The Secret Sauce for Writing Short Films

"Hm, pineapple. You ever killed a man?" Damn that is some heavy stuff man, I'm hooked. I don't know how you do it.

Athens Country Courthouse??? You a bobcat??

It took me a while to learn that like most people and I can't decide if would have been better for it watching this first and going a different way or learning to condense my writing over time has helped me understand pacing and storytelling...

what did I click on

just watch Fried Studio

My man just gave a us a free script to an epic short film

Hell yeah midwest rocks

omg thats the guy from creep

Did anyone else not see the "Don't " in the thumbnail and thought it just said "Overthink"

You know what? You're honest, funny and you've helped me with the pineapple part! Thanks man!

“I made two short films in college and I’m not gonna link them”

Challenge accepted

why are you there dawg

"nah im tryna die " lmaooo took me out

i have so much to learn. I'm in film school and I've written and directed one short film so far. i found your page just today and i've been watching your videos all day. i wish i found it years ago. it's almost overwhelming (all the Information I’m trying to absorb) but i won’t quit and i thank you for putting out all this wisdom. I feel super confident that this will help mold me into the director and writer i aspire to be.

Does 45 minutes count as a short film? Because a lot of this advice would not apply if it does.

"And the church bells go 'din don din duuuun...'"
As someone in Lansing MI, I know exactly what you mean.

I appreciate the Midwest shoutout 🙏

No whiplash mention?

athens, ohio mentioned. midwest film gang

Yeah, show that shit (Duplas) at Cannes right now and it wouldn't fly! Same for any "great director's film". Now it has to be more deep, more nuance, more more

Holy shit I have done this for two damn years and if either of my teachers took the 6 minutes to explain this I would be an infinitely better filmmaker

Tarantino wanna be syndrome

Anyone else want to make a short film soooo bad but build SUCH A HIGH standard for yourself that it has to be SOOO GOOD, CHANGE SOMEONE'S LIFE, INSPIRE FUTURE GENERATIONS that you just don't make anything because of your crippling fear of failure? Any advice?

So smart, this is going to help a lot of filmmakers! Thanks for making it!

This is so helpful and true!! I relate sm

title does not lie, I neede this video years ago but im happy ive got it now realy helped with an animation im working on

Sick thumbnail

Having spent a few years in Ohio I can agree that midwest vibes do hit different.

i think a good example of what yr talking about would be like the opening to the cube where its just some random guy chucking a boot into a room checking for traps then he gets cut into lil cubes its short in one spot gets across pretty much the whole films idea in like 5 minutes

OVER DON'T THINK ???

Everyone, this is not the objective right way to make short films. There are no answers. And no one else can tell you how to make your art, you just have to instinctually do it.
The approach to short films outlined here is very safe, and less likely to fail… but filmmaking is war. It is not easy, and you can’t be afraid to fail. To me personally (and my view on this isn’t an objective truth either), if an idea’s not risky, if it doesn’t scare you, and if there isn’t a risk of failure breathing down your neck, what’s the point? As a young filmmaker, I’d rather fail at making the ambitious movie I want to make, than succeed at making the film that is safe.
Your first short films are not going to be your masterpiece, so lean into that. Be experimental, allow yourself to potentially fail. This guy went through that process and clearly learned a lot himself.
If you’re lucky enough to progress in the industry, you will be pushed to make safe bets, and more restrictions will come into play. This is your chance, right now, to be fully free and make exactly what you want to make.
Don’t listen to anyone else.
Just do it.

Dude, perfect. Does anyone else give more on the subject of making stories about one thing? I find it so hard to stop myself from adding stuff.

Short films that try to be compressed feature films are a pet peeve of mine

Remember that failure is inevitable, but don't ever let your lack of talent make you give up, or keep you from being successful,

Hmmm, but what did the pineapple _represent_?

Me reading the thumbnail : “Over Don’t Think” that’s what I needed all along

My first big film effort was a 50 minute ninja epic. I definitely would have learned more making 50 one minute ninja movies.

vibey

Great vid, that outro song is cool too I wonder what the song name is

Counter example : "Paris Je t'aime - Faubourg Saint Denis"

Final Space's orignal pilot episode was exactly that. a short film.
a 7-8 minute essence of the main character nd it was oh so good!

In film school we had a project that was to make a 1 minute short, with 1 character in 1 location. You have to start and end on the same shot. But the challenge is to change the context/meaning of that shot in 1 minute. It was incredibly creative.

I've definitely been trying to take this advice for my films. In 2022, I wrote a 76 page script for this monstrous choose your own adventure "short film" and while I am proud of the final product, it's definitely inconsistent in its quality. I've done 3 short films since then, all of which feature a single location between 2 characters, and I think they're a lot better. However, I've now found myself in a position where I have these massive, high-concept ideas and I'm seeing my peers tackle their own monstrously huge ideas to varying success, and I'm really antsy about making a film that has this spawling narrative with 5+ fleshed-out characters, but I know that it's probably not a good idea. But since I don't have the budget or the studio support to make a feature, I'm stuck between (A: play it safe and make a shorter, more condensed film that will probably be pretty good, but I'm not super excited about the idea) or (B: take a huge risk on an idea that I'm passionate about but basically throw every piece of advice I've ever been given about short films out the window)

I'm so glad that I found you