Transcripts
1. Welcome to writing short film scripts: Have you ever wanted
to write a short film? Do you have ambitions
to become a filmmaker? Or do you think you just have an interesting idea
you want to share? Well, welcome to
this short course on how to write a
short film script. My name is filmmaker Amal, and I have been working in
the film industry since 2012. I started off making
documentaries and then I moved into short films. Now feature films
and short films are a great way and to get into
the film industry to show people what I could do and to use as a calling
card to get familiar with film festivals around the world and
practice my skills. I will teach you
how to come up with creative ideas for your project. How to identify
your protagonist's, how to set up your
story structure. And finally, how to write your script scene by scene using software such as Word or Celtx. And personally for me, I will be showing you and
I'll be using final draft. So let's get into it. Let me leave you with
your class project next.
2. Project: write a short film script: Using what you learned
on this course, I want you to write
a three-page script, which is about a three-minute
long film that is concise, that has a very
interesting protagonist and be as creative as possible. I am going to choose
an example for you, and that's David
Sanberg, Lights out. This was a short film
that was created in 2 min and was able to deliver the point
from start to finish. Now, a lot of people
feel uncomfortable about sharing their ideas with
other people online. And that's absolutely
fine if that's something you want to keep
private, you can do so. You can share a two to three
sentence synopsis about your story in order to get feedback from your fellow peers.
3. Why do we make short films?: The point of short
films is to act as a calling card and to act
as a proof of concept. And you need to show
potential investors, producers or anyone who is interested in
investing in you as a filmmaker and creating
an even longer version of your film that you're
able to handle that story, that you understand the genre, that you're able to write, something that will get people intrigued and coming back
and wanting to know more
4. Finding ideas: When writing a short
film and being original is close to impossible. If you look out there, chances are somebody who
probably already made your film before are found a concept or something similar
to what you're doing. The best that you can do is try and find a different
perspective on the matter, a different angle from a different culture or
place or a language, or try and find
little nuggets of information that other
people have not explored. Some creative ways that you can find ideas for your short
film script would be, first of all, to
watch other things when we watch other content, other movies, other
shows, go to plays. We get inspired and we come
up with very unique ideas. Traveling as a great way
to come up with new ideas. Because you are exposed to so many different cultures and you want to try different
things and you think, Oh, well maybe there's
a story in that. You can also explore
other genres. For example, if
you're making a film, it doesn't have to be
a drama or comedy, could be a sci-fi, could be a fantasy. I would say get online. Maybe social media,
maybe newspapers, maybe blogs, maybe vlogs. When you read more content and you get out there
and you explore these different avenues
who come up with such creative things
and you think, okay, no one's, no one's
responded to that. Or this piece of content
has been very popular. Maybe I can make a film around that topic. There's lots to do. So just get out there
and try and be as creative as you can and find as many possible ideas as you can and write them down so that you can prepare to start
shooting your short film.
5. Developing characters: Finding a protagonist is
very crucial to every story. And that's because most times stories revolve around
a certain person. The protagonist is delete. The antagonist is the person who antagonizes them or basically
fights against them. So it could be a villain
and they could have a sidekick or an assistant
called a duty or antagonist. When it comes to picking who
you want as a protagonist, it needs to be somebody
who's relatable, some thing, or someone that people
can look at and say, Oh, I see myself
in that character. When you're trying to pick who that character is going
to be within your story. I would say, think of people
that you know in your life. Think of their character because characterization
and backstory of the protagonist is very important
to start thinking about who this person is and why
they act a certain way. Of course, in short films, it's not like
feature-length films. You're not going to
be able to explore the character's journey
from start to finish. You're not going to know
what their motivations are. You may not know where they come from and how they develop
from start to finish. Do they have a growth Arc? Do they have a fall Arc? Do they have a change Ark that really doesn't exist within short films as much because you don't have a typical
three-act structure. When we have a character, when we have a protagonist, we already have
the understanding of who they are and
who they might be. And because short films
are a visual medium, you don't necessarily have
to use dialogue in order for this character to
reveal who they are inside or what their motivations are or what their needs are. So for example, if you're
shooting a film about a character who is very invested
in music speaks French. They might have posters
of Paris on their wall. They may have a record
player, they may have, might have a guitar, cinema as a visual medium and we need to see these things. So by seeing these things, we might understand this is
who the character is an, a short film that is very
essential because you need to pick up who this
person is very, very quickly
6. Linear script structure: In short films, we tend to follow almost a to X structure. You come into the script at the point where
there is change. So you have a character. The character is exploring
their old world and then suddenly something happens
to change that old world. And they come across certain
obstacles on their journey. And finally, there's a
little twist at the end. Your first bit of the story, your first page when
it comes to structure, needs to be broken
down like this. If you have a five page script or if you have a
ten-page script or you have 15 page script, you're spending very little
time in the character. The protagonist is old-world. Our protagonist is a music
lover who speaks French, and that music lover maybe wants to travel, they
want to go to Paris. You see that? You see the posters, you see, you see maps on their wall. There travelers, they
want to get out. This is what we understand. And then suddenly
out of nowhere, a page or two in a minute
or two into the film, something changes, something
falls off the wall. They see that there's a portal. Oh, and I want to
explore this portal. Maybe on the other side
of the portal there's a concert and that's
going to intrigue your character more
to go and explore and see what's
happening in the show. Oh, finally, I've
gone back in time. The Beatles are on stage. Maybe this is a
time travel film, maybe it's a sci-fi film
and you're character goes in their house
a look around and explores and
has Fun and there's some dialogue and your
character meet somebody, meets a member of The Beatles, for example, and really
connects with them. And suddenly there's a
shooting and everyone runs away and you're character
trusts or runaway. But guess what? The portal is now closed and your character can't get back. That would be your twist
and now it would be the very end of the story. So that would happen if
it's a five-minute film, it would happen
around minute for, and suddenly that would
completely changed the dynamic and the thought
process of the character. You as an audience
watching this film, we'll be thinking, Oh, I
wonder what happens to them. They're stuck in the
1950s and 60s or 70s. They are stuck at this show. Maybe they met the
Beatles member and now the Beatles member
has been shot and killed. Basically, what I
like to do is start off writing who
the character is. What happens during the
entire incident of the story, which is when
everything changes, what are the obstacles that my character
is going to face? And then what is the twist that's going to
happen at the end? And once I have all those
elements in place and I've outlined exactly what I
want to see in the script. That's what I'm going to
move into final draft. And I'm going to start
writing the script
7. Screenwriting software to write your screenplay: What do we use to
write our script? Well, most of the time we
use script writing software. And the point of this script
writing software is to produce a document that looks
like this, which is script. In the case of your short film, it will be five to 10 min long. And the script software that
I use is called final draft. So this is what Final
Draft looks like. Here's a website,
Here's the company that created the software. They usually have offers on. You can download the program
and once you open it up, you will see that it looks
a little bit like this. So there's a plane page
where you can write an, a bar that runs along the top. Starting from the left, you have the option to change the format of the way
the script looks. Page view, speaker
view, normal view. You can even break them
down into little cards. And you can also change
the way you see things but vertically or horizontally based on the way
you like to write. And of course, if you
click that little button along the top that
says title page, than a title page will pop up where you can put
it in the title, any copyright
information, and then you can just close
that normally, the last little tap there
will offer you a bunch of options like elements that you can use within the
script writing process. And you will see later on
that when we start typing, those will come up
automatically. Action. As basically for a paragraph, you've got character,
characters, basically all the characters that you'll include
parenthetical, which is the action
that they're doing. You also have option to add dialogue, transitions,
etcetera, etcetera. Those will just come up
automatically as and when, when you use Final Draft or just a couple of things that
you need to look out for. First of all, you need to
use 12 point Courier font. That is a standard. Asides from the font type, there are certain standards
that you need to stick to, and this is the basic script
structure that you will see. So whenever you start
writing a script, you will see the option
that comes up between interior I and T and exterior, or interior exterior, which
is I, forward slash E. Now that gives you an
idea of where you are. Are you inside a building? Are you outside in a garden? Are you on a roller coaster? Are you in some country? And once you add a character through those elements
that we will see later on to, for example, add whether this is a voice-over where
this is off-screen, where this is on camera, or if this is a continued
dialogue or again subtitled, maybe you have characters that are deaf and
they want to speak. And in this case
you will need to use the subtitle function. So instead of me describing
every single element to you, I just want to jump straight into the Scriptwriting process. So here you can see I've added
an exterior garden days. So you need to
specify the location and what time of the day. It is, either day or night. And the reason for that is because when you shoot the film, the team needs to
know whether this is something that needs
lighting or whether it doesn't. When we add a characters
such as Magda, we tend to add the character in capital letters when we introduce them for
the first time. And we usually open
a little parentheses where we add the age of the characters so that the casting agents,
that director, etc. needs to know how old
this character is. So when I'm writing
these actions, these are descriptions
of what is going on around the character. So for example, we said she kicks over a
bucket, as you can see here, we tried to limit
these descriptions to four lines or less. And the reason we limit this
to four lines is because no producer has the time to read through chunks and chunks
and chunks of information. This is not a novel, this is a script. And when we add Magda
as a character, you can see that
a little box pops up a parenthetical I
can add, for example, to herself, or Magda says, while vomiting, or magna
does while climbing a tree. These are just little
instructions that you can add for the actor or actress
to know what's going on. You need to limit
these, of course, but you have the
option to do that. And then I skipped to
the dialogue part. So what I'm just a little
note here about dialogue. Dialogue needs to be fresh, it needs to be natural, it needs to take, it needs to be as if
you were speaking, are saying these words yourself and you need to keep it
as natural as possible. A lot of directors will
have specific voices. They call them. The way you add the dialogue, the way you say it is
a witty, is it quick? If you're writing
comedy, is it funny? Is it deep? Is it pensive? You really need to think
about how you would sound or your character
would sound insane those lines and write
it accordingly. Also, one thing that you
need to look out for is to make sure that when
you are writing something, that every single thing that you write on the script
is intentional. There is an intention behind it. As I mentioned,
there is something that we are
consistently reminded of when we are
scriptwriting and that is to bury the exposition. You won't say something to direct and expository in
dialogue, for example, if a character is
trying to reveal a certain element
about themselves, they wouldn't say, I am brave. Instead, you would show that. You would show it.
Instead of telling it, you would show
that the character is brave and the actions
that they haven't, the things they do within
the script instead of blatantly spelling it out. Of course, this is a very quote-unquote
American style script writing in Asia, for example, Korean
cinema, Chinese cinema. It's very expository. But what you want to do is
because it's a visual medium, you want to limit the way something is said
and you want to show rather than tell your job is scriptwriters
is to make it as most, as concise as possible. Right here I just want to skip
to the part where it says, boy, 0 S Again, I use offscreen. So in this case, the
boy would be saying something but you wouldn't be seeing the boy on the screen. That's what off-screen means. Feel free to play around with these elements when
you write the script. And then you see when
I write boy again, it comes up as
continued dialogue. That means that this
boy is continuing the conversation of what
he's saying to Magda. You will have the opportunity
to go back and review this. So remember when you're
writing a script and it's your first draft,
just go with it. Just write it, just
follow your heart, just just put whatever
you can on the page. And eventually you can go
back to the script and you can revise it and you
can basically clean it up, chisel it removes some dialogue, remove the descriptions
are too lengthy, you can chop at them. So there is a lot
of rewriting in. You might write, you might
turn something out in 5 h. You might charge
something out in an hour, but it might take you a
few months or a few weeks are a few days to really, really chisel that down to what you want
the script to say. What happens when
you add a new scene? Well, you have to specify
whether it's interior, exterior, where you are. So if you're watching the film, basically it jumps from
the garden to the tower. And you can even start
the scene with dialogue. You don't need to describe
what's around you because the production
designer will do that. You just need to describe what
the characters are saying, how they're staying get, and the actions that they're
taking within the script. So whether you have just
pen and paper or you have Celtx or any other one of these Scriptwriting software, I would suggest that
you write your script, go page by page until you get what you want following the structure that
we've learned, or even maybe a
non-linear structure. We, you don't have
a script at all. And you apply that
to your script and eventually you can
print the script out and bind it and take it to film festivals with you
and so on and so forth.
8. Case study 1: The Protocol - a linear short film: In this case study, I wanted to show you one of
the films that I had made for the 48 hour film competition
for sci-fi London. And at the end of this course, I'm going to leave you
with a similar challenge, but here's what I did
with with what I had. Basically, we were given
a couple of cues that we needed to follow and
create a film within 48 h. And I created a
linear film out of that starring actor
a meal mostly. And I would like to run
you through the film. You can have a look at
the full version on YouTube or on my
Instagram channel. However, here is, I'm basically what I had explained
to you in this structure. So we start with the
old world and we can see that this man is
a little distressed. He needs the money for something, there's
something that he needs. So we know that he is a
wealthy man by the way, he's dressing by the area
that he is in a family. We could do some space. And then suddenly we have
the inciting incident here, which happens almost
very straight away. Don't take the pill, we really need it
and then he takes the pill and lo and behold, whatever has happened
has happened, and then we have
left the old world, and now we're moving
on to the new world. So this next scene
here, it takes us, sheds a little bit of light into what is going
on in the story. I tried here that
the character has explained it to her sisters who obviously look
rather different to him. That dad has taken the pills, that is taking a pill. And then the next thing we
see is we see that as coming from a world exploration,
exploration. We are now in a new situation
and we're now seeing what is happening to
these individuals in this new situation. That's just great.
That's another 50 years. Will never see a
penny, a single penny. Their father has basically
reverse back into time. It's a sci-fi film. Of course, this is the
genre which means he has another 50 years to live, which means they're not
gonna get the money. We can see here the
exploration of that world. So in this scene, you can see family members that have passed
that he seemed to, you know, and he's thinking, well, my dad's never going to be in the Senate,
in the cemetery. And suddenly lo and
behold, there's an idea. Sure, it's just three of us that keeps track. Every time one of them dies. He logs sitting here. How old his dad really the
only threes and not in here, or leaves us with
33.3% recurring each. We can make it look
like he never even took the drug, heart attack. So then you see him here
kinda doing the deed. This is a short film of course, so we're not gonna go into elaborate scenes and
very long scenes. It's basically just a quick explanation of what's going on. Lord, and boom,
there is the twist. The twist is that he's opened
the door and actually, there's a whole other
bunch of siblings that he has that he wasn't aware of. And so now he's lifting a
dilemma and everyone's then, what's going to happen next? Are they going to inherit? Or the research investigating
the fathers of a murder? I suppose there's 1 million
things that could happen, but this is your basic
short film structure. Now, I chose mine to be
basically less than 5 min, but you can choose yours
to be 10 min, 15 min. As we discussed when we
did the final draft, you should only be showing
what needs to be there. You should only narrate what is absolutely necessary to
move the story forward. Don't fill it up
with too much fluff. Because the films
that succeed are the films that are concise
and straight to the point. There needs to be intention and everything you write
and everything you do
9. Non-linear structure: We just saw an example
of a linear film. But what is a nonlinear film? A nonlinear film basically doesn't have that
same structure. So there's no beginning, middle and there's
no middle and end. There's no real rhyme or
rhythm to what's going on. Most of the time the film
is driven by emotion. Most of the time, the film is led by intention. And basically, a nonlinear film can be
anything it wants to be. I was once at Berlin Film
Festival and the film was basically plastic bag flying in the wind for about 15 min. And some people see the beauty in that some people enjoy
that kind of film-making
10. Case study 2: Cullen does Espinho - a non-linear film: Here's an example of
a nonlinear film that I made with a bunch
of friends when we were in Espanol in Portugal, we call that colon does HP Neo. And it was basically a
smattering of ideas. And we had an actor with us. I'm calling Morgan, who
you see here in the film. And we had a
cinematographer onboard. Andrea got out. As we just said, you know what, like, let's
just shoot something. Let let let me just find areas. I like things, I like
things that are going on. And let's just make a
hodgepodge mishmash of a film which we
really, really enjoyed. So here it is with a
bit of commentary. We filmed this around
Portugal, around the area. They keep telling us right,
but then they change it. Then we don't really know. I mean, is it a guy in a mask? One thing's for sure
that cat has no eyes. In part, that's California. So we basically recorded
the sound and then we recorded a bunch
of visuals and we super impose one on the other. And our editor at the time, Bruno also had a play
around with the edit. Watch that show the fish. You like the sun
kissed commercials. Good, Good, Good Vibrations. She would come to our house
because she lived far away. And she will come and
she would make these. Eddie was like,
Okay, there you go. So basically that's
colon as well, playing around with,
with his accents. Few other languages. Like, you know, just
like dead presidents, basically just using his skills. And it distracts us for a
little while and we argue about it and then we just go home, we go our separate ways. So that's an example
of a nonlinear film. You can do anything you want to. You're a filmmaker, so you find your language, you
find your skills, and you do whatever you
feel is best for you.
11. Challenges and limitations: As promised, I am leaving
you with a challenge. That challenge will
be to do what I did and write a short
film script in 5 h. This is separate of course, to your project, which you should really take
your time doing. But if you really want
to challenge herself, I challenge you to write a
short film script within 5 h, using these cues
that I've given you, feel free to stray and pick
any other cues that you want. But sit down, have a think. Here we go on this next page, I have laid out for you a couple of things that might
be able to help you along. Remember, you have
to start thinking about who your protagonist is, what the occurrence might be, what genre you're writing, and eventually what
kind of twist you have. Here are a couple of
ideas that you can play with that I
challenge you to do. And remember, you may have
limitations and writing this, you have to think about
what is around you and what is at your disposal. Do you have the budget
to shoot this film? Do you have lots of crew around
you when you are writing? As a writer, these are things
that you should think about because the producer will
want to know these things. And if the producer
thinks that you're film is far too ambitious
for their means. For example, if your
budget is too high, if it requires a classical
car and you need to hire that classical car and they don't think
you're gonna get it, then they're most likely
going to say, well, listen, the script is great, but
we can't really film it. There's no home for
it where I live. You'll have to think
about things like budget. You'll have to think
about location. Obviously, you wouldn't
be writing a short film about the desert if
you live in a swamp, because the likelihood
that that film is gonna be shot where you are
is quite unlikely. Here you go. So happened with this challenge. And see you on the other side.
12. Getting your script noticed: I just wanted to cover a
little bit about where your script might go next
after you finished writing it, if you want to promote it, if you want to
send it somewhere. Well, now that you've written a story and if you've written a story or if you're in the
process of writing a story, the number one thing I would recommend is
definitely networking. You want to meet people
who share your vision, sharing your story, find
these things intriguing. You want to be ready
so that when you meet the appropriate person or even the inappropriate
person that might turn into the appropriate person that
you can pitch that idea. Hey, I've written a
short film about, That's actually a science
fiction time travel film about a music lover
who speaks French, who goes back in time
and meet the Beatles. And you know what, you might
be sitting there speaking to the producer who brought the Beatles to life
and they think, Wow, that's a great idea. Hey, I'll put some
money behind this. If I've got a producer or
if you find a producer, I'm happy to make,
get this film made. So I would definitely say
put yourself out there, maybe enter some script
writing competitions. That's a great way to
get your work exposed. So people are familiar with
your writing and if they find more and more
ideas that might work. I have a friend who actually
started off writing Very nice short
horror film scripts. And he was writing
them for ages, ages, ages, ages and I mean
years and years and years. And this is the story of almost
every writer that I know, especially in the film industry. But they weren't
getting anywhere. No one was picking them up
and I was just like, wow, this guy is brilliant,
like I'd love to make. And we discussed at one point, making potentially
one of his films. And a couple of months ago he
wrote a short film script. He found a producer,
he found a director. They were both interested in it. They shot the short
film and guess what? Studio picked it up. And now they're turning
it into a TV show based on the short film
that he had written. And don't forget
whenever you see this symbol in any of my videos, it means that I
have another course on this topic and I
happen to have a course as well on marketing your films and marketing yourself
as a filmmaker. So I would highly suggest that you check that course
out as well because it might help you find ideas and creative ways
to promote your work
13. It's a wrap!: Thank you for joining me on this very short course on how to write a short film script. I hope I was able to give you the information that you needed. Remember, when you finish
writing your script, this is not the end. Writing a first draft
is only the first step. Rewriting is where
you really get to develop your script and
hone your skills and really come up with a final
shooting script that will allow you to move into the pre-production and
the production phases. And most of all don't give up. It's very difficult
to write a script. 90% of people who start writing
one don't even finish it, let alone shoot it. So get out there, find some great ideas and
start structuring your script.
Filmmaker Amal, Writer, Director, Producer
