How To Start Writing A Script For A Short Film

Creating your first screenplay is not easy, nor does it come easily to most people. It takes time, effort, and lots of re-writing before you feel comfortable with your writing skills.

But writing a script is an exercise in storytelling! And there’s a lot you can learn from stories. In this article, we'll go over some basics about story structure, and how to write a script that gets the job done.

The structure is one of the key components of any good story. A strong narrative has a beginning, middle, and end; a seamless flow of events determined by the needs of the plot and the desires of the reader.

A short film is different than a feature-length movie because it's shorter. This allows for more creative freedom but makes structuring the story much harder.

Luckily, we have some tips here! Read on for our foolproof method to create a great start to your screenwriting career.

Create a writing space

When you want to write a script, you have to create a comfortable environment where you can focus without distractions. You can do this by having an organized desk or table area, and a place to store your laptop so you will not lose momentum while you are working on it.

You also need good lighting- either natural light or powered studio lights. In addition, there should be enough room around you so that you do not feel confined as you work.

Having these things makes setting up a writing space easy and simple. But making sure all of them is important!

If you don’t have one of these things, you may need to make some changes to accommodate your desire to write. Or maybe you just need to get a new job that provides one of these basic needs.

Any way you look at it, it is worth its weight in gold. Keep this tip in mind next time you want to sit down and write.

Establish your theme and plot

Now that you have done some research, read through your notes, and determined what genre you want to write in, it is time to establish your story’s theme and plot!

The theme of your screenplay is like the main topic of each chapter or scene. It can be moralistic (examples: stories about how to treat people better), philosophical (stories with messages about life, death, happiness, etc.), or something subjective such as personality types or emotions.

Your movie’s overall theme is usually revealed early on, but it may take several drafts to find it. Your audience will know when they have heard the theme because it will feel familiar.

After establishing your theme, start building your narrative by creating a storyline.

Start with a situation

A short film is very much like writing a novel, except you do not have extended-length stories or chapters. With a short film, there is usually only one main storyline that goes for around five minutes in length.

After filming this main event, the writer then has to come up with other events and storylines to fill out the rest of the movie. These additional scenes are called flashbacks or internal narratives.

These can be related to the main story or not, but they must tell a mini-story and need to progress the narrative forward. They also have to fit into the overall theme or plot of the movie!

By having these many different parts, the viewer gets to experience various aspects of the characters’ lives and feel connected to them.

Provide some characters

A short film script is very much like any other piece of writing; it needs an opening, the main theme, and a conclusion. However, instead of having chapters or scenes, there are only shots. A screenplay has around three pages per shot, so most shorts have around six-seven total shots.

That’s why short films usually don’t have a plot. They may be about something, but it can quickly become confusing because there isn’t enough time to tell everything that happens.

Instead, short stories use events to create storylines, which makes sense since you don’t have whole chunks of time to spend telling your audience what happened.

Events typically involve actions or conversations between two or more people, and they�or/them pronouns are good to use when referring to them. Make sure to research appropriate grammar before writing too many bullets! 🙂

There you have it! You now know how to write a script for a short movie.

Write down your ideas

Starting from the initial idea or script, you must know how to organize your thoughts and write them down! You can do this quickly with note-taking apps such as Penzu or Evernote.

Alternatively, use an index card method and make sure to stick to very simple fonts and colors - otherwise, it will look too fancy.

Whatever system works best for you is what should be used!

Keep trying out different ways of organizing your notes to find one that’s easy to access and edit later.

Narrow down your list

Now that you have done some writing, it is time to work on your next script! While there are no hard and fast rules about how to start writing a screenplay, most writers agree that you should be very familiar with what genre your film belongs to before starting to write.

If you’re not sure where to begin, try one of our top 10 screenwriting tips or pick an already-written story and see if anything sparks your interest. By being well-versed in the field, you will know what types of stories feel authentic and natural to tell.

Once you find a theme or area that you are passionate about, get more detailed by brainstorming ideas and concepts related to it. For example, if your script is set during the Civil War era, maybe focus on the ways soldiers adapted to survive during this period.

Your short movie might also be called a flash piece, so choose a topic that you are familiar with and can create a quick narrative around. No matter what type of film you want to make, knowing your turf makes developing the script much easier.

Start drafting

Starting with the word go, start writing! If you’re already well-versed in script format, then choose an idea that you feel is important to address and write your draft straight away.

If not, there are many ways to get into writing scripts quickly. Some people prefer using a bullet point as a starting place, asking questions of yourself about the story, or creating a narrative frame before getting down to business.

Whatever method you use, just make sure it feels natural to you and takes the same amount of time. There’s no wrong way to do it!

And don’t forget to look up any terms you aren’t familiar with! The Internet is a wonderful source of information when you need to find the right words or figure out how to put things together.

Short films can be tricky to navigate because they usually have very specific parameters (length, number of scenes, etc.).

Edit your script

After you have written your first draft, the next step is editing! This can be done in several different ways depending on what stage of writing you are at.

You may choose to do some basic re-writing or add new scenes as we mentioned before. You could also choose to go back to the beginning and start from scratch by doing a quick outline or storyboard.

Whatever method you pick, make sure to take your time to focus on each scene and the overall flow of the story.

The more detail you include, the longer it will take to write, so try to keep this to a minimum until the later stages of writing. When drafting a screenplay, there’s an easy way to test the fluidity of your prose - use the second page of your work as a basis for another short film! If you can easily create a full-length movie using these pages, then your writing style seems strong enough to continue.