- FM.qxd PM Page vii. - viii Writing the Short Film. - FM.qxd PM Page viii. - 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.. - FM.qxd PM Page ix. - FM.qxd PM Page x. - For our purposes, we consider a 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 and, in addition, are much less likely to be eligible for festivals or suitable to be shown as “portfolio” work.. - Although our main focus is on the short narrative film, we intend to demonstrate the ways in which each short form has borrowed freely from the others. - It is important that less-experienced screenwriters realize that, even when the scripting of a narrative, documentary, or experimental film proceeds in an informal way—using improvisation, for example—the film itself still needs a purpose and shape to make a coherent whole. - THE EVOLUTION OF THE SHORT FILM. - Although feature film eventually became the predominant form, comedy shorts, from Mack Sennett to the Bowery Boys, were produced until the suc- cess of television in the 1950s. - Intro.qxd PM Page 1. - 2 Writing the Short Film. - One of the most famous short films ever made was both a response to the conventions of narrative film in the ‘20s and an experiment influenced by ideas being explored in the visual arts (surrealism) and in the particulars of Spanish Catholic theology.. - No other short film still succeeds in shock- ing and confusing audiences as does the Buñuel-Dalí collaboration, and no other film has shown such shocking individual images paired with so little concern for overall meaning.. - remains an experiment in form rather than a case study for scripting the suc- cessful short film. - Other developments in the short film coalesced around the documentary work of John Grierson and his colleagues Basil Wright and Edgar Ansty at the Empire Marketing Board in England, and around the work of Pare Lorentz and Willard Van Dyke in the United States. - The films these film- makers produced were issue-driven, encouraging government intervention in the economy in the United States or promoting the benefits of government policy in the United Kingdom. - Yet another offshoot of the short film, this time from the commercial stu- dio of Walt Disney, was the animated short, intended to be shown with fea- ture films in theaters. - The character’s struggle to achieve his or her goal made up the story of the film. - They were very successful, and their pattern of narrative plotting and development of char- acter set the tone and pace for an even shorter film form—the commercial.. - Intro.qxd PM Page 2. - based on the pattern established in the animated shorts, which used estab- lished narrative forms—the tale, the fable, the journey—to convey, and at times to frame, the narrative. - By 1960, filmmakers in Europe had begun to use the short film as a means of entry into the production of longer films. - Only 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 Stone, Martin Scorsese, Chris Columbus, M. - While it is true that there are filmmakers in the experimental and docu- mentary area who continue to work in the short form, more and more film- makers 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 produced in the educational corporate sectors, they are far fewer than in the past.. - In Europe, however, the short film remains a viable form of expression, one supported in large part by cultural ministries. - Internationally, film schools have provided continuing support for the short film. - All of these festivals are related to the CILECT organization and focus on the work of students in member schools.. - Intro.qxd PM Page 3
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