Blog #12 How to Write a Short Film

Recently, I took part in a 4-day training event over in Birr. The topic was “Smartphone Filmmaking“ and it was hosted by Poca Productions, a team from Donegal who specialise in instruction. Over the course of the 4 days (and some pre-production days), we wrote, storyboarded and shot short films on a smartphone. I had a lot of fun doing it and it was a great way to spend the warm summer days in Offaly.

In order to make my short film, I had to break out a screenwriting program and get the screenplay juices flowing again. Before I did that though, I went through a quick refresher on all the different elements in a screenplay. It was a while since I wrote anything so I needed to make sure I got all the elements down first before I dove in. Here are the basic elements of screenwriting so you too can get firing again.

1. Heading - It all needs to start somewhere. A heading will look like this: EXT. PARK - NIGHT

   That heading tells us the scene is outside in a park at night. If it was inside a house at daytime, it would be:

   INT. HOUSE - DAY

   You can mix up how much detail you want to go into, whether you want to put in AFTERNOON and also which room in the house, like BEDROOM, if you want to specify the room.

2. Action - This sets the tone for the scene. In the short film I wrote, the action included this

   “A man dressed for business walks along a pathway. He is old-fashioned and carries a chipper attitude. As he’s walking, he sees someone.“

   The action describes the actions taken in the by the character or just the general ambience of the scene. The purpose of the action is not to write a novel but to give the director a sense of what the scene entails. Remember: if you are first introducing a character in your action, capitalise their name, e.g. JAKE, not Jake.

3. Name - self-explanatory. The name is indented in the middle of the page and in a screnwriting software will be automatically capitalised. If the person is speaking in voiceover, the name will be written as JAKE (V.O.) as opposed to JAKE for standard dialogue. O.S. is another common one (off-screen), i.e. JAKE (O.S.)

4. Parenthetical - this is a note for the actor on how to approach the line. It is written under the name and above the dialogue. For example, in my short film, I wrote: (ruffled) above the dialogue “And why might that be?“. I included the parenthetical (ruffled) because it gives a clear indication that the character is a) annoyed and b) losing control of the situation. Some people put their BEATS in as parentheticals, like this: (a beat). If you don’t know what a beat is, it’s basically a pause. It can be placed before a line of dialogue or midway through if needed.

5. Dialogue - Everything your character says in the scene. As long or as short as you want it to be. Remember, for every line you add, the more your actors will have to learn and become grumpy. I found while shooting my scene, I could take out half a line here and there because they only added unnecesary bulk to the scene. Dialogue should push the story forward and give context.

6. Transitions - you need a basic understanding of editing in order to write these. They will be indented to the right and will say FADE OUT or CUT TO:

   You don’t need to add them but they can help give the director one more layer of vision to see how the film will pan out. It’s always good to visualise how the different scenes will cut together. For example, if you have an idea for a match cut, it’s good to write it into the script so that the director and his team will be able to plan ahead for it before filming day.

   BONUS

7. Shots - these are best left for a storyboard or shooting script but can be useful. Commonly found in a script are shots like JAKE’S P.O.V. i.e. Jake’s point of view. This shows that the film is now being shown from his point of view, which can connect the audience to a specific character.

And that’s it. Those are the basic elements to get you going. There are always more if you want to dive in deeper but I’m happy to use just those. I’ve found it’s good to focus on what the characters are feeling in each moment.

An excerpt from my short film script

Thanks for reading and if you’ve any comments, let me know down below.

Good luck out there.

-D.C.