Mark Davidson. The Writer.

Opinions are like assholes. Everybody’s got one, and they’re rarely pleasant.

So these are MY opinions on what makes a good short screenplay.

1) Get in and out.

Trust that a director can fill in some of the blanks.  This is always dangerous (someone else interpreting your intentions) because they might do it entirely bass-ackwords. But rest easy knowing that, no matter WHAT you do, it’s not really going to be yours unless you exec produce and/or direct yourself.

2) Leave them wanting more.

If your short leaves people with GOOD questions, that’s OK. That’s the nature of the short. GOOD questions come from people that are really thinking of the world — they’ve engaged. BINGO!

BAD questions come from (among other things…) unclear motivation and unclear description: I don’t understand why this happened? There’s no way a bird can pick up a truck!

Interestingly enough, a bird CAN pick up a truck. Just like a house can float away on balloons.

The difference is engagement.  If your reader is engaged in your world (and that’s entirely on YOU) than anything at all can happen and be completely plausible within your world.

3) Almost more important than character arc is to leave them wanting more.

There are certain concessions in shorts. Obviously, it’s tough to do EVERYTHING in 5 or 10 pages — craft compelling characters moving through intricate, well-crafted plots — but you want to leave a good impression. What happens next!?

4) Don’t be pretentious, that’s for directors and cinematographers. MOST shorts are simply calling cards for above-the-line folks.

4b) Try to get a producer credit. It never hurts to ask. Since (usually) there isn’t much money in shorts, credit is easier to come by.

5) After you write the 5 or 10 page version, imagine the 90 page version.

6) Terse. Short. Visual. You have to be a near-master at space-management.

Want an exercise? Five pages, one location. Story has a beginning, middle, and an end, clear character progression, and a commercial hook.

Try it!

M A R K

You can take a look at my new short by clicking on TIME over there on the left side of the page.

I wrote it for a few reasons…

1. I ran out of non-encumbered shorts;
2. The topic was near-and-dear to my heart;
3. I wanted to do a proof-of-concept for a feature.

I like it, because there’s a lot of bang for the buck. We cover a lot of ground in 13 pages. I can see the character going through an arc. It evokes emotion.

My main problem with it is tone. I mean, what is it? Drama? Dramedy? Moral tale? Twilight zone gotcha? Sci-fi?

I don’t know.

Anyway, with the usual pain of birth, it’s done. For now.

M A R K

Overview of Star Wars budget from 1977 …

Interesting.

M A R K

You have to have thick skin. I mean, really thick. Pumpkin pie thick.

You’ll want to please everyone, even as people contradict themselves, flip-flop, are ambiguous, have different or changing goals.

That’s just the way it is.

The question, though, is how do you filter all of the information, get to the core of the story, and keep the process moving forward — and NOT GET FIRED.

In fact, that’s GOAL #1 — DON’T GET FIRED.

… Unless you’re so principled, so (obviously) wealthy, that you can put your work above all others. Then, by all means, feel free to shut everyone else out and make your movie.

But assuming that the idea is that this is work, that other people ultimately write the checks and, almost by definition, the guy writing the check is the boss, then you need to listen and respond appropriately.

Keep in mind that the boss wants to look good. So if he / she has a bone-headed idea, you need to let them know that as well. And still not get fired.

Recently, I’ve had feedback that is almost diametrically opposed from two groups I am trying to please.  Basically, one group says “shorter” and one group says “longer.” My job was to give BOTH what they want.

Remember — I have artistic goals as well but, at the end of the day, my art be damned, I have to give the boss what he or she wants (unless I want months of work to sit on a trunk of unproduced scripts).

As you work through those issues, keep in mind that the common goal is to sell the script and get paid (and not get fired, along the way).

So be the peace-maker. Take the time to listen. To mediate. Use the old sales tactic of “So if I can… will you…” to help nail them down.  Remember, they’re counting on YOU to translate their notes to a screenplay.  It’s not THEIR job to fix it, and it’s also not THEIR job to tell you exactly what’s wrong.

Consider that (the ability to translate their notes…) the art part of the process.

Good luck!

Have thick skin!

And don’t get fired!

M A R K

Roger Ebert on why movie revenue is dropping…

5. Competition from other forms of delivery. Movies streaming over the internet are no longer a sci-fi fantasy. TV screens are growing larger and cheaper. Consumers are finding devices that easily play internet movies through TV sets. Netflix alone accounts for 30% of all internet traffic in the evening. That represents millions of moviegoers. They’re simply not in a theater. This could be seen as an argument about why newspapers and their readers need movie critics more than ever; the number of choices can be baffling.

Read the whole article HERE.

Awesome.