The process behind creating a short film- what has worked before and new formats

 Marking the start of a long thought process such as the creation of a creative piece is usually become meddled up in my brain, with lines of thought coming and going, no clear path to where they start or finish. What has worked best in the past to narrow down my constant brainstorming is to put ideas on paper and see if they continue to excite me. But, I have two more organized ways of choosing, one that I learned during the summer and a new one more recently

The one that I learned first goes as follows:

Step 1: Come up with 5 ideas

This exercise leads my mind wonder around different ideas, but still having more of a structure that simply writing them down. It details to have a short synopsis, describe the protagonist’s goal and the antagonist, the force between the protagonist and its goal. These ideas had to be able to be seen as shorts as well, so many long term stories that I may have had were discarded firsthand, helping me adapt and coming up with stories that will fit into these parameters.

Step 2: Writing a logline, a sentence for beginning, middle and end, expand from those

While it may see counterproductive to write a one or two-sentence description of your initial idea, it can help to come to what the core of the story is about, as well as noting what is the most important aspect of it. Then, by doing a simple description of each step of the three-act structure, serves the same motive, expanding from it and explaining why each choice is necessary and serves a purpose for the stories’ development and characters. It can help to see, for the future screenwriting, how the story may move and act accordingly to this pace.

Step 3: Answer questions as your protagonists

It is a very cathartic experience to answer questions as your character, similar to a character sheet, but more personal. While of these details will probably not end up playing an important role in a short
story, it is interesting to bring the character more depth and understand how they would react to the situations that they are being put in. The Basics may seen to include information that is not relevant in a normal day, but you can decide which will or not, having to separate yourself from your character, deciding how similar or not to you they are.

Step 4: Beat Sheet and Structure:

Similar to earlier steps, it is the closest it will come into actually writing the first draft, with all of the events neatly organized and classified into their respective acts. It is the simple events, not much with detail. You can choose what to include or not, helpful for those who tend to get writer’s block and do not how to continue, outlining it first.

From this point, the story can write itself, not literally, but only had to be formatted into the chosen form. While this structure has helped me in the past, the other new type of creating this film, without much strict parameters, less tedious and helpful if you are lacking ideas is:

Step 1: Theme

From the preexisting themes, it is easier to see how many stories develop from these, even though it may appear they are original. It is not to copy themes, it is to get one and be able to see how they are in the story overall. Can be more than one, to help idea how they interrelate.

Step 2: Premise

It is the moral or the advice that you want the audience to take after they finish with the story. It can help to start to envision how you would want to portray your theme, with the different technical elements. Many themes go well with a certain premise, but a unique combinations of them can help to adapt and become more creative.

Step 3: Characters

By creating the characters to fit into the main story, not vice versa, helps to see which types of individuals or creatures are able to personify the idea. As well as creating form archetypes, helping bring more plots into the story.

Step 4: The Genre

The genre of each film comes with certain codes and conventions, the ideas and images that make people be able to identify the genre easily. It groups similar films together, but can help focus in which direction you would take the story a premise of “life not fair” in a comedy would develop and feel different than the same premise in the drama genre.

While continuing form the main idea you have to create a short film would still need more development than this. By analyzing and listing the different methods, I will probably use a combination of the two, using the last described as the beginning of the process and the first as getting ready to jump into scriptwriting. At the moment, I have ideas already develop, having two, with a few changes, from my initial brainstorming. With the following post, I hope to be able to have a definite answer.

Citations:

Gregory, D.W. “99 Questions to Ask Your Character - Dramatics Magazine.” Dramatics Magazine Online, 17 Apr. 2019, dramatics.org/99-questions-to-ask-your-character/.

Jordan, et al. “How to Choose Good Themes for Stories: 5 Tips.” Now Novel, 15 May 2017, www.nownovel.com/blog/choosing-themes-for-stories/.