MAKING A SHORT FILM

According to William Mager,director of Stiletto and Hands Solo.

PART ONE - WATCH SHORT FILMS

Short Films are easily available to anyone and everyone. There are lots of websites, such as shortfilms.com, YouTube pages, such as youtube.com/futureshorts and DVD compilations you can buy like Buster Keaton: The Complete Short Films.Watching other short films will help with inspiration and also provide information about basic rules and short film elements.

PART TWO - READ SHORT FILM SCRIPTS

Reading scripts of other short films is important too for the same reasons as watching them: Inspiration and knowledge. There are websites available online on which you can read professionally written scripts. On Zoetrope you can read other scripts and upload your own in hope of other people reading and making comments/suggestions.

PART THREE - READ MORE ABOUT SCREENWRITING

It’s also a good idea to look at things directly written by other screenwriters. Many of them keep their own blogs which you can ‘follow’ or subscribe to.For example:dannystack.blogspot.comblog.geoffthompson.com

PART FOUR - TREATMENTThe treatment is a scene by scene description of a screenplay, minus all or most of the dialogue. It should be the blueprint of a script and is normally a page long, maybe two. You can read screenplay treatments online including Steven Spielberg’s for ET:http://www.writingtreatments.com/et2.pdf

PART FIVE - SCRIPTINGYou can use websites like finaldraft.com to help with the actual

scriptwriting. Having internet access is a great advantage to screenplay writers as you can also have your script read by a

professional once finished using sites like Scriptfactory.co.uk and bang2write.com.

PART SIX - FUNDS AND NETWORKING

Once you’ve written your script and had it read by professionals, you next need to start meeting potential funders, cast and crew. You can find all of these people online.

You should find your local film fund. The UK Film Council should be one of the first you look at. Contact any funds you find and say you would like to meet them for a chat about your idea.

You can even go direct to Film4 using their website (http://www.film4.com/features/article/get-your-short-film-distributed) as they also fund and distribute indie films including shorts.

http://www.swscreen.co.uk/how-we-can-help/short-film-funding.html

“We develop the region’s talent by investing in creative people and distinctive ideas. We want to spot and support talented individuals as they develop creative products ranging from alternative reality games (ARGs) to short films and from interactive content for mobile phones to online soaps.”

By Kathi Joyner.