WRITING THE SHORT FILM Third Edition FM.qxd 9/27/04 6:12 PM Page i FM.qxd 9/27/04 6:12 PM Page ii WRITING THE SHORT FILM Third Edition Pat Cooper and Ken Dancyger Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON NEW YORK • OXFORD • PARIS • SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO FM.qxd 9/27/04 6:12 PM Page iii Elsevier Focal Press 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, California 92101-4495, USA 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8RR, UK This book is printed on acid-free paper. Copyright © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com.uk. You may also complete your request on-line via the Elsevier home- page (http://elsevier.com), by selecting “Customer Support” and then “Obtaining Permissions.” Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Application submitted. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 0-240-80588-7 04 05 06 07 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Printed in the United States of America ϱ FM.qxd 9/27/04 6:12 PM Page iv To the memory of Richard Protovin, dear friend and colleague —P. C. For Gerald and Perry Charles, my brothers —K. D. FM.qxd 9/27/04 6:12 PM Page v FM.qxd 9/27/04 6:12 PM Page vi CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix INTRODUCTION 1 PART I Fundamentals: Breaking Ground 7 Chapter 1 STORYTELLING IN GENERAL 9 Chapter 2 TELLING A STORY IN IMAGES 17 Chapter 3 USING SOUND TO TELL THE STORY 29 Chapter 4 DISCOVERING AND EXPLORING A MAIN 37 CHARACTER Chapter 5 TELLING THE DRAMATIC STORY 47 Chapter 6 WRITING AN ORIGINAL SHORT SCREENPLAY 65 Chapter 7 ON REVISION: SUBSTANCE AND STYLE 79 PART II Moving Forward: Writing Strategies 87 Chapter 8 THE NEED FOR STORYTELLING 89 Chapter 9 VISUALIZATION STRATEGIES 101 Chapter 10 DRAMATIC STRATEGIES 113 Chapter 11 CHARACTERIZATION STRATEGIES 127 Chapter 12 MORE ON DIALOGUE STRATEGIES 141 vii FM.qxd 9/27/04 6:12 PM Page vii PART III Genres: Forming the Story 151 Chapter 13 THE MELODRAMA 153 Chapter 14 THE DOCUDRAMA 171 Chapter 15 THE HYPERDRAMA 187 Chapter 16 THE EXPERIMENTAL NARRATIVE 205 PART IV New Directions 221 Chapter 17 THE OPPORTUNITY FOR RENEWAL 223 APPENDIX A Short Short Screenplays 233 Vincent, by Gert Embrechts 235 Sob Story, by Matthew E. Goldenberg and Michael Slavens 241 Pigeon, by Anthony Green 249 APPENDIX B Short Screenplays 257 Another Story, by Lisa Wood Shapiro 259 The Lady in Waiting, by Christian Taylor 270 Sleeping Beauties, by Karyn Kusama 297 The Wounding, by Susan Emerling 308 Dead Letters Don’t Die, by Anais Granofsky and Michael Swanhaus 323 INDEX 345 viii Writing the Short Film FM.qxd 9/27/04 6:12 PM Page viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PAT COOPER I would like to thank Ken Dancyger for his provocative ideas, easy wit, and exemplary patience throughout our partnership on this project. He is a most gracious collabora- tor and a valued friend. I would also like to thank Mary Carlson for her perceptive comments on the first draft. KEN DANCYGER The notion of writing a book about scripting short films began with Pat Cooper. I have to thank her for her enthu- siasm, her insights, and her commitment to students. And I thank her for bringing me into this project. She is a great friend and collaborator. At New York University, I’d like to thank Christina Rote and Delliah Bond, who assisted me in the preparation of the manuscript. Finally, I’d like to thank my wife, Ida, for her intelligent critiques of the manuscript at all phases. On this latest edition we would like to thank our new scriptwriters—Gert Embrechts, Matthew Goldenberg, Michael Slavens, and Anthony Green—for allowing us to include their screenplays. We would also like to thank Elinor Actipis at Focal Press and Trevor MacDougall at Kolam, Inc. for their excellent and thorough edit. ix FM.qxd 9/27/04 6:12 PM Page ix [...]... McLaren stayed with the short films; all the others moved on to distinguished careers as international filmmakers and continued their work in the long form This transition from short film to feature also seems to be the pattern for students in American film departments Since the 1960s, these schools have produced distinguished alumni who began their work in the short form and then moved to the long: Oliver... often deployed in the long film The freedom of short film relative to long lies in the possibilities of using metaphor and other literary devices to tell the story—a luxury not available in the commercially driven, realism-oriented long film Indeed, one of our major points about the short film is its linkage to literary forms such as the short story, the poem, the photograph, and the one-act play Rust... Wardrobe, the main characters emerge from the sea with their wardrobe, like two children with an unwieldy suitcase, onto a 24 Writing the Short Film wonderfully clean and empty beach The scene is shot and cut in a leisurely way, and the young men behave as though they had all the time in the world But as soon as they begin their journey through the streets and back alleys of the city beyond the beach, the. .. forms are used, such as the gangster film or film noir Are the characteristics of the short film variations of those of the long film? In most cases, no It is true that the two forms rely on visual action for exposition and characterization, as well as on the illusion of reality inherent in the use of film as a visual medium Beyond these two characteristics, however, the short film proceeds in both a... motivated these filmmakers, and their films were often labeled propaganda Yet another offshoot of the short film, this time from the commercial studio of Walt Disney, was the animated short, intended to be shown with feature films in theaters These 5- to 8-minute films had a protagonist (often a mouse, a rabbit, or a wolf) with a strongly defined character and a particular goal The story would unfold when the. .. concerned with writing the long film Most recent books have focused on structure and have moved away from the Aristotelian concerns of their predecessors Consequently, the relevance of these books to the writing of the short film posits an analogy between the structure of the short film and that of the long, in essence a three-act structure This relationship between short and long film, both in proportion... gesture The transformation of one necklace into the other was effected by 20 Writing the Short Film splicing the first half of the first shot onto the second half of the second one at the instant Felicie touches the jeweled necklace Even today’s audiences, sophisticated in the ways of special effects, give a gasp of delighted surprise at the results: Cocteau indeed “proves” to us the reality of the world... in the short form, more and more filmmakers in these areas are moving to the long form as well (Bruce Elder or Su Friedrich in the experimental film genre, and the work of Ross McKelwee and Barbara Kopple in the documentary, for example) The short, at least in North America, is more and more an economic necessity for the student filmmaker and the novice professional, and while there are still short films... film, if we use the long-form act proportion or 6 Writing the Short Film three-act structure, we find that both Act I and Act II are very short, because the setting up of the story (Act I) must be fast Without the characterization and relationships of Act II, the conventional conflicts of the long-form Act II also move quickly, which leaves the largest proportion of the short film for the character to... many short films, a one- or two-act structure might be a more productive writing device The upshot is that much of what has been written about screenwriting in general is not very helpful for the writing of short films THE SHAPE OF THIS BOOK We have structured this book into four sections, the first dealing with the underlying fundamental characteristics of the short screenplay; the second moving the . Consequently, the relevance of these books to the writing of the short film posits an analogy between the structure of the short film and that of the long,. as the gangster film or film noir. Are the characteristics of the short film variations of those of the long film? In most cases, no. It is true that the