The unsung hero of short films is pace. Pace does not mean that everything races along at a million miles per hour. In the instance of film, pace does not mean speed. In the instance of film, pace means the rhythm of the story. You’re watching a horror movie. The main character is watching television. …
The Changing of the Guard
How lucky are you guys? You get TWO blog posts this week! This one is a bit of a sad post, really. After chatting to Oli, my producer as to whether or not Friends would actually be able to go ahead in July/August with me at the helm and him keeping me on track, he …
The Writing Of It: Restrictions
Most of the short film writing I’ve done of late has been for competitions. I’ve had a pretty good hit rate so far – out of the three I’ve entered, two have been shortlisted. No first place ribbons as yet, but in a backwards way, I’m kind of glad about it because it pushes me …
A Bit of a Speed Bump
It’s been a bit quiet on the blogging front for the past week or so due to lack of internet access and other various bits and pieces that are bubbling away in the real world which keep getting in the way of my virtual world. I hope that you’re all having wonderful fun whichever world …
You Know What You’re Trying To Say? Say The Opposite.
As Ronan Keating once put it ‘You say it best when you say nothing at all.’ Perhaps not the best way to start off a new blog post, but I’m going to stick with it. The flashback to the nineties aside, I went and saw Thor on Tuesday night. I was looking forward to it …
Short Film Structure: Story Models
When I was at uni and I told a friend and fellow student that I wanted to be a writer, his eyes lit up. ‘I have the perfect book for you,’ he said. It wasn’t until a few months later when we were at his house shooting a short film, that he thrust it into my …
Short Film Structure: The Story
I’ve been thinking about this post for awhile and I could bang on for days and days and days about stories in short films, but it’s easier just to bold it in an attempt to make it stick in your mind. There’s really only one thing you need to know about writing stories for short …
Short Film Structure: The Ending Part II
This week we’re back on short film structure. Still talking about the ending – the twist-less ending. It’s a popular theme in short film (or short stories) to have a twist (spoken about here) at the end of the film. Of course, not every short film has a twist – some have a naturally progressive ending …
Short Film Structure: The Ending, Part 1- The Twist
We’re back on Short Film Structure this week, talking about the (arguably) most important part of ANY film: the ending. It’s often the endings which can make a film fall short. Poorly executed, they can leave your audience confused, annoyed and kind of like the person who misses out on a piece of birthday cake …
Short Film Structure: Characters
I started posting earlier this week about the structure of short films – something that is less discussed and talked about when creating films. I find this quite interesting as short films are a great way of getting your work out there – especially with great platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo kicking around on …