Index cards...
aydin252 said:
ok guys tell me where im going with this and see if im doing the right thing.
ive got piece of paper and am drawing little boxes and drawing the location and the gist of every scene and the position of the characters, then next to the box im writing what the scene contains what the characters talk about(not the exact words just an idea), the music that should be played and the estimated length of the scene and all the other important things, im up to my 5th page now and have covered some of the script. when i finished this im going to go scene by scene and write out the dialogue in a screenplay format, is this a good way of doing it cause the way i look at it, i think it just may work.
Harmon's short film structure is actually really good... My only criticism would be in the "getting it down" part. I highly recommend doing pretty much the same thing except using index cards instead. Get yourself a cork board/bulletin board and write down ALL your great ideas on one card per idea... Don't worry about order just yet...
Get all those ideas down to see how many great ideas you actually have... Most filmmakers find out at this stage that they don't really have as many great ideas they will need to make their film... But anywho, write them all down for now...
These index cards should, at a minimum, contain the following:
a)Interior or exterior, the actual location, and whether it's day or night (light or dark).
Example: EXT. PARK - DAY
b)Short description of what happens in the scene.
Example: Policeman argues with clown.
c)I like to use an up or down arrow to tell me two things about this scene... Next to the first up or down arrow, I will describe the emotional atmosphere of the scene and if it ends on an up or down note. Why? Well, it's nice to have a succession of ups and downs instead of long series of ups or long series of down... This is generally speaking of course... You might want a long series of ups or downs in succession so drawing an up or down arrow and the atmosphere will tell you this. Then right under than arrow and atmosphere, I use another arrow for conflict... I draw an up or down arrow and describe the conflict of the scene with a short description. This tells me whether or not each of my scenes has conflict or not. If it doesn't, you might want to rethink it and create some...
Examples:
^: Clown keeps smiling at policeman (sorry, not much of an arrow... LOL)
^: Policeman tells clown that he can't sell balloons.
*NOTE: hand drawn arrows work much better... LOL.
Okay, now you have all the cards with all your ideas on them, right? Each card has the emotional atmosphere and conflict described, right? Now see where these cards fit into Harmon's structure, assuming you're using that structure.
Number the card that fits within the structure... Then see what cards are left to create. Then create them.
Once they are all created, lay them on your bed, on the floor, on a cork board, whatever and play around with the order... See if they can be put in a different order and tell a better story... If so, reorder them. If not, go back to your original order.
BAM! There's your story!
Now figure out how long you want your short to be... If it's 10 minutes, that's about 1.25 minutes per scene assuming you're using 8 scenes... If you end up with more or less, the same math still applies... LOL.
Let's figure the 1.25 minutes per scene with 8 scenes total... That's 1.25 pages of screenplay PER scene. Now of course these aren't hard and fast rules but this simply serves as a guide so you don't under or overwrite your scenes... If a scene does what it needs to do for your story and does it with a half page or 3 pages, so be it. Just keep the 1.25 pages in mind while you're writing so you write leaner, show MORE, tell LESS.
Good luck with it!
filmy