Is it worthy to work on narrative?

On May, 2010, the LA Times released an article speculating if “Short films can be a shortcut to Hollywood success“. Overall it claims that short films are receiving more attention nowadays and opening gates at Los Angeles. It selects a few examples of short films which caught the eye of several producers and closed important deals for the filmmakers. Yet, you shouldn’t expect this kind of talk in this blog, what i actually want to point out is the selection of short films chosen to illustrate the aforementioned movement. Here’s the list:

• Mamá, by Andrés Muschietti;
• Panic Attack, by Fede Alvarez;
• What’s in the Box?, by Tim Smit;
• Alma, by Rodrigo Blaas;
• Pixels, by Patrick Jean;
• The Raven, by Ricardo de Montreuil;
• Alive in Joburg, by Neill Blomkamp;

The article might look dated, but the timing is important here. The deals suggested by the LA Times, if had gained texture, might be possible for checking the outcome by now, two and half years later. Mamá became a feature film. Panic Attack‘s director is finishing the remake of Evil Dead. Tim Smit has been working on videoclips, not much news on the feature film for What’s in the Box?. Alma is an upcoming featured animation for Dreamworks. Patrick Jean doesn’t seem to be doing anything lately. Ricardo de Montreuil left the Sundance world and is attached to the next Zorro movie. Blomkamp, as we’ve seen previously, have directed District 9 and is nowadays finishing Elysium.

If you haven’t seen these shorts until now, you must. It won’t take much of your time and it is really important for the following discussion.

INTERLUDE

Did you watch them all? Really? Which one is your favorite? I’d like to know but it actually doesn’t matter. These short films made me wonder where is the boundary between a situation-driven and a concept-driven short film. I consider each one of them besides Alma as concept-driven. The animation is the only one with a clear introduction, development and conclusion. Mamá is the one which gets closer to not being so rooted on concept, yet the own declaration of the Muschiettis in the LA Times’ article suggest that they were guided by the concept solely.

“We didn’t even have an outline,” says Barbara Muschietti. “We just wanted to do something scary.”

The main concern here then is: what’s the point on working at narrative if the hollywood executives are glazing at concepts to turn into big screen feature films? Experience has proven that the narrative of a short film doesn’t prepare for the work on a feature film directly, they’re very distinguishable forms of storytelling (we’ll visit this subject a bit further when discussing web series). People seem to be more pleased by sneak peaks of possible projects. The excitement of waiting over the experience of completeness. Great special effects to close the package and create a visual impact instead of a visual continuity of story. Every image is a story, if i deny that i’d have at least three university teachers bashing at my door with shovels, nevertheless we must evaluate the priority in the creation of that image to understand what is being discussed in here.

Here’s my piece of advice: even though these concepts have brought attention to their makers, is not a guaranteed pass to Beverly Hills. A great narrative short film is going to bring buzz, perhaps you won’t adapt it to a feature film, most short films can’t migrate anyway, however a shot as a Hollywood director is not something to refuse. I’m honestly anxious to see what Blaas is going to do with the solid story of Alma. As in concept-driven short films, they’re expandable by nature, because they’re more an environment than anything else. Above everything said, you must respect your idea, don’t distort something good the way it is to achieve a long-distance dream. Baby steps. Most of the short films related here had a pretty similar theme and Hollywood can’t drink from the same wheel for too long (unless it turns into a franchise), thematically speaking, so i believe some of the concepts listed here are, unfortunately, going to find eternity only in the fifteen minutes run length.

There’s a solid chance concept-driven short films will become the pitching for shy people. Let’s hope it keeps moving that way, otherwise our introspective fellows are screwed.

Successful Short Films – Lemonade Stand

Our regular post submission just began, here we gonna check out some great short films. To start with, i’ve chose Lemonade Stand, by Alethea Jones. It won the Tropfest Film Festival 2012. Besides being a really well-made short film, Lemonade Stand will bring some interesting subjects to our discussion as we’ll see.

It’s the story about Benny, his grandpa and their lemonade stand being harassed by Kevin, the neighbor whom just got a job at the City Council. As the stand has no business license, Kevin threats to shut their business down unless Benny hits a distant beehive with a lemon.

The film starts with a quick montage of events and voice over to show us the world. As we’ve seen previously at O’Keefe’s The Ghosts, this works really well to introduce the characters and the background of the story. I must remind you that voice-over is not an enemy, it should narrate elements far away from the story, but be a complement of the image. It’s the bond of sound and vision that makes cinema what it is, those elements should not drift apart (in most cases). If you work well with voice-over and it fits your concept, it’s a great method to save quite a chunk of time.

Following this introduction we have the event, when Kevin challenges them to hit the beehive. There’s a clear goal and urgency into this, the obstacle being the defiance itself. Afterwards, Benny wanders through the woods only to find his natural inclination at throwing objects on long shots. He’s just the perfect guy to win the challenge and save the day. However, this is the moment in which Lemonade Stand remains steady. We, viewers, are confident that Benny is going to nail the beehive and redeem the lemonade stand. It’s breaking this expectation what makes this short film great. Because that should be essential to every short film ever.

Coming clean, i’ve chosen Lemonade Stand to show up an example of a well-rounded structure that works perfectly on short films with a comic tone. It goes as something like this:

1. Introduction of main character, antagonist and the background savior*;

* this kind of structure relies on this background savior, which is an element you introduce in the beginning of your story (grandpa’s dirty socks in this case),  let it lay down and bring it back to resolve your story at the ending.

2. The Challenge (hit the beehive with this lemon or i shut down this joint!);

3. High Expectations: raising the expectations of the audience, make them believe the main character is going to beat the challenge.

4. The Failure: the main character fails to beat the challenge his way;

5. Raise the undead! The background savior comes back alive and saves the day.

This is not a masterpiece of an outline, but screw you, i’m not Syd Field. Basically, what matters here is using this background element previously introduced to effectively seal your story indirectly. If Benny had simply hit the beehive, it wouldn’t be fun, after all, we love to have our expectations broken apart, that’s why we engage with other people, no? But dealing with our issue through an unorthodox method is great, as it surprises us, yet as the elements were already introduced we don’t feel like the author is cheating on us (farewell, deus ex-machina).

Just remember that this is not a formula, if you EVER start a story by a recipe, you’ll fail, i guarantee. The viability for a specific, functional structure must emerge from the story, not otherwise. You can’t fit the story in a box (if it doesn’t want to).

Short of Stories returns!

Almost four months away from these lands i adore. But for good reasons: 1) i was too busy working; 2) there wasn’t much left to talk. There’s nothing to talk about the first, yet the latter demands some sort of attention. Short of Stories has a theme, but wasn’t planned, there was no schedule and soon the well went dry. Writing about the craft of screenwriting is hard, when you reduce the niche to short films it gets even harder. There are several great screenwriting blogs around, yet they don’t DISCUSS the craft all the time, most of them post news about the screenwriting business scenario, inspiring quotes. It’s talking ON screenwriting, not ABOUT. I’m certainly not criticizing this way to build a screenwriting blog, sincerely it’s the way it has to be in order to keep a regular flux of posts, however it doesn’t mean that i’m going for it.

After all these months, i’ve prepared some sort of schedule to keep Short of Stories going. What follows is a list of subjects i’m willing to approach in the upcoming weeks:

1. Successful short films: this will be our regular posting, covering great shorts films and what we can extract from them. Expect Pixar;
2. Short Formats – Web Series: returning to my series to fix this huge mistake. How could i miss web series?
3. Feedback: what it REALLY is and how to get the proper one;
4. Funding: How to get the money to produce the short film. Crowdfunding anyone?
5. Apps to help you develop your story: Covering some applications to make your life easier (unfortunately this will be mac only).

Remember that i’m really open to dialogue. I would love to review reader’s scripts or watch their short films. And write about it, obviously. Use the contact form or the comments’ section to send suggestions and whatever you feel that this blog is missing.

Overall, i hope this is a good pick-up point. Stay tuned.