Film Courage: Once you've finished the short
screenplay what are the first steps in making the movie?
Kim Adelman, Author/Filmmaker/Instructor: So here's the thing, I'm actually a believer of
don't do the screenplay first. I think you need to think about what you want to tell and then
can you tell it because if you're actually making this thing and financing it yourself,
it's not like a feature where you're writing the whole script and then you're going around
to people and trying to get funding for short film more realistically. It's either going to be like
you're shooting it in class because you have to or you're funding it yourself to get it made.
I don't think it's worthwhile writing a script that you can't actually get made. For example,
a filmmaker that I produced his first short film, for the second short film he had this great idea
that had a big water effects happening. It's like who can afford that? Who knows anyone who can do
the water effect and just the film has never been made because just couldn't do it that way so you
can write it but if you're not thinking like I'm actually making this then you could write
something that you just never afford to do you could do it as an exercise but so I think it's
more important to think about okay what do you actually want to make and how can you make it what
do you have access to that it could work well for a short film and that's why a lot of short films
and low budget features like shot in homes because everyone was like well I have my own home I could
shoot my own home and that's true you totally can but you also have like your car and you also have
you could go shooting your office building or you could go shoot at the park or you could go shoot
your friend has a pool why not set something in the pool so I think it's important to kind
of think first about I call it organic filmmaking what do you actually have access to when I teach
low budget filmmaking I can't tell you often people have hospitals in their script it's
like how you gonna get a hospital hospitals don't be like sure just show up and we'll let you shoot
here so if you wrote an entire short film that was set in the hospital only do that if you have
access to either you can pay for a hospital set or you have access to a hospital in some way I think
it's more important to think about well what do I actually have access What story do I want to tell
what do I actually have access to and can I write something for that so then it's less money because
you already have access to all of that and it's more unique it's like think about it that way I
many short films do we see that are based in pools not that many but if you have an
access to a pool you can come up with something really unique that is set in that pool that would
make a really interesting short film so think about that first before you write it but like
you should if you're a horror filmmaker don't do the I will do a sunny story about somebody
in a pool in a diving contest or something like that no you should do a Horror Story set in a
pool but won't that be unique because how many horror stories are set in a pool so think about
what you actually have access to if you're you have to say to yourself I'm actually going to
make this thing so I'm actually going to make it I'm going to probably have to fund it myself
how what how can I do it as cheap as possible and still have it look great and the answer is use
things that you can actually get for free so your uncle owns a dry cleaner fabulous how many dry
cleaner shorts do we know very few let's figure out something that you can tell the story that
means something to you in a dry cleaners thing and it'll be horror filming or dry cleaners I
would love to see that I think it would be really special and unique so don't just write it to write
it write it in the sense of I'm going to make this so can I actually make it and if you can't make
it then you have to kind of put it aside in the drawer until you're at the point that the right
people that can do all these special effects that you hope to do I also think that's also why you
want to think about what your background is too like if you are for example a a stunt man and you
want to move into being a director stunt person and you want to move into being a director well
you have a lot of access in The Stunt World and people are going to expect you to do something
kind of stunty so use all of that and that's the kind of short film that you should make and write
now that comes the story part and that's not so easy but at least you have that Arena of like I'm
a stunt person people are gonna expect some people think I want to direct things that are stunt heavy
I know four different 10 people I know would be great in this I know this location that they'll
let me use for free okay now what kind of story can I create in this and sometimes you're not
the right writer for it maybe you're like I'm a stunt man I'm not a writer ah but I've met
or maybe you'd have to take a class take a class with writing so you can meet writers
or find somebody who will write it for you you don't have to absolutely do everything yourself
you can do everything yourself and sometimes it's cheaper if you do everything yourself but work to
your strengths and figure out what you can do but go in the ethereum I'm going to make it because
there's no point having like a whole drawer of short film scripts nobody's gonna there are a
few contests for short film scripts so if you want to do that I say again more power to you and those
maybe you're writing more for people to read them and to give you Awards and know that they're not
necessarily going to give the award to the horror story set in the laundromat or the dry cleaner but
don't write it just to write it write it because you're going to actually make it
sure so it sounds like sit down decide what do I have access to what's actually in my
wheelhouse what can I do and then once okay I have this dry cleaner for it's my uncle's dry
cleaner store whatever I know that he'll let me on the day that they check out the clothes
on Sunday right right on Mondays three Mondays if I need to right right they know that's their slow
day so they'll and then we have this like say a serial killer that leaves a letter and a jacket
or something and and there you go and then and so then the the young dry clean worker tries to
figure out who it belongs to anyway but but no another field we're gonna go there we go
that's the great thing there's so many ideas is out there right and then you just have to
say is this what I really want to put my time and effort into making sure and then that's when you
start the script okay that's what you just read the script and then when you write the script it
doesn't mean like it's come out of my computer I'm ready to shoot then you really have to look
at is this a strong beginning is this a strong ending is every scene start and end at the right
time you really want to be very critical on the script stage because you're going to actually
make this it's not just to be read by people and say you're a very talented writer we're
not going to hire you but we see that there's Talent here and we're going to get you an agent
or something like that is nobody wants to read a short script it is literally a document to be made
so be tight and do all your criticism of what works and what doesn't work before you go shoot it
because it's nothing worse than coming away with a long you thought it was going to be I always tell
people like if your script is 12 pages long it's not going to be a 12 minute short it's going to be
a 15 minute short that rule of one page one minute doesn't it's not concrete of always going to turn
out that way so if you're and quite often short films are more leisurely paced than they should be
so if you write an eight page script that's more likely going to end up being a 10 to 12 page
film it just expands beyond what was actually on the page oh that's great I didn't actually think
about that so so then yeah less is more yes you're gonna have credits at the end et cetera et cetera
so don't I'm gonna make a 12-minute film it's a 12-page script here we go no no okay so also you
don't want to spend all that money for it like why shoot the 12 scenes in part driving up to the dry
cleaner putting money in the meter I was like that was a day that we spend outside doing all that and
turns out we don't need any of that the story starts inside when the person walks in the door
right so if let's say it's the it's the replacement and he's coming in to somebody's
day off and just have him already in the dry cleaner exactly don't don't show him begrudging
and having to drink coffee and psych himself up to go there just have him there he sees an old jacket
he feels around oh there's a letter in there okay great now we've got a story exactly perfect
what if you don't have a budget what if you can't pay anyone so here's the thing for a short film I
always say nobody's making any money off of this it's totally a labor of love and everyone who's
going to work on it wants you to succeed wants the film to succeed wants it to be as great as
it is and people love to help out so I often say for short film don't pay anybody if you're
only asking for one day or two days on the weekend people want to help you out they're not expecting
cash however in a proper production you should be paying people at least minimum wage you are
employing these people I always say people always get hurt on a short film it's really crew-wise
and if you're doing sag you have to have insurance for the actors too there's a lot of and if you're
trying to do this to learn how to do film making in a proper way then you should do it the proper
way pay everybody do the eight hour day or ten hour day 12 hour day do overtime Etc et
cetera do all the paperwork the way you would do paperwork for Productions and you're learning how
to do it but I also am a big fan of you and your four friends are gonna go do this on the sly and
you're not paying anybody anything but you should feed them well that's always the rules like so you
can't do it for like no money but get your mom to cater it or something like that and if it's your
friends that are working with you they're not they want to help you they want to do a good job and if
you're students and everyone's kind of under the student umbrella that way too so but you have to
be true to what your film is if you have no money then don't write the hospital story that you don't
have access to a hospital unless you can rent a hospital set that's truly when you have to set it
that if you have truly no money be creative think of other ways that you can do it think of what you
can shoot and often for short film too like you can steal a lot of shots too these are not going
to be commercially exhibited more often than not so steal things not like literally steal things
in your pocket but it's two shots that you don't have permission to do shots with they can give
a lot of production value and make it unique and special and for a short film too there's no saying
that you can't shoot it for one hour here one hour there two hours here there's no rule that has to
be shot in a traditional filmmaking way of we're bringing all these people together for a limited
period of time so again shoot on your iPhone that you already own it you already you can edit on
your iPhone you can do everything in that way too so shoot I'd rather you do something great
with what you can afford to do then try to do something great with not enough money and it
falls flat because you always say well I can redo it when I have money it's like no it's been made
that's what it is you're never going to go back and be like oh now I have thousands of dollars
and I can redo it but I will also say for a lot of my students they think like oh I only have
two thousand dollars I'm going to make a short film it's like yes you totally can't again I
know people who've made short films for five hundred dollars for a hundred dollars you can
totally do it for no money but money does start creeping in and I'd rather you have four thousand
dollars to do a really great short film than two thousand dollars to do a half-assed short film.