How to Write a Short Film

welcome to the 12th video in this series covering the fundamentals of screenwriting and storytelling if you'd like to watch the rest of the videos you can find them linked in the description or on the end screen of this video alright so you've learned the fundamentals you know about conflict character structure dialogue etc etc now it's time to sit down and get a short script down onto the page enough theory it's time to write in this video i will be going super granular and showing you how to write a short film for the first time this

will be an extremely practical look at how to write a short film with a strong dramatic narrative i will be getting very detailed and specific in this video so that you can see the fundamentals of a narrative drama in action my hope is that this gives you a practical understanding so that you can begin to build your own short script and ultimately write your first feature length screenplay now before we get started i have two big notes note number one please don't spend time telling me that the ideas i talk about in this video are

too formulaic or that i'm being too restrictive yes there is more than one way to tell a story yes it's easy to find examples of breaking quote-unquote rules and principles yes i am giving a specific detailed understanding of how to write a dramatic narrative not all stories will look like this but as a new writer you need to start somewhere spending all of your time focusing on exceptions doesn't help you write a strong narrative for the first time and note number two i'm not going to take a look at a short film to explain how

to write a short film i'm going to take a look at the main plot of rick and morty episode 202. so why am i doing this why am i not looking at a short film here's the unfortunate reality most short films are not well written narrative dramas many shorts are poetic or they get lost in a concept or they are experimental and a lot of short films are simply made for a director's reel or to give an actor more experience if you'd like to take a look at some professionally made short films for further study

i recommend going to shortoftheweek.com linked below the main plot of rick and morty episode 202 takes up most of the episode at about 16 to 18 minutes of the run time with the b plot taking up about three to five minutes of the run time this makes the main story about the same length as a short film between 10 and 20 pages and it's a great way to take a look at how you can create a full narrative drama in a very short period of time now with all that out of the way i'm going

to show you how to write a short film so you're starting out with a few ideas you've got a scene or two in your head and maybe you have a concept or genre now let's start organizing and developing your story into something that's clear and focused a lot of people ask me how to get ideas for screenplays or for short scripts and i'm always confused by this question writers have story ideas if you're reading novels watching films and trying to write story ideas will come into your head getting some basic ideas to start with shouldn't

be difficult if you're having serious trouble thinking up any ideas i suggest that maybe writing isn't for you or at the very least you aren't immersed enough in storytelling pick up a few novels and then come back alright so let's begin building the foundation of your story by defining your philosophical conflict the first thing you need to build out is your philosophical conflict remember my video on the purpose of conflict in that video i explain philosophical conflict how it works and why it's important for your story as a quick refresher philosophical conflict is the different

philosophical moral or ethical beliefs that are in conflict within your story like i explained in the purpose of conflict video philosophical conflict is the backbone of storytelling and it should be the backbone of your story so how do you build philosophical conflict into a story what you want to do is create a viewpoint versus viewpoint conflict let's go to our example to see what i mean in rick and morty episode 202 the philosophical conflict is based around a moral question in the beginning of the episode rick meets an assassin and sells him a weapon morty

is surprised and disgusted by this you sell weapons to killers for money ugh you've got what the intergalactic call a very planetary mindset morty it's more complicated out here here we see a difference in ricks and morty's moral viewpoints morty's disgust rises when he realizes that rick only sold the weapon so that he could go to an arcade but rick doesn't care at all you sold a gun to a murderer so you could play video games yeah sure i mean if you spend all day shuffling words around you can make anything sound bad morty now

we can define the philosophical conflict of the episode the philosophical conflict comes down into two viewpoints absolute morality versus moral relativism morty believes that rick selling a gun to an assassin is objectively wrong and morty believes that life is objectively valuable rick believes that it doesn't matter he believes he can do what he wants and that he defines his own morality selling a gun to a hitman is the same as pulling the trigger it's also the same as doing nothing if chromopoulos michael wants someone dead there's not a lot anyone can do to stop him

so this story has a very clear philosophical conflict it is clearly asking questions like is it morally wrong to supply weapons to killers is there an absolute standard of morality and these questions are expressed through the clear viewpoints of the characters not every rick and morty episode has the philosophical conflict as clear and specific as this one but this one is very useful to get an understanding of how to use philosophical conflict correctly it doesn't matter if your story is 10 pages long or 3 000 pages long you still need specific philosophical conflict that will

drive the events of the story once you establish your philosophical conflict it's time to attach beliefs to your different characters so i explained that you need to create a viewpoint versus viewpoint dilemma in your philosophical conflict now you need to attach different beliefs within those ideas onto your characters your characters will hold different points of view then these differing points of view will place the characters into conflict with one another let's return to our example so this story has a very clear philosophical conflict it is clearly asking questions like is there an absolute standard of

morality or do we create our own morality and these questions are expressed through the clear viewpoints of the characters morty holds a belief that is important for the philosophical conflict he believes that rick selling a weapon to an assassin is objectively wrong this belief stems from his larger belief that there is an absolute morality of some sort and that right and wrong matters rick holds an opposing belief that is important for the philosophical conflict rick believes that he can do what he wants that there is no absolute standard of morality he believes he creates his

own morality and that there is nothing objectively wrong with him selling a weapon to an assassin because there is no objective morality in the first place and we can clearly see how their beliefs conflict in this scene selling a gun to a hitman is the same as pulling the trigger it's also the same as doing nothing if chromopoulos michael wants someone dead there's not a lot anyone can do to stop him now that you have created this separation the audience is now involved in the philosophical conflict as a viewer you are participating in the moral

dilemma you're not necessarily consciously laying out the different viewpoints in your mind as you watch the story unfold but you are unconsciously involved in this moral dilemma and what happens in the story will either challenge or confirm your personal beliefs on the philosophical conflict this is how you create empathy between the audience and your characters in your own story and this is how you can really invest your audience and wondering what happens next in your story now let's take a quick look at the secondary characters in this episode chromebopulus michael is the assassin that buys

the weapon from rick k michael has no code of ethics whatsoever he literally says so in the dialogue it's a comedic line but it is also his actual philosophical view in the story nice to meet you morty listen if you ever need anybody murdered please give me a call you're giving him a card no code of ethics i will kill anyone anywhere children animals old people doesn't matter i just love killing k michael and rick hold somewhat similar philosophical beliefs like rick k michael clearly does not hold a belief in absolute morality the nebulous being

named fart that morty saves halfway through the episode holds a philosophical point of view but i'll get into that more in the next section what's important is that he introduces conflict that forces morty to make choices based upon what he believes morty don't do it morty morty idiot oh crap let's get you out of here k michael and fart are characters that are important but secondary in regards to the philosophical conflict rick and morty are the two who are opposing each other philosophically k michael and fart become elements of that philosophical conflict playing out so

when you're building your characters attach specific philosophical beliefs to them that will define who your characters are as people and will also define their actions placing them in conflict with the other characters around them now that you have your philosophical conflict and your characters let's talk about action and structure you should try to build out your story using the principles of narrative drama and story momentum many writers learn about story structure as it relates to screenplays and tv shows but when they get to a short script they toss structure completely out of the window as

if it doesn't matter but this is a terrible idea story structure matters just as much in a short script as it does in a feature-length screenplay so how should you structure your short script the most effective way i've found is to use dan harmon's story circle i explained how the story circle works in this video harman's story circle is an extremely versatile and organic way of structuring your story and it can be used for an entire feature length screenplay or a single scene because it is able to fractal down and be used in different pieces

of a story it works perfectly in helping you build a strong short script so let's break down how this rick and morty episode fits into the story circle and also show how the characters actions are motivated by their beliefs at one our character is morty morty believes in an absolute morality rick stands on the other side of the moral spectrum he does not believe in any sort of objective morality in the very beginning morty encounters a philosophical problem rick sells a gun to an assassin at two now morty formulates his want for the story morty

wants to fix the ethical problem that rick has created you know you could stop this killing from happening rick you know you did a bad thing selling that gun but you could undo it if you wanted at number three morty enters an unfamiliar situation when he decides to go after k michael morty does this because of his philosophical belief that what rick did was objectively wrong and that rick's actions should be righted at number four morty tracks down k michael quickly you have arrived at crom populous michael your destination is below at number five morty

gets what he wants when he stops k michael from killing his target morty has completed his philosophical mission and put the world back to its moral neutrality as morty sees it the nebulous being fart now asks morty to save him rick thinks this is a terrible idea again following his belief that there is no objective morality and that we should not just save others for no reason but morty frees fart and this is the midpoint of the story notice that in just a few short minutes we have had a major philosophical conflict characters taking action

based upon their beliefs and a clear midpoint turning point but at 6 now morty's actions come at a cost things are not as simple as morty believes as rick and morty try to escape with fart morty realizes that saving fart's life is coming at the cost of many other lives and rick openly challenges morty on this hey morty remember when you said selling a gun was as bad as pulling the trigger how do you feel about all these people that are getting killed today because of your choices i did the right thing rick at number

seven morty returns back to his familiar situation by finishing the conflict of the story when he gets fart to his portal to go back to his universe and now we get the philosophical climax of the story up until this point morty believes he has done the right thing until now we will be back for your cleansing um cleansing carbon-based life is a threat to all higher life to us you are what you would call a disease wherever we discover you we cure it you said yourself that life must be protected even through sacrifice and this

is a defining moment at number eight and we move to the last point morty changes morty kills fart to save his universe from being destroyed this action represents a philosophical change in morty morty realizes that the world is greater than he thought it was and this is where the story makes a philosophical statement the story is saying that knowing what the right thing to do is a lot more difficult than we realize and that things are not always as clear as we'd like them to be in this episode rick wins the philosophical conflict and the

story gives rick a moment to gloat morty i know i picked on your core beliefs and decision-making a lot today but i am glad that you insisted on getting that fart home you know at least all the death and destruction wasn't for nothing you know this structure gives us a story with clear momentum and narrative drive it allows the characters to take action and make decisions and deal with the consequences of those actions and it's all done in a very short time frame alright let's review your story will be about philosophical beliefs and differing points

of view also known as the philosophical conflict then these beliefs will be placed onto your characters different characters will hold different beliefs and those beliefs will be in conflict with one another then your characters take actions based upon their beliefs the actions of your characters based upon their beliefs define the external and internal conflicts allowing your characters to take action and deal with the consequences of their actions will build narrative momentum so let me make this as simple as possible for you beliefs plus characters plus action equals character action motivated by beliefs this will be

the driving force of your story i can already hear some writers typing in the comments telling me that this is too restrictive and formulaic and i'll remind you that as a new writer you need to spend time learning the principles of storytelling you can't simply jump in trying to break the rules you don't need to worry about breaking rules because you haven't even learned any rules at all yet once you have a strong understanding of story momentum and narrative drive then you can talk about how to bend or break principles but as a new writer

that is not your focus so don't let these procrastinators confuse you now before we end i want to talk a bit about what very few writing teachers actually talk about the writing process when you're preparing to write your short script don't spend more than a day or two on your outline it's a short script not an oscar-winning screenplay so don't be so precious with it remember you're learning right now learning takes time and learning takes writing again and again i know right now some writers have watched this video and their heads are filled with questions

they want to know the answer to 20 more questions before they actually sit down and begin writing and if that's you let me tell you that you don't need answers to more questions you are letting your procrastination take control of you you keep wanting it to be more complicated than it is it simply isn't tell yourself it's time to stop asking questions and constantly searching for another screenwriting book it's time to write so open your scriptwriting software and write that short script so now you have a clear blueprint to write your first short script and

in the next video i'm going to be taking a look at common short script mistakes so that you can find and fix the problems in your short script so if you'd like to watch the rest of the videos in this series you can click the link on the screen now or you can click the link in the description and if you like this video please leave a like and subscribe for more videos just like this one you