Writing the Short Film (3rd ed)
By Pat Cooper & Ken Dancyger

'For our purposes we consider the short film to be one of 30 minutes or less, as films longer than that usually need a secondary or minor plot-line to sustain audience interest...'

Use Chaplin's The Tramp as a good example of the short film narrative.



The Un Chien Andalou route of short filmmaking via Maya Deren & Stan Brakhage is not suggested as a model to follow, given the lack of shape associated with these films. (The avant garde)

Conventions:

1. Restrict to 3-4 characters
2. Use of metaphor to help tell the story. Linkage to literary forms like short-story, the poem, the photograph and the one act play.

The editor Rust Hills suggests that 'the story will unfold around a choice that presents itself to the character, who never returns to his or her former state. Closure is attained by virtue of making or avoiding that choice.

The 1:2:1 feature length format not really suitable for short film.
(30mins Act 1, 60 mins Act 2 and 30mins Act 3)