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Let’s make a film! Short films are some of the favourite films at Raindance Film Festival. The beauty of a short film is you don’t need to have experience, money or training to make one. A short can be anything from a few seconds (like a Nokia 15 Second Short) to 45 minutes (according to the Oscars™). This short film tool kit shows you how to make a short film.
Check out these 12 steps below to find out how to get your short film made!
The Short Film Tool Kit: 12 Steps To Making A Short
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Step 1. Get a script together
A short film is a unique type of story. Because it is short you can’t use the normal opening story techniques of a feature.
Here’s some ways professional screenwriters create stories for short films. You need to hook your audience. These story techniques condense the opening into a few seconds.
- Universal moment: a short film favourite. Wedding, first kiss, national and religious holidays, championship sporting events
- Cyclical story: stories that tend to start and end at the same place, but there is now new meaning
- Time bomb: where something specific must happen in a certain time or else dire consequences will befall the character
Here’s some idea generation exercises. Can you write a hundred words on one of these? Could it become the basis for a short film?
– the office prank
– a day in the life of …
– the local bus stop
There are loads of tricks to generate ideas for shorts.
A script for a short need not be written in industry standard format. But it should be written in what filmmakers call a ‘Shot List’, a simple a one or two line description of each shot the camera takes.
[To get your very own professional script format guide send an email to screenplay@raindance.org]
Check out the other steps below and happy filmmaking!
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