I have been investigating the advice given to support new short film writers.
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tours/shortfilm/tour1.html
http://www.netribution.co.uk/features/howto/scriptwriting_5_short_film.html
https://www.shootingpeople.org
http://www.scriptfactory.co.uk/
“The short film is often looked on with a certain amount of disdain. The attitude which often prevails is that there is no point in writing a short and that you ought to be working on a feature instead. Frankly, I think that’s rubbish. Writing a short film is a tricky thing to get right. But the process of doing it is invaluable if you have any hope of becoming a screenwriter.” – Andrew Lowes
From researching other writer’s opinions on the matter of short film writing, I begin to see that Andrew Lowes statement is correct. The things you learn from creating a short film, through research all the way up to production, give you so much necessary experience. As Marilyn Milgrom, a script consultant has written in her article, The Script, the most important thing of making a short is to keep it simple. BFI’s Screenonline article seconds this and suggests that the shorter a short film is, the easier it is on the writer and director and for an audience to appreciate. Do not cram too much into the short, but instead allow for ‘the steady rise of story-driven narratives, and the increasing attention placed on the screenplay.’
Seven questions show the simple, but crucial steps that a writer must consider when creating their short film...
• Who is the protagonist?
• What is the active question, which is the basis of the action in film?
• Who or what opposes the protagonist? Or, What is the dilemma that he/she will have to face?
• From whose point of view is the audience being shown the story?
• What is it about? Or, What is the theme?
• Who is the target audience?
• What is the style of the film?
Many short films feature minimal dialogue and use narrative film language to guide the audience through the film. This should be considered when writing the short as you must ask yourself, ‘is every word necessary?’ If not, could the writer’s script give the stories meaning to the director, while guiding him a little, but also allowing him to communicate the message of the film through directional techniques rather than the written word?
