Writing a script

1. Scope Your Idea

Feature scripts often need what they need—a certain number of characters, specific locations, maybe some modest special effects. These elements all go into the creation of the script, and then production later figures out how to bring everything to life. But a short film is about your talent, and your eye as a filmmaker. That means the only necessary elements are those you choose to include.

2. Work with what you have

If you only have one camera and one microphone, don’t set your script up for failure with production design you can’t pull off. Determine what you have and what you can do with it, and use the constraints of the medium to help shape the idea that will become your script.

The short film “Host” is a good example of this in action. The filmmakers were physically separated by the lockdowns of 2020. They couldn’t shoot together, the actors had to be capable of operating their own equipment, and the premise couldn’t be too complicated. The solution? An elegant horror short that literally just plays to all the limitations of lockdown.

3. Simplify Your Arc

The conventional wisdom, when it comes to long-form narratives, is to punish your characters—over and over. You want to throw ever-more-challenging obstacles into their path until you reach the story’s climax. We see this in books, movies, video games, and serialized content. However, in a short film script, you simply don’t have time to hammer away at your characters like this. A short film is more like an event—an experience. It should definitely communicate a difference in the world between the beginning and the ending, but it should do this directly, rather than subtly, over time.

4. Less is More

Your first draft of the script will probably be too complicated. It’s easy to get carried away, especially when you’re first drafting with scenes, dialogue, or actions you think are essential to the project. If you take another look, you’ll usually find that you can simplify things—and then simplify them again. This isn’t to say that you don’t want, for example, rich and nuanced dialogue (it’s still a movie, after all), but do you need forty-five seconds of it, or will twenty seconds of beautiful acting have the same effect?

5. The Ending Is Everything

Short films are more like exercises than experiences, so they need to prove themselves. They’re highlighting filmmaking and storytelling techniques that we usually consume in the context of much longer-form media, like movies or series, so it’s only natural that we compare the experience against what’s familiar. People (in general) watch more features than they do short films, so should the short film try to deliver the same filmic experience as a feature? Probably not.

In essence, a short film has a point. What was it trying to accomplish, in the sense of what features accomplish? If the short film is just a slice of filmmaking, then what’s the filling? What makes it worth it?

What this means for every project is different. But a good way to make sure you’re building toward a proper ending is to begin with one. When you’re scoping your idea, start with the finale. What cool thing are you going to do with the people you have in the space that’s available. Once you know this, work backward toward the beginning of your script. This way, you can ensure things are moving properly forward to that resonant ending.

6. Butt in Chair

Sit and do it! Starting is hard but you can't develop the script until you have written something