... THE RATIONALE BEHIND THE CHANGES The father’s inner action is to get the mother to tell the child about the divorce without his having to be present, while the mother’s is to ensure that they ... settings or locations express the feeling-tone you would like for the film? Could the use of sound or of particular images help accomplish this? 80 Writing the Short Film...
... Situation at the Beginning of the Script? The shorter the film or video is to be, the more license is given the scriptwriter to plunge right into the middle of things. In this case, because the film ... true for the short film in relation to the feature film as it is for the short story in relation to the novel. But unlike novels and short stories, which...
... perch on the open parapets. Imagine a pile of the feathers he’s gathered and the ways he invents to play with them—trying to make them float, keeping them up with his breath, pasting them onto ... briefly describes a full scene—ideally a scene that furthers the action. 56 Writing the Short Film Ch05.qxd 9/27/04 6:04 PM Page 56 The writing of a story outline often begins wi...
... this story is set apart by its setting, the specific moral dilemma faced by the protagonist dur- ing the escape, and the ambivalence of the outcome. The main challenges in writing the script would ... under close guard. Therefore, the prison and his captors are the antagonists. What is the protagonist’s situation at the beginning of the script? The time is 1862, ea...
... a short script by Pat Cooper, one of the coauthors of this book, in first-draft and then in rewrite form. The script is called “Annie’s Flight,” and its protagonist is a 70 Writing the Short Film ... for screenwriting in general, it is particularly so for the short screenplay and for dialogue in the short screenplay. To illustrate the process of “saying much in little,...
... 81
Mark the crises, ending with the climax. Cut out each of these episodes,
however short. Lay the pieces out in their current order on a table or the
floor, and then begin to shuffle them about. ... concise. Give us only the descriptive information we need as we
need it, and introduce details as the audience would come upon them in
viewing the film.
82 Writing the Short...
... 91
Whether the character succeeds in the conflict, as in The Tortoise and the
Hare,” or fails, as in The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” it is the struggle to overcome
the barriers that is the fabric of the ... factor the age of the
new student. What if the new student in the local high school is 40 years old,
and he is joining a class full of 14-year-olds? The key here is tha...
... confine the film to the prepara-
tions for the march and the aftermath. The scenes should clarify the
relationship by highlighting the sense of trust on the part of the wife, and the
planning and ... protagonist’s
fate fulfills the audience’s fantasy—to get a refund—and, consequently, the
audience will accept not only the premise but also the fate of the fall...
... does not achieve
his or her goal. The success of one character and the failure of the other links
directly to the advancement of the plot.
106 Writing the Short Film
Ch09.qxd 9/27/04 6:07 PM ... people. The visual we see
is the bread knife in the hand of the main character. On the sound track we
lose the gossip and hear only the word “knife.” Here, sound and...
... to the writer of the short film include
the docudrama, the “mockumentary,” the comedy, the satire, the fable, the
morality tale, the journey, and the event or ritual occasion.
114 Writing the Short ... school they might assess their status based on the number of mem-
bers of the opposite sex who greet them or attend to them. They like to
talk in class. They m...