6 RULES OF FILM SCRIPTS

Hamza Hanif

Rule 1 (Keep it short)

Make the short film script as short as possible, short film scripts are roughly 7-8 pages long, throughout the script make sure that you catch the emotion of he characters in their lines, make sure that you capture their emotion, their character , their personality without making it too obvious.

RULE 2 (Time keeping)

■ WHEN WRITING A SCRIPT TRY TO KEEP IN MIND THE LENGTH OF THE FILM, TRY NOT TO EXCEED THE LENGTH, GO UNDER THE ASSUMPTION THAT 7-8 PAGES = 10 MINUTES, TRY TO WRITE DOWN WHAT YOUR IMAGINING INTO YOUR WRITING. Don't rush it, take your time but make sure that you have a timeline for or a brief idea of when you want to have things done by so you have enough time for filming.

Rule 3 (Make it visual)

Throughout the script writing process bare in mind that you must show not tell, this is a golden rule you must follow in writing a script and filming, a whole point of a film is to tell a story without writing, or else you would have written a book. Try to show who they are e.g. have work clothes In the background of shots to show they work without them saying “I work at TESCO”

Rule 4 (Find single moments)

the best parts of short films are the single moments which are played out, that single moment shows the story at heart, this could be when conflict is resolved or a dilemma is at stake and maybe a choice which has to be made by the protagonist.

Rule 5 (Tell a story)

Try to tell a compelling story. Something which the audience can identify and understand, short films are a little different to mainstream films, short films try to engage the audience emotionally. One idea is there is a Hero with a goal, an aim and a obstacle in the way.

Rule 7 (Beware of clichés)

There are various clichés that you could put into a film without realising, one of the obvious clichés is children represented as innocent, avoid stereotyping unless you have a fresh prospective on them, don’t shy away from small stories but it might mean you cannot show a story or a background summary of the character.