:: How to Write a TV Pilot
:: 5 Ways To Write A Script Scene Like You’re Trying Your Shoelaces
:: The Secrets of How to Write Short
:: Screenplay Review – Snowpiercer
:: The Secret To Great Storytelling
:: Amateur Friday – The Twin
:: TV Pilot – Wayward Pines

Script Perfection

:: 10 Screenwriting Tips from Glengarry Glen Ross
:: Thoughts From a Script Reader
:: Italics – Yes or No?
:: Quote of the Day: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Pitching & Selling

:: Why Your Script Doesn’t Sell
:: Universal Pictures Launches Emerging Writers Fellowship
:: Fun with Numbers: Moneyball with Movies

Best of the Rest

:: Interview: Jeffrey Lieber
:: Interview: Will Simmons — Part 1
:: Tron Director Joseph Kosinski Tipped for Twilight Zone Remake
:: MysteryExec Calls Out Screenwriters
_______________________________

With thanks to Jamie Campbell.

Enjoy!

Karel

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au

:: How to Write a Screenplay in 9 (Not So Easy) Steps
:: Creating a Screenplay Narrative in the Absolute Present Tense
:: Scene Writing from A to Z to A-List Actor
:: Great Scene – Fight Club
:: Evil Dead (2013) Screenplay Review
:: Screenplay Review – Oblivion
:: 10 Screenwriting Lessons You Can Learn From Forrest Gump
:: Amateur Friday Screenplay Review
:: A Story Idea Each Day For a Month

Script Perfection

:: Discovery of a Character
:: Scriptnotes Podcast Transcript Ep 82
:: Scriptnotes Podcast Ep 83
:: Screenwriting Resources
:: Screenwriting Tip #1214
:: Conquering Self-Doubt, Anxiety, Procrastination, Fear + Perfection
:: The Smoking Gun, Part 1
:: 10 Most Expensive Screenplays Ever
:: Long-Term Motivation for Building Your Screenwriting Career
:: This Thing I’m Doing to Stay Focused
:: 50 Best TV Dramas of All Time

Pitching & Selling

:: Don’t Write a Drama Spec
:: Why You Should Write a Short Film Screenplay
:: Write, Direct, Repeat: Get Set
:: David Guggenheim Black List 2010-12
:: David Guggenheim Black List 2012 – Interview

Best of the Rest

:: Can Bad Visual Effects Ruin a Film Like ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’?
:: Ashleigh Powell – Interview – Black List 2012 – Part 6
:: Mel Gibson Announces Passion of the Christ Sequel: ‘Easter’
:: Mercifully Short Review: Warm Bodies
:: The Loneliness Epidemic
:: Ken Levine: I Will Be Taking Over HBO’s ‘GIRLS’
:: Jurassic Park 3D: Revisited
:: Justin Long in Funny or Die’s ‘iSteve’ Biopic Teaser Trailer
:: Jules Verne Brings Hollywood Down Under
:: ‘Trance’: Danny Boyle Talks Time-Shifting Art Heist Thriller
:: Marvel’s Full Phase Two Preview for Thor, Ant-Man, Guardians
:: Nicolas Winding Refn ‘Only God Forgives’ trailer
:: Mesmerizing IMAX Featurette for ‘Oblivion’
:: Video Interview – The Place Beyond the Pines
:: Can Ethan Hawke Survive Criminal Christmas in ‘The Purge’ Trailer?
:: Chuck Norris Deployed to Guam
:: RIP: Roger Ebert dies at age 70
_______________________________

With thanks to Jamie Campbell.

Enjoy!

Karel

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au

by Marie Setiawan

This week I was invited to the screening of a feature that I had the privilege of being a part of from its very foundations. Looking back at its long and arduous journey in the making, I thought back to when I started to walk in the footsteps of a screenwriter. It all began in a filmmaking workshop held by Information and Cultural Exchange in 2010 where I was introduced to Billy Marshall Stoneking – our mentor in screenwriting – and seven budding filmmakers (whether we were writers or directors). From the very get-go, we’ve established our little writer’s circle and collaboration began to create seven different short films, all from different points-of-view, different walks of life, and creative differences. This was my first collaborative experience, where building the foundations of your story, plot, and characters became both rewarding and difficult.

The Art of Collaborating and its Rewards (or Tribulations)

Many writers keep their babies close to their heart, but only few would keep it away from the feedback it deserves. Why deny the potential of your story? Following Billy’s thought on screenwriting, your story becomes a part of you – almost a treasure. And with that comes a subconscious thought (or an awareness) to protect it and shield it from the eyes of others. Personally, collaboration opens you up to a number of opportunities to see how your story fares from another point-of-view. Personally, a lack of collaboration can be seen as a fear that another’s eyes would tear it apart and shred what work you’ve already put into it. Stories that need layers to shed eventually get placed on the shelf to collect dust, for those who can’t continue on. But the beauty of shedding these layers is bringing the story back down to its very core – the truth behind all the junk that shrouds it.

Working and sharing ideas with other fellow writers is a wonderful yet trying experience. The past few years stepping into screenwriting has taught me that. And with that, there are three advantages I’ve found that outweigh the criticism of others when it comes to storytelling and scriptwriting within a collaboration.

1. Reacting to the Read
Waiting for a fellow writer while they read your script? Watch them every now and then to find any initial reactions they may have while they are reading. I’ve found it easier to discover (or roughly estimate) at what points of my story they had the urge to crack a smile, pull a frown, or even chuckle (whether for good or bad). At first, I felt self-conscious of what others thought of any of my creative choices. Now I embrace the thought that I was able to move them in one way or another.

2. Listening to the Initial Thought
When any collaborator/writer/editor/family member gives feedback, it can be a daunting thing. Did they understand your story? Or are they still unsure as to what is going on? Their first thoughts to your story are the most important pieces of feedback you’d get from them. The initial thought and their first impressions tell you, as the writer, what they got from your story, making them your first point of contact as the audience. By listening and processing the first things that come out of their mouths, it can help you understand what aspects of your story they’ve gotten the most of – whether that is on a visual perspective, or a storytelling aspect.

3. Creating a Dialogue
After the read and the first load of feedback, creating and sharing thoughts between yourself and your “audience” at this stage can help create an understanding about your story. It isn’t all about enforcing your vision, but creating the bridge that can help make them understand your point-of-view. I’ll admit there had been times where I would try to make others understand where my stories came from – not to the greatest extent either. It’s all about sharing your thoughts and being open to receive feedback and their point-of-views as well.

These are just small things I’ve made clear to myself when I share, but it has helped me take that next step into screenwriting when I can freely let my stories go into another’s hands and not be paranoid about finding and discovering the core of my story – to shed away layers to find something new.

The Product of Collaboration – The Fruits of Labour

Now, almost a year later in the works (two years after the shorts had premiered), a feature appears. Due to the writer’s circle and collaborating with six others, we’ve all discovered a common theme that strings all of our films together into a cohesive piece. With that, the prospects of a feature built on the very foundations of these short films was a possibility. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but working with others, whether it is in the writing stages, the production stages, and even through to post, collaboration is key.

So, why elephants?

– Marie Setiawan

Marie Setiawan is a film graduate from the International Film School Sydney, as well as a UNSW Alumni with a BA degree in Media and Communications with Honours. Writing is her passion, but she also enjoys many things on the side such as reading, watching films, and is an avid gamer of sorts.

She also tweets for The Story Department with a small crew.

:: How To Write The Perfect Ending
:: Everything You Need to Know about Specs Part 1
:: Writing Dialogue Banter That Works
:: Great scene: Dr. Strange Love
:: The Difficulty of Short Film Writing
:: Creating Character and Characterization
:: Emotional Elements of Plot: Dramatic Action
:: V.O. Narration: The Shawshank Redemption
:: V.O: American Beauty
:: Building a Scene and ‘The Social Network’
:: Screenplay Review: Warm Bodies
:: Review of Un-Produced Hitchcock Script

Script Perfection

:: Why Some Movies Are So Badly Written
:: To Outline or Not to Outline — That Is the Question
:: Why Your First Ten Pages Count
:: The Fine Art of Editing and Rewriting
:: Writing a Scene in 11 Steps
:: Be An Expert
:: It’s All About The Tinkering
:: 10 Screenwriting Lessons You Can Learn from The Avengers!
:: 6 Tips For Writing A (Money-Making) Script

Pitching & Selling

:: Film Festivals: Why Did My Film Not Get In?
:: Write a Pitch or Shoot a Pilot
:: Prognostication
:: February 2013 Pitch Sales Roundup
:: 2013 Best Picture Nominees by Return On Investment
:: Fill Your Cup

Best of the Rest

:: Room 237, A Doco About Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining
:: Writing the Academy Awards
:: 2013 Indie Spirit Award Winners: ‘Silver Linings Playbook’
:: Visual Effects Artists Protest Near Oscars
:: The Visual Effects Community Sees Red in the Wake of Oscar Protest
:: Introvert – Aversion
:: Why Write for Kids?: The Real Wuestion Is… Why Not?
:: Interview with Seven Psychopaths’ Martin McDonagh
:: Boxing at the Movies
:: Mercifully Short Reviews: The Loneliest Planet
:: What Are You Going to Do for Yourself?
:: What is a Set Piece?
_______________________________

With thanks to Jamie Campbell and Brooke Trezise.

Enjoy!

Karel

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au

By Pauline Findlay

You try your luck at Sundance, they only received 7,000 submissions this year! You send off anyway telling yourself your genius will be seen amongst 7,000 cream floats.

Then a few months later you get the email; “We appreciate your genius but can’t programme your film this year.” They mustn’t have seen it!

Well I met the Sundance programmer and she assured us they watch every submission – even the one shot on a cat purring! You return to your festival spreadsheet. Where next?

Palm Springs should be at the top of your festival strategy.

Why you ask? It will teach you more in a week than film school does in years about the business. The industry panels alone are worth the entry and the expensive flight.

It will teach you more in a week than
film school does in years about the business.

Palm Springs ShortFest is a weeklong festival of short films. Yes shorts! I know, no feature films, movies stars or hot directors to dim your light. Just a bunch of emerging filmmakers, wanting to network their little hearts out and melt in 43C heat. Over 320 films were programmed this year. This makes your odds pretty good and let’s face it you need the odds in your favour. It is also incredibly well respected in the USA.

Industry people take it seriously and see it as a place to find new talent, (you!). This is hard to believe since Screen Australia recently took it off the list of credible festivals that are worthy of travel funding. I know they can’t cover every festival but Palm Springs also has a Film Market attached and this should be enough reason to have it on the list.

Industry people take it seriously and
see it as a place to find new talent, (you!).

Distribution for short films is becoming more viable with our insatiable appetite for all things short to view on our mobile devices. So getting some cash for your short allows you to make your next short film and not need to ask them for funding. Leaving space for the next up and coming short filmmakers.

Palm Springs is hands down the best experience of my film career to date. The festival is buzzing with filmmakers from all over the world dying to see their peers’ work. I’m quite sure if Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were making short films today Palm Springs would be where they would meet.

Palm Springs is hands down the best experience of my film career to date.

Oh, and if you think your film is a ‘thinking person’s’ film then you have the community of Palm Springs that are very well educated in all things film. Most are retired industry types from LA so you just might find a backer for your first feature. Throughout the Q&A’s (yes they want to know about your short) they ask questions you might expect from your filmmaking buddies, not the local punter.

Kathleen McInnis is the Queen Bee of the festival and she loves filmmakers, especially new filmmakers. Your genius has been discovered. Kathleen is a publicist for feature directors most of the year and knows how to program a diverse festival.

Most are retired industry types from LA so
you just might find a backer for your first feature.

Oh and she has friends in high places – the roll call looked something like this on the panels: journalists from Variety, Hollywood Reporter, LATimes, NYTimes; festival programmers from Sundance, Tribeca, Cleveland and Seattle. If I still haven’t convinced you that Palm Springs is where you should be then let me tell you what the Australian Consul-General in LA do for you. They throw a party and invite industry people, well-established directors and studio types to talk and mingle with you; you get the ins and outs of working in Australia and LA.

Journalists from Variety, Hollywood Reporter, LATimes, NYTimes; festival programmers from Sundance, Tribeca, Cleveland and Seattle.

It gets better: they create a DVD complication of all the Australian films. Why do they do with this I hear you ask? Well they only give a copy to the invited press and anyone they have connections with in the LA studios! We were the envy of every filmmaker at the festival.

So is Palm Springs now at the top of your list?

by Pauline Findlay

Pauline Findlay has written, directed and produced short films, documentaries, theatre plays and online web series. Trained as an actor in London, Pauline’s debut play Girls Talk played at the Soho Theatre in Covent Garden. In 2007 Pauline directed the first online documentary for the ‘Tropfest Super Short Series’. Pauline is a graduate of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Screenwriting and Producing and was nominated for a Monte Miller award by the Australian Writers Guild (AWG) for her short film ‘Liv’ in 2011 and for her feature script ‘Lola’ in 2012 Pauline. Pauline also tweets and blogs.

by Jamie Wynen

… a brooding, frustrated figure sitting at their desk, striking furiously at the keys of a typewriter before snatching the page out, crumpling it up and casting it into a nearby bin – already piled high with dozens of rejected first pages. If it’s shot and lit in noir style, the writer will probably take a slug of bourbon at this point.

The Lone Writer

Eager to replicate the success of Hunter S Thompson and Stephen King, this was my favoured writing style during uni. I wasted lots of paper, ink and sleep (and bourbon). As with the stereotype, I didn’t make much progress with writing my vision of the Great Australian Screenplay. Instead, I tended to lose my focus, dither uncontrollably, and give up.

This lack of output confused me – during high school, I wrote nearly every day. My bookcase was infested with battered notebooks, each fat and distended with smudged blue ink. I tended to start writing around nine or ten pm and continue late into the night, often putting down my pen at one or two am. This, coincidentally, set in motion an abysmal sleep cycle that would come to haunt me in adult life – where the expectation is that you’re already at work by 10am, not groggily crawling out of bed in desperate need of a cup of tea.

During high school, I wrote nearly every day.
My bookcase was infested with battered notebooks,
each fat and distended with smudged blue ink.

Along with an enforced change to my sleep habits, adulthood drastically lessened the time I devoted to writing, although not the time I spent thinking about stories. Ideas jotted in a notebook, once the seeds of a larger story or script, remained frozen in an embryonic state until they went stale. Despite calling myself a student of writing, the time I actually spent writing stories had atrophied to a fatal extent.

A new approach was needed.

Experiments in Collaboration

No matter how much the conversation meandered, it always came back to the story at hand.

The opportunity was dropped in my lap when I worked on a short film with a school friend. He eagerly told me about a TV show premise he had in mind. A few weeks later, we met at a café to sit down and see if we could write a pilot together.

I soon discovered a prodigious advantage to collaborative writing: time set aside for writing was actually spent writing.

A disclaimer: my natural attention span is that of a nine year old with ADHD experiencing a sugar rush at Disney Land. Added to which, my near-constant access to that wondrous Pez Dispenser of procrastination we call the Internet does my concentration no favours. I sometimes wonder how I manage to even clothe myself, let alone achieve anything.

But I discovered that by sitting down with a co-writer to discuss a story idea and its characters – and all the terrible things that I foresaw happening to them – the process of brainstorming, selecting, building and articulating a script was no longer a struggle against inertia. Instead, the process became more organic, conversational, and focused. No matter how much the conversation meandered, it always came back to the story at hand.

Internet does my concentration no favours. I sometimes wonder
how I manage to even clothe myself, let alone achieve anything.

I found that this allowed me to be more experimental – by suggesting more risky and original thoughts and gauging my writing partner’s response, I was able to entertain and discriminate between a much wider selection of ideas. If I were puzzling over it alone, I’d be wondering if it was clever, cliché, or just plain stupid.

I was also able to borrow from my partners’ life experiences – having lived completely different lives, I was thrilled at the discovery of common observations, and it was these shared conclusions that would become the underpinnings for theme and character.

Our TV series is steadily gaining momentum. We’ve written several thirty-minute scripts, built a story arc and series bible, and begun our third draft of the pilot script. My creative partnerships with other writers have produced another three short film scripts over the course of the last two months. By contrast, in the last six months I’ve written only two short film scripts alone.

Solo Writing

Importantly, collaboration hasn’t replaced my solo writing.

What of the solo approach? Other writers seem to reject the notion of sharing creative control. One told me that he can only work alone – preferring to have a monopoly over the dialogue between only himself and the page. For him, collaboration occurs later, when a completed first draft is ready to be critiqued. I don’t feel that this approach is invalid or wrong – on the contrary, I think the right approach is the one that helps you write a script.

Importantly, collaboration hasn’t replaced my own solo writing. Understanding the essence of the script, I’ve always found, is the hardest part. The success of writing doesn’t lie in how many pages I can pump out per day – instead, the key to my creative writing rests with my ability to conceptualise an entire world inside my head.

Understanding the essence of the script,
I’ve always found, is the hardest part.

The time spent writing with partners frequently involves actually typing out the scripts, but the true value lies in exploring what the story is really about, the building and layering of complex and interesting characters, and finding creative ways to bypass cliche.

Once this world has been built, explored and understood, it becomes liberatingly straightforward to put this world to the page on my own – during time I might have otherwise spent googling Advice Animal memes.

– Jamie Wynen

Jamie is a UTS Writing Graduate who took one look at the real world and went straight back to uni for a Masters, this time in Media Production. He has interests and experience across a number of fields, including writing, photography, cinematography, and Youtube connoisseur.

Jamie looks after the video content and writes guest articles for The Story Department. When everybody else has gone home for the night, Jamie will sit at Karel’s desk, put his feet up and pretend that he runs the place.

A few years ago I was asked to watch a student short film and give the writer professional feedback.

The film was smart, entertaining and had something to say. Yet I felt it wasn’t quite as emotionally powerful as it could have been.

I had a really hard time facing this… Why?

Because I had been hired to consult on the final draft.

Watching the result of your work on the screen is educational, fun and it boosts the ego. Except when it isn’t as strong as I had hoped.

But what exactly was wrong with it? I couldn’t tell. It had a clear hero, a clear goal and a strong climax and resolution.

Watching the result of your work on the screen is
educational, fun and
it boosts the ego.

The writer played the film to me during the break at a Hero’s Journey seminar. It was a fabulous day, great energy in the room, inspired people.Then I had an idea. I asked the writer if it would be OK to show the film to the other students and discuss if/how it applied the Hero’s Journey – or not.

That’s when the magic happened. The students were perfectly capable of finding the flaws in this short film based on what they had learned from me that morning.

One of the problems: the 2nd act started too quickly after the inciting incident. There was no ‘refusal’, so it seemed as if it was no big deal to the Hero.

Another issue: the clear potential for ‘threshold guardians’ was not used. The travel from A to B was without any obstacles where it could have easily been more dramatic.

All without increasing the production budget.

That’s when the magic happened.
The students were perfectly capable of finding the flaws.

I was perplexed when I realized I had worked with the writer to get the 3-Act Structure right.  For lack of time and budget, we didn’t go the extra mile of looking at the 12 journey stages.

At that time I still believed the Journey didn’t apply to short films. Boy, was I wrong.

Here was the clearest of evidence that short films can be significantly improved using the tools of mythical structure.

Even more striking was the fact that the students didn’t need my help to find the issues with the story. They had freshly assimilated the material and applied it immediately – right there.

Short films can be significantly improved
using the tools of mythical structure.

And the writer? He was delighted. He had just started a feature and saw what to do with that.

– Karel Segers

Karel Segers is a producer and script consultant who started in movies as a rights buyer for Europe’s largest pay TV group Canal+. Back then it was handy to speak 5 languages. Less so today in Australia.
Karel teaches, consults and lectures on screenwriting and the principles of storytelling to his 5-year old son Baxter and anyone who listens.
He is also the boss of this blog.

The Hero’s Journey for Writers and Screenwriters:
24 and 31 October in Sydney. Click for more info.

photo credits: Torley, puroticorico, woodleywonderworks1, atomicjeep.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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The third film in our series of short animations nominated for an Inside Film award is ‘Chicken of God’, directed and written by the animated Frank Woodley; Aussie comedian extraordinaire.
Frank tells us about writing, directing and chickens.

How does someone who’s known for their physical comedy go about creating comedy in animation?

I’ve always been interested in any means of generating comic tension. I love verbal comedy and physical comedy and in animation too, there are issues of comic timing. I think the principles at play are the same in animation as in a live action comedy.

You’ve got a lot on your plate, how did this film happen?

It had a bit of an interesting genesis. Animator Clem Stamation is a friend of mine and we were driving to a gig one day when we started brainstorming storylines for an animation. Clem had the seed of the idea that was choosing lotto numbers by feeding little balls with numbers on them to a chicken. Then, the order that the chicken poos them out is the way you choose the lotto numbers.

Was there ever a screenplay?

Absolutely, I went off and developed the idea into a short screenplay. It was only about five pages long. Then we got together and did a couple of re-writes and my wife Jodi Satya also helped. We then pitched the ideas to funding bodies.

Funding bodies need loglines! What was yours??

Something like, ‘When the face of Jesus appears in the comb of a chicken some poor farmers’ lives become a comedy of Biblical proportions’.

How important was the actual script?

I think it’s absolutely crucial to get the script working before you engage in the animation.

I’ve seen so many films that are incredibly beautiful and the animation techniques are absolutely magnificent but the emotional impact is undermined by the fact that the fundamental idea isn’t sound or flawed in some way.

We were very clear that even though it’s only a five-page script that it was absolutely sound.

What was your role in the production?

My role was director, co-writer and I also did one of the voices in the film. We did all the recording of the voices first so I had a role of directing the actors as well.

Chicken of God – Promo

CHICKEN OF GOD | MySpace Videos

What did you learn from these roles?

It’s an ongoing process of learning how to write an effective screenplay.

My wife and I produced the film so there was a lot to learn in that area, Jodi did the vast majority of that side of thing, making sure the film gets out to festivals and gets seen.

You do all this work but there’s no point unless people can sit and enjoy it.

Did you prepare for the film by studying how to direct?

Not on directing, I think that’s just trial and error. I have done a lot of reading on screenplay writing.

Lots of the classic ones like Syd Field’s ‘Screenplay’ and Robert McKee’s ‘Story’. I found a lot of people are very resistant to this idea of formulas and I can respect that but my personal take on that is that you don’t need to take on any of these ideas. I might read a book and there will be one little thing that jumps out that I want to experiment with.

So it’s more about experimentation and getting ‘grist for the mill’ that will help you.

Any specific principles that you applied in ‘Chicken of God’?

The thing we tried to achieve with ‘Chicken of God’ was to have a central idea or question presented at the start that is developed and pays off in the climax.

So the whole film is serving that basic question and the tension around the question escalates towards the end. This principle is definitely at play in the screenplay we put together.

Are you keen to do more directing?

I think I would like to do more. I don’t have any current plans because I‘m involved in creating some live comedy work for myself, that’s my focus at the moment.

But I love that whole experience of having an idea and then contemplating what the most effective way to communicate it is. Where are the points of leverage that will seduce an audience so that then you can get a maximum payoff?

At what points do you need to withhold information and when do you give over information and how do you build to a climax and control all your ideas so they’re supporting each other?

Did you avoid any chicken gags from other films?

I was aware that chickens are a common creature used in comic animation so there was the question, ‘does that make it a cliché?’ But it felt right for the story and we followed our instincts on it in.

I’m a big believer actually that you shouldn’t worry too much about if something’s been done before. There’s nothing new under the sun and if you can bring fresh life to an old idea then there’s a skill in that as well.

A lot of ideas that are clichés are clichés because people relate to them; they have a profound place in people’s imaginations and experiences.

Have you made it to many screenings?

A few, and that’s been an incredible pleasure. The whole point of creating is for people to have an experience of joy or wonder or be moved so it’s important to get that payoff: to sit in some audiences and hear people laughing and enjoying it and applauding at the end.

Finish this sentence, ‘Australian movies need more…’

Audiences!

Frank Woodley has been involved in Australian entertainment for over 20 years and is best known for his work in comedy show ‘Lano and Woodley‘ with Colin Lane. Since 2006, Frank has created the one man play ‘Possessed’ and frequented Australian television shows including ‘Thank God You’re Here’, ‘Spicks and Specks’, and ‘Good News Week’. He currently hosts ‘Aussie Gold’, on Foxtel’s Comedy Channel every Saturday night. ‘Chicken of God’ is his second short film.

Cherie Lee

I studied acting for three years and hold a graduate diploma in writing from Sydney’s UTS. My interest in film and writing was solidified through interning at The Story Department and gave me the opportunity to fine tune my skills. I’ve been involved with several film projects, the most recent of which was shortlisted for Tropfest.

With the knowledge gained from university and my experience at The Story Department, I’m now specialising in professional feedback on short films and documentaries.

Writer/director Rod March talks about writing for animation.

What was the starting point for ‘Tin Can Heart’?

I saw an image of a lonely android staring up at a giant steel sphere with pipes and tubes coming out in all directions. I didn’t know who he was or why he was there, but the idea seemed very visual and it just interested me.

Then I thought to myself, what if a little puppy came along and was desperate for this android’s attention when all he really wanted was to look at the sphere? And my story began.

Was that a different approach to your other work?

Being the first serious film I’ve made, I was going into uncharted territory. I had to learn story craft as I went along.

I matured as a writer during the process of making the film and in a sense it’s a shame that you have to do the story first, because it’s the most important part and I feel I could have done it SO much better by the time we finished production than when we started!

Were do you get your inspiration from?

For me an idea starts from an image with an emotion attached to it. Once you have a vision you want to share and you know how you want it to make people feel, you can chart the rest.

I get a lot of ideas from photographs and music, probably because music has such a strong emotional quality.

What is it in animation that grabs your attention?

If you can think of it, you can make it. That’s incredibly empowering. The only limit is how much of your own time you want to spend on it.

What was the most challenging aspect of its production?

The scale. When I started out I was determined to design a modest film that I could actually finish, yet somehow it grew much larger than the single-character-single-location film that I had promised myself. How we ever got it finished, I don’t know. It is very satisfying however to see just how much detail and atmosphere we managed to get in there.

How would you describe your writing process?

Merciless. No idea is sacred. I outline over and over and over again, run the outline by my esteemed script editor/co-writer of Story Department fame, tear it down and write it all over again until it’s right. It’s about holding onto that small core of an idea which you already know subconsciously and trying to bring your conscious mind up to speed.

It’s surprising how far you have to wander from your original concept before it curves back around to almost exactly what you started with, only now it works!

For me, I know when I’m on the right track when I’m coming up with ideas that, even though they’re brand new, they feel strangely familiar also.

My writing process has evolved a lot since Tin Can Heart. If anything, I think I should have been more merciless with the Tin Can Heart script. 20/20 hindsight and all that…

Do you always have animation in mind when you start?

I always have ideas and characters in mind when I start writing. What I find interesting to write about seems to tend towards fantastical situations that really only work in animation. But I don’t think that way, I just explore what seems interesting about the idea and it turns out how it turns out.

Any advice to screenwriters interested in animation?

Do something you can’t do with real actors, and put your characters through trials real people couldn’t handle. Visually your characters are going to be caricatures of real people, so don’t hesitate to make their personalities bigger, brighter and more outrageous than real people too. The sky is the limit!

Is there a place for short films in mainstream cinema?

I think short films are great. I think audiences enjoy them, and I think the animation studios that make short films flourish. The animated short seems to have found a home at most of the big studios as a way of developing new processes and new talent. But I don’t think audiences are going to start paying extra to see short films, and that’s always the bottom line.

To me shorts are great because you can make stylistic choices that you can’t in features- if an audience is sitting down for an hour and a half they have a pretty narrow range of what they will tolerate but they’ll watch and enjoy nearly anything for 5 minutes.

What next?

There are a couple of scripts I’ve been working on over the last year or two that are just starting to take shape. I’m brimming with ideas so hopefully you’ll hear more about them soon!

After successfully completing a Course in Advanced Character Animation Techniques, Rodney March graduated from the Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) with First Class Honours in 2004. Over the past two years, Rodney’s talent and skills have been in high demand as a character animator on a variety of projects. He is part of the team on the Network Seven series ERKY PERKY by world class 3D studio Ambience Entertainment and is currently Animation Director at Flying Bark, Sydney.

Tin Can Heart can now be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/13266812

Cherie Lee

I studied acting for three years and hold a graduate diploma in writing from Sydney’s UTS. My interest in film and writing was solidified through interning at The Story Department and gave me the opportunity to fine tune my skills. I’ve been involved with several film projects, the most recent of which was shortlisted for Tropfest.

With the knowledge gained from university and my experience at The Story Department, I’m now specialising in professional feedback on short films and documentaries.

It took me seven years and three short films to radically change my mind about the nature of these little beasts.

One, two or three acts, the story principles are still identical to feature drama.

Yet shorts won’t teach you how to write a “big movie”.

In terms of distribution and audience approval, my films have been modestly but increasingly successful.

Yesterday the latest film from my production company,  TIN CAN HEART, was nominated for an IF Award. This is one of the most prestigious awards in Australia.

A good time to scrutinize if all the efforts that went into these three films were really worth it.

Let’s start with 5 beliefs that I held before I went on the short film journey and how I think about them now:

1. Short films don’t follow any rules

   The continuity person on my first short, LOVESONG, told me she had studied the story principles of short films. I didn’t see the point of that; I believed short films didn’t follow any story rules.

   Over the years I realised that dramatically the same principles apply that make feature films work.

   Audiences may be different – and more forgiving – but the better the writer’s grasp of 3-act storytelling (conscious or not), the greater the short’s potential success.

   You can either experiment with form, or use the short as an opportunity to learn and perfect your skills before embarking on feature work.

2. Short films can be made cheaply

   LOVESONG cost $25,000, a simple two-hander set in one interior location and minimal exteriors. The bottom line for AEROSOL, a complex blend of live action and animation was only $20,000 and my most recent TIN CAN HEART was made for $80,000. Not the type of money the average person has to spare.

   The real budget of each, if cast and crew had been paid commercial rates, ranges somewhere between $100,000 and $500,000.

   And you know what?

   “That’s after gross net deduction profit percentage deferment ten percent of the nut. Cash, every movie cost $2,184.”
   -Robert K. Bowfinger

   Each time I see that scene in Bowfinger, I am more convinced Steve Martin was absolutely right. Any indie film can be made cheaply, short or long.

3. Short films make their money back

   No, they don’t.

   I hear you think “but they do if you shoot them the Bowfinger way?” Yes, that is if you don’t share the revenue with your cast and crew. Ask the producer of the Academy Award winning HARVEY KRUMPET. After years, it still hasn’t gone into break even and it probably won’t.

   For my first short, I borrowed money from family, friends and relatives. At the time I believed my own pitch when I told them they were ‘investing’ and would recoup their money with profit. Yeah right.

   If it doesn’t happen for films that receive the greatest exposure possible, it’s safe to say you won’t make your money back, either.

4. Short films are great calling cards

   Admitted, once you have people’s attention, you may blow them away with your achievement. But how to get the attention of the decision makers / money people?

   Film festivals!

   Not sure. At last count, Withoutabox was connecting with over 3,000 (three THOUSAND) Festivals. That’s your competition, right there. Annual number of entries for TropFest alone is creeping up to the 1,000 mark.

   Unless your film is in the world’s best 1%, you may have to enter into 100 festivals  before getting any results. With entry fees averaging around the $50, the cost of marketing is getting close to most films’ cash production cost.

   It used to be that any decent short film would be noticed and celebrated. Those days are over.

5. Short films teach you good writing

   I was really struck by a statement on the commentary track of THE LIVES OF OTHERS by the writer/director:

“I spent something like 7 years of my life making short films and looking back, it probably wasn’t the best investment of my time and creative energy.”
-Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck

Writing a short films shows that you can write a scene, or a sequence at best. It doesn’t prove that you can structure a feature length story or even a TV series episode.  Longer formats allow you (require you) to get involved emotionally on a much deeper level. For this, you must have an understanding of broad story structure.

One or two-act short films often rely on a gimmick, a twist. If the twist is strong, the film sells.  For a full feature,  even with a massive twist, this trick probably won’t work.

So if it is all doom and gloom with short films, why bother?

After all, I kept making short films after the first experience, even though the film didn’t really travel the way I had hoped and the returns didn’t satisfy the investors (they were rather – errm.. invisible).

As a matter of fact there are quite some – successful – filmmakers who never stop making short films.

So, first of all, they aren’t all doom and gloom.

1. Short films are fun

   Not all my shorts achieved all their objectives. Still, I did have a lot of fun and so did the crew.

   Because your life doesn’t depend on it, you can work on them at your own pace. You’re ready when you are. During production, you may experience the high octane energy level of a proper film shoot, without the dreadful anxiety that can go with a multi-million dollar production.

   You are creating something special in a spirit of collaboration. For most of us, this is a wonderful experience.

   You live through a journey, you bond, and at the end you miss it all enormously.

2. A short film can be a networking tool

   This may sound odd, but yes: you get in touch with other creatives, crew and during the marketing you build a network in the festival circuit and distribution.

   During pre-production and production your address book will get an enormous boost. You will get to know agents, stock providers, tech support people etc. And because you’re trying to do it on a shoe string, you’ll find a lot of nice people, who share a certain passion for what they do.

   If you treat these people with respect, they will help you when you move on in your career.

3. A short film is a learning opportunity

   They say that nothing beats seeing your written work on the screen.

   This is very true: hearing the dialogue, feeling the pace, seeing the characters move and act as you described it… It is an experience that cannot be simulated.

   And you know what?  Everyone can produce or direct a short film. For a writer, producing your own film is a fantastic opportunity to learn how film production works. It will inform everything else you write afterwards.

   I didn’t say you will deliver Oscar material, and I didn’t say you’ll learn how to write a feature screenplay, either.

4. A short film can be a career dip test

   If filmmaking – or writing – is a hobby, chances are you’re secretly dreaming of becoming a professional.

   Writing, directing or producing a short film allows you to be active in the industry. You can approach it with the mindset of an amateur (that’s fine) or a pro (now, that’s brave!). In any case, going through the full journey of making a short film will give you a better understanding of what this industry entails. Perhaps it’s not your thing.

   Finding out early that you’re not really cut out for a professional career in film can save you a lot of stress and you can keep making films as a hobby.

   If however you have a knack for it, chances are that cast and crew will notice and spread the word.

5. Short films are short

   Feature films are monsters. They take years to develop and once they’re ready, they take years to turn a profit – if ever.

   A short is a manageable enterprise. The development and financing may seem to take long, the shoot will be over before you blink.

   To prove this point, some film festivals even require you to shoot, edit and complete your film within 24 or 48 hours.

   When you’ve prepared thoroughly, a short film production shouldn’t cause too many headaches. Even without much experience, you may well end up with a satisfying result.

To summarise, beware:

1. Short films are subject to the same story rules as features
2. Short films are proportionally just expensive
3. Short films hardly ever make their money back
4. Short films can be talent showcases – if they’re seen
5. Short film writing doesn’t prepare you for longer formats
   

But keep making ’em, because:

1. Short films are fun
2. Short films build your network
3. Short films are learning opportunities
4. Short films can be career tests
5. Short films are manageable

I’m over producing short films. I’ve loved every minute working on them, but there’s a time to move on.  (I’ve said this before)

I will keep helping people with advice and feedback but you’ll need pretty strong arguments to squeeze a producer’s credit out of me.

If you’re at the start of your journey, you might want to check out this:

• How to write a good short film script (Times Online)
• Writing for short film (BBC Writers Room)
• Writing Short Films (The Crafty Writer)
• Introduction to Writing Shorts (Writing for Performance)
• Short Films for download (Aussie Short Films)

What are your thoughts as writers of short films? Are short films fun, useful, essential?
What did you learn in the process of writing or filming? What did you un-learn afterwards?

Please share with us in the comments.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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