I've tried to come up with some short story ideas to comply with the entrance assignments for screenwriting. Concerning my history, I've written dozens of short stories in my life and several of them I've found satisfying. But writing for the screen is much tougher, when the script should only be 4-5 pages long. I've thought of writing stories around some funny incidents, but a serious subject is much more challenging. There is just so little time to elaborate. One story I wrote involved a guy in a grocery store. He comes home, and there is some evidence lying around that his wife is having an affair, but he's too tired from the numerous mishaps during his hectic errand to notice anything. Most of his attention is taken up by some things didn't remember to buy. After his wife tries to make him relax, she leaves with the intent of cheating on him. The guy doesn't care and just wants to be left alone. That's all. There's not much time to establish motivations. The latter part had some pretty clever dialogue. I specificly tried to avoid anything too dramatic from happening in the end, because there would not be time to resolve it. However, I feel that the story I just told is lacking in drama and/or credibility. How about some tips for putting more drama into a short script without increasing its lenght?
Some ideas: You start 'in medias res', with the action already in progress. As close as you can get to the climax in fact. There doesn't need to be any winding down after the climax, and in fact the climax doesn't need to be anything other than a change occurring in the protagonist. They come to a new understanding that shifts their perspective or something. It can be open-ended, with just a hint or suggestion of what happens next. Leave the audience and the protagonist hanging with the decision not made. I wish I could find the page I once discovered about short story structure. It isn't turning up in my history—it must've been on the other computer, which unfortunately is dead now. But basically it included what i wrote above (probably explained way better), and also the idea that you tell the smallest part of the story you can get away with. Cut out as much dead wood as you can, the kind of stuff you have so much room for in a novel or a feature. Be pithy.
Here's a thought. Try googling for flash fiction structure or how to write flash fiction. It's a story under I think 500 words? So it's all about minimizing as much as possible. I'm sure the same principles can be applied to short films.
Yes, my story does exactly that, start 'in media res', and deploys a hectic arrival home in order to fatigue the main character as much as possible, in order to make him pay no attention to the obvious facts that his wife's cheating on him. This sort of narrative, where characters are presented with obvious evidence of wrongdoing but are too dumb to notice it, is used by Mark Twain (Huckleberry Finn) and Émile Zola (Thèrése Raquin). The climax is when the wife realizes that she's free to do as she pleases, and then leaves him alone. I think however, that this is not a very exciting denouement, and changes would be necessary to make the wife an interesting character.
So... Maybe I should consider a different ending, or not? The current low-key ending suits the tone of my short story. It balances out the rather hectic/dramatic beginning, but ir's... a bit boring. Despite bits of clever dialogue.
Writing a short film is like writing a joke. You need to keep the story simple and to the point. You need to have a set up and payoff (it can be subtle, doesn't have to be a punch-line but needs a resolution). You need to keep it simple to understand and follow. You don't need to deep dive into characters or plot. It's a one trick pony. Find your end and work backwards.
I don't think there's an issue with being short. I've done about a triple number of comedy sketches or vignettes with some story elements. The real trick is writing something serious which is not solely grounded on a joke. While I may be able to pull that off in a written short stories (e. g. novel), writing for the screen is where it becomes a challenge.
I'm not saying it needs to be a joke, I'm saying the structure is like a joke, the way jokes are structured.
Yes, I read that almost explicitly in your post. I'm talking about when writing a "joke" is much easier than writing "like a joke". (ie. when writing for the screen.)
Yeah, and I'm not talking about writing a joke, so that half of your point is completely redundant. Leaving us with 'writing like a joke' by itself, which, when talking about short screenplays, is the best way to approach it. Hard or not. Drama or not. Serious or not. You asked for tips, that's my tip.
Okay, I hear ya. I guess there isn't a short-cut (no pun intended) going from long scripts to writing short scripts. It might a few years of trial and error to cultivate a skill that would yield satisfying results. Might be sooner, now that this is part of my focus.
