A good short film tells its story cleanly and concisely. It clearly draws its characters and conflicts, and lets them play out in a way that feels resonant, but unrushed.
In features, there’s room to breathe and establish a fleshed-out setting, characters and backstory. Those luxuries aren’t afforded in the world of short films. The storytelling needs to be extremely economical and succinct. Keep an eye out to make sure your story has a beginning, middle and end, but remember that your pacing will be much faster as the film’s storytelling is much more truncated.
A good short film story is found the way any good story (whether that be for a film, book, TV series or play) is found – by identifying an idea that resonates with an audience and, just as importantly, you. There are no good topics or bad topics when it comes to short films, only impactful stories and boring stories. Make sure you have an authentic passion for your idea, and that passion will shine through.
So let’s take a deeper dive into coming up with ideas that connect with an audience…