Short film screenwriting: a high-wire act of abbreviation

The short film sometimes gets short shrift in contemporary cinema, but a compact, concentrated narrative offers much to enjoy - and learn from. In his new book, Short Film Screenwriting: A Craft Guide and Anthology, published in October by Bloomsbury, filmmaker and screenwriter Austin Bunndelves into the mechanics of the short form by reprinting notable scripts and interviewing the films' creators, as well as providing insights and advice based on his own successful career writing screenplaysand making award-winningshort films.

Bunn, associate professor of performing and media arts in the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Milstein Program, will celebrate the release of the book with an event Nov. 7 at 7 p.m at Liquid State Brewery that will include short film screenings and a conversation with actor/screenwriter Guinevere Turner (American Psycho, the L Word).

The Chronicle spoke with Bunn about the book.

Question: What was your inspiration for writing Short Film Screenwriting? Why hasn't a book like this been written before?

Answer: When I was young, I was so inspired by books like The Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize anthology - rangy, thrilling collections that showed just what fiction could do. I especially loved the opening essay that wove together themes and craft lessons from the array of approaches. When I started to teach screenwriting at Cornell, I realized there was nothing for newer writers to read. The scripts to extraordinary short films, where every filmmaker starts, just don't get published, don't circulate. So I started asking filmmakers for theirs and built a private collection of extraordinary scripts to share with students. After enough colleagues asked me for copies, I realized: I should publish these - if only to inspire the next generation.

The book is 10 essays about the craft of screenwriting paired with 21 scripts to films that screened at Sundance, SXSW, Toronto, Cannes, even won Oscars. There truly is nothing like it. I couldn't tell you why this book doesn't already exist. If I had to guess, it's that the demand for screenwriting instruction at the college level is exploding - film, TV and short video are the air that young people breathe - and so there's a new audience for books like this one.

Q: Why is the current moment, as you write in the introduction, a "golden age" for short film?

A: The primary reason, honestly, is access. You're probably holding a camera in your hand right now. The software - for editing, VFX, color grading - is free. Distribution can happen with a click. The barrier to entry with filmmaking has evaporated. We've all become media-makers.

Q: What are some of the qualities that make for truly great short films, and how might these qualities differ from those of feature films?

A: As I say in the book, a short film script is a high-wire act of abbreviation. Everything that works in a 15-minute short applies to a feature film, just with more dynamics. This is where a comparison of fiction versus novels may be useful: You can't chart the course of a character's whole life in a short story. You focus on an irrevocable moment. Identifying that moment is the whole trick and what makes a short film indelible. Some screenwriters believe feature films are actually just seven or eight "mini-movies," or, ahem, short films.

Q: Rather than simply referencing well-known films as other screenwriting guides do, your book reprints a selection of short-film screenplays as case studies. Tell me a bit about the selection process. How did you pick these and what about them spoke to you?

A: I identified the scripts three ways: I would see a terrific short at a film festival or online (at Shortoftheweek.com, Omeleto.com, or The New Yorker Screening Room) and would reach out to the filmmaker for a copy; every semester, I had students in "Screenwriting" and "Advanced Screenwriting" (PMA 3531 and 4531) scout great short films and present on them and I took the cream of that crop (thank you students!); lastly, I asked other filmmakers for their favorites. There are many ways a short can be terrific - the cinematography, the sound design, the performances - but I focused on story, what the screenwriter controls. The book makes the case for five key elements in the strongest scripts: the inner life of the protagonist, uncommon relationship, progression, voice and original form.

Q: What have been some of the big - and maybe difficult - lessons you've learnedfrom making your own short films?

A: Scale. We are all raised on a diet of big-budget film and TV shows and when I first starting screenwriting, I let my imagination run wild. But I learned the hard way that it's exponentially easier to write "EXT. CANOPY OF REDWOOD - DUSK" than it is to climb 250 feet up a sequoia, with a 40-pound camera on your back and a terrified actress on the unsettlingly thin rope next to you while the sun is setting. The difficulty is part of the appeal - screenwriters are primarily problem-solvers - and that was a lesson I needed to live to learn. But now I tend to write what I'm confident I can make. That's what I love about short filmmaking: there's nothing stopping you from making one. As one of the amazing writers says in the book, "Don't write what you know, write what you have."

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