If you are an aspiring filmmaker, you will want to make a short film to showcase what you can do. Even if you aren’t aiming for Hollywood, writing out the heart of your story as a screenplay can help you sort out plot and character issues and later serve as an outline. The screenplay format forces you to focus on plot and on conveying character through their behavior and dialogue. And a short screenplay helps you focus on the essentials of your story.

In this class we will generate a short screenplay that takes place in the present and is realistic - this would be the easiest kind of movie for a newbie filmmaker to produce. We will start with the key characters and their plans, then outline the plot in a few quick steps. We will then look at key scenes and sketch them out. We will wrap up by looking briefly at screenplay format and how it helps screenwriters focus on what is important to the story.

Please watch some short films before class so that you get an idea of what works in the short film format. Here are some links to good short films and articles about writing short films. Look these over before class:

The best short films on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUGeAInQ4wy3KKPKyYHm0oXnWvYIBS4J_

Articles to read before class: Each article includes links to short films to watch online.

https://blog.celtx.com/how-to-write-a-script-for-a-short-film/

https://boords.com/blog/how-to-write-a-short-film

https://www.routledge.com/blog/article/six-tips-for-writing-short-film-scripts-that-connect

ALISON MCMAHAN is an award-winning screenwriter, filmmaker, and author. Her most recent film is Bare Hands and Wooden Limbs (2010), about landmine survivors in Cambodia, narrated by Sam Waterston. Her non-fiction book, Alice Guy Blaché, Lost Visionary of the Cinema (Bloomsbury 2002), was translated into Spanish and Japanese and film rights sold for a documentary, Be Natural (2018). Her historical mystery novel, The Saffron Crocus (Black Opal Books, 2014), won the Rosemary Award and the Florida Writers Association's Royal Palm Literary Award. Her short mysteries have appeared in ThrillRide magazine and anthologized by Level Best Books, Wildside Press, Down-and-Out Books, and in the Scream and Scream Again middle-grade horror anthology edited by R.L. Stine for HarperCollins. She is a two-time Derringer finalist and was chosen as one of the "Other Distinguished Mystery Stories" authors in Best American Mystery Stories of 2018. For more information on Alison and her books, please visit her website at https://alisonmcmahan.com/.

This workshop is on Zoom and registration is required. Please click here to register.

The video is available for on-demand viewing May 12 – October 2.

Sponsored by the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation.