I want to write my own short film, need help getting started
4 replies, posted
I have recently had a huge urge to write a short film, preferably a drama of sorts. My problem is my location kind of sucks, I'm stuck in NE Florida (No hills, mountains, decent city scenes, ANYTHING). Also, I want to write a compelling story, and I'd like to have a really nice "twist" at the end, but due to my limited resources and non-existent budget, I'm stumped with finding a suitable plot line and making sure I plan out the movie to the best of my abilities.
I've never attempted to do this before, but I figure that I'll start small, and make a very short film with the rough details in it. Afterwards, if it shows any promise, add to it and keep adding to it until I get something worthwhile.
Any books or resources that would help with proper plotting techniques and developing emotionally grasping characters? I always love the movies where I actually feel for the character.
[editline]09:12PM[/editline]
When making the foundation for my movie, should I write the characters, the story, the title or tagline first? I don't know if I should confine myself by writing the tagline or the title before I write the movie, even though it would help narrow it down a bit.
If I were you, I'd try and think of some interesting characters first. Give them a good personality and some depth so they'll be likable. Then think of a nice interesting plot, and try to avoid gaping plotholes. Because it's a drama think of a plot that will cause some clashes in the personalities of the characters. The main conflict can be very dramatic or amusing depending on the tone. Title and tagline isn't to important. Just try to avoid making it sound cliche as hell.
Or you can just have it really mysterious and pretentious and have it in black and white with random footage of stuff and you can have really deep symbols and stuff sort of like this.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OY0FvhypaY[/media]
I hope this helps you but it probably didn't at all.
Actually it did help a bit. I want my main character to have a strong pull on the audience. Doing some random brainstorming, I was thinking that I could start off with a final scene of the movie (similar to The Outsiders, even Forrest Gump, where he's sitting on the bench and the whole story catches up to current time and the last few minutes go on from there). Anyways, I don't know if it would be really cliche, but have a whole bunch of symbolic stuff in the first scene that nobody could really recognize at first glance, but develops as the movie continues. Still thinking of a decent plot.
I really liked how water was a recurring theme in Shutter Island, the first thing starts talking about is water, and it's dramatically ironic later in the film. Something like that. I'm being VERY broad, I know.
A twist you say? Make it that the main character has multiple personality disorder and was also the significant other character in the movie. That's pretty original :v:
I think you should come up with a basic story and then make the characters and then the story, and then finally the title and the tagline
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