Such experienced professionals are often contracted to work as freelances on television and film projects.

However, writers have limited scope for original screenplay work within this sector. Typically, the filmmaker must work to a tightly defined brief from the customer whether it’s an advertising agency, business organisation, government department or music company. The brief, product, artist, music lyrics or sponsor’s message very much dictate the script that will be written and used. Elaborate storyboards and shot lists often replace scripts in this area. Occasionally, there will be some small narrative element to the project.

The second group, the amateur, recreational or family filmmakers, usually lack filmmaking technique and have no desire to enter the film industry. They are simply having fun with their camcorder and posting a huge volume of very diverse material on to the Internet. Much of the material is simply observational footage captured by chance. It ranges from kids and animals doing funny things to coverage of public events, dramatic ‘on-the-spot’ footage of newsworthy incidents, short performance or instructional videos and unusual tourist videos or holiday shots – The Battle of Kruger is a must see. The key factor in all this material is that little, if any, of it has been professionally scripted or produced.

Finally, to the third group, the aspiring or emerging professionals, those who wish to break into the mainstream and develop long-term careers in the film and television industry. This group, to which I believe most of the readers of this book belong, wish to earn a living writing, directing and telling fictional or, indeed, true stories in visual form. It’s a career choice as well as a personal passion. This group is driven by a creative desire and ambition to bring dramatic, exciting and emotionally stirring stories to life on screen while making a living doing what they enjoy most.

The biggest problem facing this group is how to get noticed, how to demonstrate their talent and ability to the industry, win commissions and break into the mainstream. This is where short films and short screenplays come in. This book and the advice it gives is primarily intended to meet the needs of this third group of filmmakers and the type of short films they most want to produce – drama in all its many shapes and forms.

THE ROLE OF SHORT FILM

Short films, as well as being an art form in their own right, have three main roles for filmmakers:

A calling cardA training groundA means to acquire credits, awards and recognition

Short films are used as a calling card to demonstrate the talent and ability of the filmmaker to the industry. In effect, the film and screenplay says, ‘This is me and this is what I can do.’ Generally, though, short film is seen as a director’s medium with the director and principal actors gaining the majority of the attention. However, the writer will also benefit if the film he or she scripts wins a major award at, for example, BAFTA, the Oscars, Cannes, Berlin, Venice or Sundance, if he or she is the writer-director, or if the screenplay wins a major award at a high-profile screenplay contest. Implicit in this concept of the short as a calling card is the idea of quality and excellence. If you want to showcase your talent, your work needs to be the very best you can offer.

Short films are an invaluable training ground and a place for talent development. They are an apprenticeship, a place where you can learn the craft of screenwriting and filmmaking ‘on the job’. It’s a place to experiment creatively, acquire experience, test techniques and become proficient in the use of every filmmaking tool. They give writers and filmmakers the opportunity to network and develop contacts, especially at festivals where they can meet other filmmakers, writers, producers and potential collaborators.

Finally, short filmmaking is a means to acquire credits and recognition through public screenings, winning competitions at festivals and high-profile screenplay competitions or winning awards such as the Oscar or BAFTA. Credits from the most high-profile festivals draw substantial attention to the talent and ability of the filmmaker and significantly improve their chances of securing future commissions, work and funding. Many award-winning short filmmakers have gone on to write and direct feature films.

Many in today’s film industry learned their trade in shorts. As I said in the introduction to this book, 51 of the 105 nominees for Best Director at the Oscars from 1990 to 2010 began their careers making short films, including 11 of the 21 winners. These 11 winners included Steven Soderbergh, Roman Polanski, Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, James Cameron, Ron Howard, Peter Jackson, Martin Scorsese, Kathryn Bigelow and Tom Hooper. Some professionals still give freely of their time, sharing their knowledge and experience and helping to train the filmmakers of tomorrow by helping them to make their shorts.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE WRITER?

I’ve already mentioned that generally it’s the director or principal actors who get the most attention from making short films, so what’s in it for the writer? Why should he or she bother to join the process and write a short screenplay? Let’s look at the many good reasons.

Transferable Skills – All the skills you learn and use writing short screenplays are transferable to the process of writing feature films and television drama. Short screenplays will teach you economy, how to tell a powerful story using strong imagery and the minimum of words. This discipline will prove invaluable later in your career.

Training – The opportunity to learn, develop and refine your writing skills and master screenwriting technique with the possibility of quickly seeing the end result on screen.

Growth – The chance as a beginner to make mistakes and learn and grow in a safe or less punishing environment.

Experience – Writing short screenplays will help you to accumulate writing experience, especially if you write across a range of genres and lengths. The subject matter also ranges wider than most feature films. Risks can be taken and creativity let fly in ways that are unusual in mainstream film and television drama. You can stretch your writing muscle by exploring unusual scenarios in new and imaginative ways.

Testing Ideas – Short screenplays can be used to test ideas, concepts and characters for larger projects. For example, Neil Blomkamp’s highly successful 2009 science fiction feature film District 9 grew out of his six-minute 2005 short film Alive In Joburg. The 112-minute-long film was shot in South Africa for $30 million and nominated for no less than four Academy Awards including Best Picture. A writer should always be alive to the possibility that what he’s writing as a short may contain the seeds of a feature as well.

Awards and Credits – Writing short screenplays presents you with the opportunity to enter short-screenplay competitions and win awards. It permits you to market test your script against hundreds of others, while winning major awards builds industry recognition and your credibility as a writer. It demonstrates your writing ability and talent and can attract interest and even business from producers and commissioners. Similarly, if your short film is actually produced and entered into prominent festivals, further success can follow. Major awards can kick-start careers.

Exposure – Writing a short screenplay and having it produced provides you with the chance to showcase your work, market yourself, demonstrate your ability and receive valuable feedback from script readers, fellow writers, audiences or industry professionals.

Performance Material – Short screenplays provide ideal material for use in writers’ and actors’ groups, e.g. for table reads and stand-up