Somewhere in the book Story, McKee says that the story picks you, not otherwise. Can’t remember the exact quote and this crap PDF doesn’t allow me to search through it, so you gotta trust me. I also believe that the story also chooses its format, some of them fit better in a smaller package. Not all stories are supposed to be displayed as feature films.
The issue that concerns me is that we don’t know much about the structure of a short film. Actually, we barely know what is a short film in terms of narrative. Is it a piece of a scene? Is it a strange situation? A limb of a bigger story? Or pure visual masturbation?
Does it follows the general structure of feature films? Shall we invest in three or more acts, characters arcs, themes, climaxes and whatsoever?
This blog intends to be an open study about the nature of the short film in terms of script and i’d like to dig deep into its structure along with available historical examples to find out what suits best the format.
Short of Stories 