Writing Achievable Short Films
Our latest Screen Presence session, Writing Achievable Short Films, shifted the focus from making anything to making something deliberate. The panel explored how to build scripts around accessible locations, manageable cast sizes, and practical budgets without sacrificing creative ambition.
Here are the key takeaways from our panellists:
Faced with losing her planned locations at the eleventh hour, Diane Vu kept her short film Pairing on track by quickly pivoting to a free gallery shoot. Her advice is to "concentrate" your story rather than overcomplicate it like a refined salt by focusing on the emotional core, and also champion the "Making It Worse" writing technique: give characters a clear desire, introduce challenges entirely out of their control, and continuously escalate the situation.
Drawing from his personal experience on his short Jesus Freaks, Jeremy Teh highlighted the necessity of location compromise—noting that high-profile public spots simply won't permit a guerrilla shoot. Don't fight the limitations; scale down your footprint and use smaller cameras. Let ambition guide the writing process, but tear the idea apart afterward to find what truly sits at the emotional heart of the story through rewriting.
Referencing his short film Quiet Night Thought, Denis Curnow reminded the room that authenticity doesn’t require massive world-building by boiling your script down to its core emotional arc rather than over-explaining the world. Ultimately, what makes a project producible is just three elements: script, cast and location. Cover those, and you’ve got a film.
Throughout the night, the overarching message was clear: be flexible, be clever, and believe in your team. And as a universal rule of production, the panel reminded us: always say thank you and provide good catering
Our next session shifts focus to clarity and presentation. Pitching Short Film Ideas (JUNE 25th) will explore what makes a pitch land, looking at how to sharpen your story, prepare for the room, and speak with confidence ahead of the MCBA Short Film Pitch Competition.
Link to the ticket: https://www.trybooking.com/DMHRJ
