Post 6: What makes a good Short Film?

After a visit from film producer Becky Knapp we were required to make our own research into what she discussed with us and also further reading into scripts. After giving us two scripts we had to watch the short films and see if our thoughts from the script was anything like the actual film. Further independent study was also required and further reading. All of the research is below.

When Becky came in to talk to our group about short films she gave out two scripts from her productions. Before we watched her short films we read the script for the film. The idea behind this was to get an image in our head about what we think the short film will look like on screen. We looked at a total of three scripts, reading one script at a time then viewing the content. The two films we looked at were, Donna and Does God Play Football.

The first script we viewed was for the short film Donna. When i first read the script it did not draw my attention. This was because it was plain boring. The lack of dialogue stopped me from imaging any of the characters. After reading thorough the script we viewed the image. It was totally different to the first image i had in my head. This was because i felt the script was difficult to keep with as it was quite dull and dragged on. However i felt the short film as a moving image was well presented with a exceptional location, characters etc. I would say the film not not appeal to me. This is because i found it tedious, however accept the fact producers spent a lot of time producing and filming.

The second script we read was for the short film Does God Play Football. The film is about a seven year old boy without a father but fills the gap by believing in Jesus. In comparison to Donna i found this script more interesting and didn't drift off during reading. I feel the increased use of dialogue to Donna helped create an image of what the film would look like. However like Donna the image in my head was nothing like the image on screen when watching the film. I believe this leads back to Post 2 with the whole idea of creativity, meaning we all picture these scripts differently in our minds. My views on the film were much better than Donna, i feel DGPF was more appealing to me and interesting. However i did feel every scene was dark which did put me off the short film.



Reading these scripts will help me when i come to write my own. I have come to the conclusion that my script will have more dialogue than description. This is because i found Donna tedious to read as it did not draw my attention. From reading these scripts i have also found out that the title to my short film will be one of the biggest factors to weather it is a success or not. The title is the fist element you see when considering to watch a film or not. I feel Donna did not draw my attention however believe Does God Play Football was a noticeable title.

After the lesson we were set some independent study to do some further reading on how to make a good short film script. I read the link on the KLS Media Department blog on 'how to write a good short film script'
The Sunday Times - How to write a good short film script

On the blog was also an example of a example script
Sample script

After reading through the links I felt in a lot better state to finally write up my script. If I have taken anything from this research it is to make sure the punch-line can be easily seen. As the title states the short films are not long so it is essential to get your point to the audience. Looking at the sample script has helped me realise how I need to set out my layout. I will use this information when it comes to drawing up my final script.