How To Get Good Ideas For A Short

2024 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 09:13

Is cinema your greatest passion and do you dream of being behind the camera? If you want to pick up a camera and start shooting a short film, you need a great story to tell first. Learning to unleash your creative side and start writing doesn't have to be a huge chore. Find out how to find a good story and turn it into a compelling script that will allow you to make a wonderful short.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Finding a Story

Step 1. Start with a word, an image, an object

Every story needs a seed to plant and to follow its growth. Will it turn into a good short film? Maybe yes maybe no. In the beginning, all you have to do is focus on the basics of an idea and see where it takes you. Here are some effective ways to gather ideas and start writing a story.

A good way to create a story? You simply have to start writing. Grab a pen and paper, or sit in front of the computer and force yourself to write for a certain amount of time, such as 10-15 minutes. Don't worry about the consistency of the story or its possible validity for the purpose of a good short film. You're just looking for an idea for now. What you write may be 99% pure garbage, but perhaps you will spot a small snippet with the potential to turn into a good short story. Try to get an idea

Step 2. Try a lexical exercise

To get an idea and start creating a story, you need a hint, a spark. Generate a list of more or less random images, the first words that come to your mind: kindergarten, city, ashtray, oil painting. Nice list. Try to come up with at least 20 words, then start looking for links between them. What does this list make you think of? In an afternoon art class attended by children from a kindergarten in a big city? A cigarette in an ashtray in a painter's studio? Start with an image and let your imagination do the rest. Find the story by connecting these ideas.

Step 3. Start guessing to find valid ideas

A good way to shape an idea is to start imagining strange, surprising or absurd scenarios that could contribute to the creation of a great short film. What if the food available was only in the form of pills? What would you do if you found out your father was a spy? How would you react if your dog suddenly started talking? The best storylines and characters are all the result of speculation.

Step 4. Look for stories to adapt

If you want to create a short film, but are running out of ideas, you could adapt a story that has already been written by someone else. Read collections of recently published short stories that feature stories with compelling storylines. Look for one that would be fun to put on film.

In general, it would be difficult to adapt a novel to make a short film. Try to focus mainly on the stories. If you're looking for a good example of a minimalist story with a compelling and exciting storyline, check out Where are you going, where have you been?, by Joyce Carol Oates

Step 5. Try filming real life

Who ever said that a short film should only deal with fictitious topics? If you want to make a short, you could be inspired by the world around you and create a documentary. Look for a local music festival and ask the manager if you can film interviews with bands. Alternatively, try filming your sports friends as they train for a game. Spot an interesting story unfolding right next to you and ask for permission to put it on film.

Step 6. Keep a dream journal

Dream activities can offer valid inspiration for a short, especially if you have a penchant for the oddities and the inexplicable. If you want to look for ideas in dreams, let the alarm go off in the middle of the night, then open your eyes and quickly write down the plot. Dreams can be a rich source of inspiration from which to draw images, bizarre events and dialogues for short films.

what are you afraid of? A beautiful haunting dream can be a great inspiration for a horror short. When writing the script and filming, try to reproduce the same feelings as the weirdest dreams. For inspiration, check out David Lynch's Rabbits short film series

Step 7. Inspired by history with a capital S

History is full of fascinating and often fantastic tales. You can also consider other fields of study that are equally rewarding, such as psychology (to develop the characters), geography and so on.

Step 8. Adapt an idea you came up with for a classic length film

There is no reason why you can't rework concepts created for a traditional film for the purpose of making a short film. You could adjust it by taking a scene, theme or character.

Step 9. Describe the essence of the story

Can you write a sentence of less than 15 words that defines the fundamental concept and plot of the short film? Then you are on the right track. Once you have an initial idea, try preparing your presentation, which shouldn't take more than a short elevator ride. Describe the short film in the shortest and fastest way possible. This will give you the opportunity to write a high-quality script and illustrate the story to others, so you can hire actors and other professionals. Avoid vagueness or abstraction, focus on the setting and the plot.

• Here are some good synopsis examples:

  • A little boy finds a small alien in a field and takes him home.
  • Kindergarten children start painting strange pictures after school.

• Here are some bad synopsis examples:

  • A man struggles with depression.
  • The inhabitants of a small town find themselves facing a series of mysterious events.

  

  Step 10. Think practically

  Consider what you have and how you might use it. Make a list of all the props, places and actors available in your area, and consider how they could help you create a story that works right from the start. Maybe that friend of yours who boxing three times a week could inspire you to make an interesting story about that world.

  Make sure you can shoot the short. When you make an independent film and work without the backing of a studio and big funding, the equipment and sets are scarce. In short, it will be difficult to shoot a science fiction work in your mother's cellar. Make sure you can film the necessary scenes for the short film you want to make. Example: you want to take a crane shot to show the landscapes of a metropolis, the problem is that you live in a small town and you don't have the money or the necessary equipment to do it. In such a situation, be concrete. Don't make unrealistic claims - work with what you have

  Part 2 of 3: Developing Stories

  

  Step 1. Look for a protagonist and an antagonist

  Each story has a main character and an enemy, whose goal is to cause conflict and provoke tension. If you are unsure of the roles of the characters, it is important to think carefully to develop the story, so that the audience can immediately understand who to reflect in and why.

  • A protagonist is the character that the audience cheers for, the one with whom a certain empathy and emotional connection are created.
  • An antagonist is the character, situation or setting that stands in stark contrast to the protagonist, creating tension. An antagonist doesn't necessarily have to be a mustache-curling villain, it can also be a difficult situation or something abstract.

  

  Step 2. Find a good setting

  In a short film, this passage is partly a practical concern and partly a plot-related concern. Good settings create tension and conflict on their own, but you're unlikely to fly to Bermuda to shoot a beach scene. Find a place to set the story that fits well with what you want to tell, but is also available.

  Try to make the most of what you have. If you know you will have to shoot in your parents' house, it would be difficult to create a science fiction film in the garden and in the basement. Instead, try to think of a story that you can set in your city and that would make sense for the context. Think of short films that can develop in a house in the town where you live. Stories suited to your setting work much better

  

  Step 3. Look for a conflict

  Stories need it to thrill the audience. What will attract the audience's attention and involve them to follow the short film with interest? What does the protagonist want? What prevents him from getting it? The answers to these questions feed the source of the conflict. Once you've put the original idea into context, start focusing on the conflict-generating aspects of the story and figure out how to unravel it.

  • Conflict does not have to involve shooting or hand-to-hand combat. You don't need particularly dramatic elements to add intensity to a story. It must in fact present a real conflict between the characters and have emotional weight. If a kid brings an alien home, what problems do you think he will run into? What risks does it run? Why would the public be interested in a group of kindergarten children painting?
  • Identify the internal and external history. Concrete actions represent the external story: a character does something and that has consequences. However, a short film becomes compelling thanks to the internal story. How does the character change as a result of his actions? What do they mean to him? A good short, or any other kind of story, must have both of these elements, which should occur simultaneously.

  

  Step 4. Write a simple story

  Limit the range of the story as much as possible. Shooting a short film means telling a story reduced to the bone, a story, not a novel. This does not mean that the short cannot be ambitious and unconventional, but you have to work with a limited number of elements, characters and scenes to get a good result.

  Alternatively, it might be fun to take on the challenge of shooting a particularly long or complicated story by condensing it into a short film. If War and Peace were made into a 10-minute short, what would the final result look like? With the equipment you have at your disposal, how would you compress all 6 films in the Star Wars saga in 10 minutes? How would you do it?

  

  Step 5. Pay attention to the most common clichés related to short films

  As with any form of art, the world of short films is not free from overused ideas and stereotyped stories. If you've never shot one before, you'll have a distinct competitive advantage by avoiding certain elements. Here are the clichés to stay away from:

  • A character is alone, he mirrors himself, talks to himself and commits suicide.
  • Genres inflated in short films, such as noir and the gangster genre.
  • Any story involving the intervention of a hitman.
  • Two characters discussing a topic, only to discover that in reality it is a single character, suffering from multiple personality disorder.
  • A short film that begins with the camera pointed at an alarm clock that rings and with the protagonist getting out of bed.

  

  Step 6. The short film should not be longer than 10 minutes

  Shooting a film is extremely difficult, no matter what length it is. Keep the short as short as possible, especially if you're just starting out. Shooting a high-quality, tense, dramatic and gripping 3-minute short film is a real feat. Before you can produce a 45-minute gangster-genre masterpiece with a slow-motion shooting, learn how to make good short films.

  

  Step 7. Watch short films

  Before entering the world of cinema, you have to see numerous films and shorts. Just like you shouldn't try to write a novel without knowing where to start, it's important to understand the mechanics of short films and what it takes to create a good work before you get down to business. A short is not just a shorter version of a traditional film: it is a unique medium in its own right, with different tricks and techniques. Watch a few before making your own.

  • YouTube and Vimeo are great sources for finding shorts, both good and bad. Find out if there are festivals in your area (more common in larger cities) to watch recent shorts.
  • Music videos are also an interesting type of short film that you are probably already familiar with. Look closely at your favorite video clips to understand their composition and study them closely. Check out those of Spike Jonze, Hype Williams and Michel Gondry, true contemporary masters of this art.

  Part 3 of 3: Writing the Screenplay

  

  Step 1. Draw sketches to graphically represent the story

  The visual scheme of the short film doesn't have to be formal or broken up into numbered vignettes (although you can do it this way if you prefer). Storyboards usually help you get an idea of the footage you will need to shoot next, and give you a comic-style visual representation as you write the short film. Make a quick sketch of what will actually happen in the story and some basic dialogues.

  Cinema is a visual medium that allows you to tell stories, so don't rely solely on dialogue to do so. In quality stories, the storyboard must explicitly indicate the external story, while the internal one should be implicit

  

  Step 2. Write a script

  When you have defined the basic elements of the story and are satisfied with it, you can take care of everything else by creating a precise script, with all the dialogue and stage directions you want to include in the short film. Try to make it as specific as possible, so that even an outsider will be able to shoot the short and see what you see.

  

  Step 3. Be surprised

  You've probably got an idea of where you want the story to go, but as you write it, try to leave room for surprises. If you stick to a specific path for the short film, it may be unsurprising and rather mundane even for the audience. During the writing phase, try to take new paths, even if you are not sure. Let some happy accidents happen and follow them to come to other, more interesting conclusions. This is how the best stories are written.

  Francis Ford Coppola shot the sequel to Boys of 56th Street, entitled Rusty the Savage, gradually writing the script. In fact, he wrote the scenes just before they were shot. No actor had the faintest idea what was going to happen, and this gave a spontaneous and experimental touch to the film

  

  Step 4. Ask for constructive criticism

  Once you've written the script, show it to friends or people who share your love of cinema and are able to offer constructive criticism. Listen to them and try to correct the script as much as possible. Some filmmakers work there for years, and then the production itself lasts several more years. It is no coincidence that making a film is a long process.

  Try to show the script also to potential collaborators, i.e. actors, producers and possible directors. Offer it to people who can help you

  

  Step 5. Keep your ideas in a folder

  Not all ideas will work for a certain short film. Create a folder to store the ones you don't use and let them turn into future scripts. Some filmmakers have an idea and don't convert it into a movie for decades. The possibility of filming Scorsese's Gangs of New York has been discussed for more than 30 years. Set aside ideas for those moments when you can work on them. Organize these little sketches based on the following criteria:

  • Personages.
  • Settings.
  • Plots.
  • Structure.

  Advice

  • Create a folder to store movie ideas.
  • The story should be simple.
  • Although short film is a visual medium, you should think about its connection with the sound aspect.
  • Be patient. It is not easy to find good ideas. Try and try again.
  • Animated shorts are the lowest budget films there is and are easy to create individually. You can use Blender, a completely free animation software.
  • If you need actors, call your friends, post audition flyers or search for them online.
  • Have fun. Ask your friends to act, use a director's chair and talk to a megaphone. This is also part of the fun.
  • Define the roles of the characters and don't change them.