Trying my hand at this! After submitting my baby for judgement in a script contest(my tv pilot script)—sounds like a dystopian plot—I have to work on anther project or loose my sanity waiting. Anyway, aside from obvious length differences, do shorter films differ from regular in other ways? what is the ideal length of a short script? Thank you in advance for help!
Screenwriting : Short Film Scripts? by Patricia Stepp
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Short scripts have less characters, less locations, and lower budgets, @Patricia Stepp. And a short script usually only has one storyline (the main story). The ideal length is 5-8 pages.
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Patricia Stepp all you have to do is think in terms of minutes…
One page of a screenplay is one minute as an approximation. That is according to the standards of continuity and script supervision.
Eight minutes. Eight pages. Now just go out there and take a look at some short films that inspire you see how long they are. Write down some notes about them. Then decide how long do you wanna go? If you reduce your short film, 1-2 locations. You keep your budget down plus you provide yourself to focus on the story and use their location creatively.
The movie Saw had a one location Film, and it turned over quite a bit of money. The ideal length would be based on film festival requirements, or to your desire.
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Not sure if there is an ideal length, but if you have a short film of 8 minutes and one of 15 minutes, same quality, the festival will pick the shorter one; that gives them room to program one extra film.
With Oscar films it's a bit different.
From the year 2000 up- only four films under 20 minutes, non under 10 minutes. In whatever way, the reason has to do with 'story'.
Conclusion:
Some really good films tent to be longer. Film festivals kill to get them. But if the quality is only a bit less, you won't get your 20(+) film in any serious festival.
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Good luck on the submission. Hope you can get used to waiting it out. That is something you just have to put up with and write, write, write to keep your creative process flowing.
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A short can be anywhere from 5 to 40 minutes, but somewhere around 8-12 minutes seems to be the sweet spot, for various reasons.
I have written a pile of them, most of them really bad :D It is a tricky format. You need to pack a fully-fledged story into a very short space. Shorts can take some liberties and be more poetic than a feature, but should still make sense (in my view anyway).
Lastly, most shorts have some sort of twist at the end. The format seems to beg for it.
After writing the pile, I currently have two that I really like and each has a director on board. Now we just need some money :)
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I have been thinking about writing a short script as well. I think it's something to do when I am experiencing writer's block on any other projects. It will keep my creative juices flowing.
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I recommend sending your script out to multiple contests at once because all of them judge differently. While you wait you should continue on another script. That way you're not just letting strangers decide your fate
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Shorts are a great way to build creatively - gets you experience. Writers, directors, actors, DPs, editors can all gain experience in multiple genres and grow. Finance them yourself, call in all your favors, build a tribe and work on each others shorts for free. Then use your shorts as your calling cards/biz card to get into places, or making an indie film.