I have an idea for a short film (5-10 minutes) and I am wondering how many elements of the "Hero's Journey" (HJ) typically need to be in such a film? I know the elements of the HJ for a feature film, but in a 5 minute film how critical is it to try to include the HJ elements, which HJ elements are most important, least important? Is dialog less important for short shorts, because as I view some shorts on youtube.com I notice many seem to eliminate dialog and use voiceover narration by one of the characters, usually the main character.
Do you really want to go in to writing this thinking how many boxes of a story model do I need to tick?
The 'Hero Journey' etc are only archetypes not blueprints.
Just a thought.
** If its worth making, it's worth making properly. damn it!**
** If its worth making, it's worth making properly. damn it!**
Don't try and fit your script into a formula or box. A short can be 3 shots...begining, middle and end. It can be one shot telling a whole story. Set it up and close it out. Close the deal! If you want to look at a great story comparing all the screenwriting experts (so-called experts) story structure...including the Hero's Journey go to: www.filmschoolnow.com/writing This will show you what each one of them teaches...and you don't have to take their seminar. This overview is always good to look at for story structure ideas. I have never been to any of their seminars nor own any of their products. Just a great article for writers.
The Hero's Journey is a pretty poor template for a short film precisely because it's quite long and convoluted; of course it's not such a great template for features these days now everyone does it, and many good movies have been made without it.
For a short you really want to stick to the point and try to keep it short. Many of the best shorts are written more in the style of a joke, which is probably a better template even if you're not planning to make it funny ('Englishman, Scotsman and Irishman walk into a bar... etc').
quote:
Originally posted by MarkG
The Hero's Journey is a pretty poor template for a short film precisely because it's quite long and convoluted;...
For a short you really want to stick to the point and try to keep it short. ...
Thank you Mark and Kess. There is no way I could fit in the typical paradigm of a feature film to a short. It almost seems harder to write a short compared to the couple of features I am structuring. I have a couple of shorts (5 minutes) I am working on in a rough sense, but I am finding it hard to fit conflict in them, perhaps because of limited characters (2 or 3)--I might need to think more about internal emotional conflict moreso than external (char v environment, char v char).
I actually think that writing a good short is harder than writing a good feature in many respects. For one thing, you can get away with a weak five minutes in the middle of a feature if the beginning and end are good, but a weak five minutes in the middle of a short is going to kill you.
I don't think limiting the number of characters really restricts conflict too much... just put two guys, a girl and a gun in a room and you have plenty of opportunities for conflict :).
Great comments and I like Mark's follow-up putting two guys, a girl and a gun in a room and you have a film. Or replace the gun with a bottle of rum and you have more options...or rum and a gun. I also believe shorts can be very tough to write. Think visuals. Use less dialogue if you can. Find some great commercials to watch...especially foreign commercials...they tend to have less dialogue.
Yeah, true: some of the best 'short films' these days are TV commercials.
Think less about the necessary elements and think more about style. "STYLE" yes, or rather the look and feel you're going for. All else will fall into place (with a couple hundred rewrites) lol, but the important thing is the vivid images and feeling you already have swimming around in your head.
quote:
Originally posted by baillou2
Think less about the necessary elements and think more about style. "STYLE" yes, or rather the look and feel you're going for. All else will fall into place (with a couple hundred rewrites) lol, but the important thing is the vivid images and feeling you already have swimming around in your head.
Yes. The more I read everything and anything about film I am reading that visual and sound is critical, dialog as needed, but film is a visual medium foremost, illusions and eye candy, music for mood, dialog to move the story forward. Thank you all for the support and great feedack.
