A lot of this is applicable to short stories too! Too often, instead of simplifying and narrowing, people just try to cram a full 3 act epic into 5000 words. Great work, man.
I found myself struggling with this recently. Had to write a short story for class, and had a very strict wordcount. My ideas kept being "I want to write this book and I have a page to do it". Thankfully I realized myself it wasn't going to work and narrowed it down to just one small but significant moment from said theoretical book. I'm now onto making my second draft of it and it's going to be interesting taking these new thoughts about it with me to see if I can improve it further!
And then it hits you. He probably had 6-10 pieces of advice for making short films, all the mistakes he made and how to avoid them. 20-30 minutes of analysis and insight that most of us would probably watch. But the medium is the message.
this made me realize why all of my project ideas end up becoming fully fledged stories. because i’m trying to dissect every aspect when i really don’t need to
Bro you SPITTIN. I’m making a shit ton of shorts on webtoon to practice getting the flow of creating on paper and releasing to hold myself accountable. I realize most people try to bite off WAY more we can chew, so to anyone I think it’s great practice. I’d almost say it’s like practicing your fundamentals in art, before actually making fully fleshed out content!
and yet it's so hard sometimes to put my head down and truly work on those smaller yet complete works instead of spinning my wheels over the same grandiose magnum-opus-story-of-all-time that my heart sings for yet my brain cant even get on with cause it GRINDS TO A HALT EVERY TIME IT REALIZES IT DOESNT KNOW WHAT ITS DOING - 404 EXPERIENCE NOT FOUND it's almost as though you have to fire up the darling-killer-9000 not just within a story but across an entire productivity timeline, or at least in the beginning to ensure you get ahead at a kind of reasonable pace.
Yeah, I totally agree. If I didn't listen to this lesson after others learned it, I probably would have gotten stuck on the very first game I tried to make. Its a very important thing to understand for anyone who wants to delve into the creative arts, methinks
>didn't slide down the slide >tremendous lack of payoff >just sitting there talking >no explosions >3/10 use of setting Jk I've been having similar thoughts this last year, so glad to see you make a video about this. Succinct and very well-communicated. Excellent work, man.
I think a lot of this is applicable to D&D/TTRPGs as well. People want to create these highly complex multi-year epic campaigns, but the typical group lasts maybe a few months before half the players have cycled out or it fizzles out entirely-and even if the group gets through the whole thing, most players struggle to remember 90% of the detail & nuance. Instead, consider a string of short discrete adventures, each no longer than a session or two, each laser-focused on one idea you find fun or interesting. One adventure can focus on some high concept. Another can be as simple as “what if they go on an underwater quest”? As players progress, their affinity for their characters will organically create a sense of continuity, which can be seeds for other adventures (“What if the kleptomaniac thief has to choose between $10,000,000 or their own hand?”) It can take a lot of pressure off of you, because you’re no longer trying to be JRR Tolkien, and it can improve your relationship with your players, because you’re no longer forcing them to pretend that you’re JRR Tolkien. It also makes it much easier for players or characters to cycle in & out of the group and still have a satisfying experience. But it can also lead to much more fun, memorable sessions, because each has a clear focus & theme that stands on its own.
Summarized: Instead of having a 50 hour long Main Quest break it down to 30 minutes up to 3 hours, or howeever long a season takes. I would even say have multiple sidequests and a standalone Main Quest in one session. The more standalone and short it is the likelyhood of it being an enjoyable Session is way increased You can also have a standalone complete main Quest in every season with a different story and mew characters so every Session feels like a complete experience. Thanks a lot this gave me a lot of good ideas for my Game Development project.
I really did DM the most epic campaign ever. 4 years, almost daily. 1 central player with guest players who'd come and go. Like, 50 levels. But it started super simple. Wizard apprentice delivering little stones for his master. It wasn't initially supposed to be epic but the player was super open so I was able to reveal his backstory throughout the game and build things up in every dimension.
@@localscriptman I’ll bash myself over the head with the ‘writing 101’ book I was gifted in 2016 a few more times, transfer some more knowledge into my brain.
Also very applicable to animations! I've met a lot of young animators that don't know where to start, including myself, and the advice is always the same: focus in on one part of your story, a snapshot. Especially animation, it's a lot of effort and not a lot of wiggle room for mistakes to fix after the fact. Go out there and make some stuff!!!
I didn't mind the dystopian sci fi short you did. I thought you did a good job acting-wise I 100% agree with the sentiment though, I feel nervous asking friends or family if they've watched my short film. Mine has a 50/50 success ratio of jokes stretched over 20 minutes and I dread when people ask about it. It's kind of in no-man's land and I was rejected from nearly every festival I assume due to the length. Runtime is real
I NEEDED THIS!! i had a feeling my short film had too much going on, so I'll take the ambition and themes and pour it into the best part of the movie. THANK YOU!!
On a larger scale, do you have any thoughts on mini tv series? I just finished watching Shōgun yesterday, and the way they tied all of the major and minor characters plot lines together in the end while somehow managing to draw a satisfying conclusion was so impressive to me, given that the entire series was just short of 10 hours long.
This is such good advice. A story that I mostly completed and then gave up on has the issue of using too many things. If I am ever to go back to it, I would cut out most of the scenes except for one, since only one is ACTUALLY needed to convey the story. Thank you LocalMidwestMan!
Agreed. I wrote a story two years ago that was way too complex and I came back to it and was able to divide it up into two separate short film concepts and now they both can breath much better and I’m actually excited about them instead of frustrated and banging my head against the wall constantly trying to reconcile everything in one.
I've just opened your character maps; you are a beautiful human, thank you so much, these are an excellent resource to have open free access too!! Much love!
I'm currently struggling with writing a short story (different medium, similar concept) when this vid just popped up in my feed. Figured it was fate. I can't believe you posted this five hours ago it really was just the perfect timing. And I think you gave me the advice I needed to figure this damn thing out. Thanks dude :)
Really like the new thumbnail style, looks sick! As always it's a pleasure getting to watch more content of yours, especially on a topic such as this. Goodness knows writing a well made short film is definitely easy sounding on paper yet quite challenging in practice.
In film school we had a project that was to make a 1 minute short, with 1 character in 1 location. You have to start and end on the same shot. But the challenge is to change the context/meaning of that shot in 1 minute. It was incredibly creative.
Love the video, and while you were describing showing character progression with a simple motif, I immediately thought of the episode called Forks from season 2 of The Bear. So good
Excellent video! I’ve had a short comic idea outlined but unfinished for years and this vid made me realize how the only bit that matters is like one scene out of five lol
Wow I did the opposite of this. My first short film bloated to 20 minutes and took almost 3 years to complete. I'm proud of it but I would do it completely different
i have so much to learn. I'm in film school and I've written and directed one short film so far. i found your page just today and i've been watching your videos all day. i wish i found it years ago. it's almost overwhelming (all the Information I’m trying to absorb) but i won’t quit and i thank you for putting out all this wisdom. I feel super confident that this will help mold me into the director and writer i aspire to be.
Damn, I was just trying to come up with a short film idea this morning(and making some of the mistakes you pointed out) and this video comes up. Nice perspective as always.
I was stuck writing my first short until I saw this video. I had a very simple concept that I thought needed more conflict, which it did, but thought to do that I needed more locations and characters. After 8 drafts I'm now going back to the original core idea and making that my movie. Thank you as always, LocalScriptMan.
I took the opposite approach. I began writing small shorts, but with every one, I began honing this knack of making them dense while still maintaining the essence of what is required to create something large in scope but small in actual scale and thematically tight. It's been working out so far. I find the necessity of short films needing to be small to be a hindrance to the medium, not a genuine limitation, but something that prevents people from experimenting beyond what they think is possible or effective. With enough care and a clear north star, larger ideas can be effective, and there's no need to limit the number of characters or the scope of the project, just as long as you know what the story requires and you keep a close eye on what is absolutely required to make your message (hopefully) resonate. Generally speaking, though, your approach is the best for people that aren't trying to push the medium in the way I am. There are a million others aspects of creating a short that any one person can want to go in the direction of. And if anyone is still new to the short game, they should absolutely, 100%, keep it small. Build a foundation before breaking rules, and find what stories you want to tell and how you want to tell them, as for most people their preferred methodology will end up being what is described in the video - so skip the unnecessary failures by learning from others. Everything else will have you failing upwards because you'll be pushing yourself in ways that lead to you becoming a better filmmaker due to you being focused on what you need to make, not just what you "want" to make. The last piece of unsolicited advice from someone anonymous on the internet: Never think your foundation is entirely solid. Even masterworks of engineering need structural maintenance at times.
Justamente llevo un año más o menos trabajando en el guión para un cortometraje pronto a filmar en mi universidad. Ha mutado muchísimo y estoy contento, he ido aprendiendo un montón y tus videos han sido de MUCHÍSIMA ayuda, todos tus videos. Justamente, esa primeriza necesidad de querer contar todo el lore y condensar un largometraje en 5 minutos ha sido algo muy difícil de entender, de superar y de trabajar. Sin embargo, el hacer recortes a la historia me han servido muchísimo no sólo para centrar el tema sino para entender su esencia/corazón y, al mismo tiempo, el mío. De nuevo, todos tus videos me han ayudado muchísimo a comprender estos procesos de escritura y exploración. En noviembre más o menos empezamos a filmar con mis amigos y compañeros, eso si que será divertido. Saludos desde Ecuador!
I really like your videos because they are really helpful. I'm trying to make a comic and i didn't know where to start and was thinking of making a long story but i can make a short comic
Im not writing scripts or intend to do so, i come simply for the distilled brilliance delivered with attitude. A rarity, a gem, a little high-pressured well-polished cut.
This timing is so perfect because I've been trying to write my first screenplay for like a month and until like ten minutes ago was about to go insane until I watched this video and realized I'm just hurting myself by thinking so abstract when in reality I should be making the simplest shit imaginable given I got no experience.
i dabbled a little bit in making small games for a year back in school and this video basically boils down to the lesson we were taught over and over again there, which was “don’t overscope”
Thank you for introducing me to the movie, "The FP." It looks like one of those so-bad-it's-good type of films that I need to watch. In turn, I'd like to mention Godfrey Ho and his universe of 80s ninja films that seem to be in the same lofty pantheon as The FP.
I've definitely been trying to take this advice for my films. In 2022, I wrote a 76 page script for this monstrous choose your own adventure "short film" and while I am proud of the final product, it's definitely inconsistent in its quality. I've done 3 short films since then, all of which feature a single location between 2 characters, and I think they're a lot better. However, I've now found myself in a position where I have these massive, high-concept ideas and I'm seeing my peers tackle their own monstrously huge ideas to varying success, and I'm really antsy about making a film that has this spawling narrative with 5+ fleshed-out characters, but I know that it's probably not a good idea. But since I don't have the budget or the studio support to make a feature, I'm stuck between (A: play it safe and make a shorter, more condensed film that will probably be pretty good, but I'm not super excited about the idea) or (B: take a huge risk on an idea that I'm passionate about but basically throw every piece of advice I've ever been given about short films out the window)
Never mind, I just watched your video on Creative Insecurity and I've come to the conclusion that I'm suffering from just that. I like the stories that I like and I think I'm onto something and I want to write something that gives me an "aha" moment, and even if someone else deems it to be too much crammed into a space that is too small, I shouldn't care because it feels like a natural next step in my process, and the opinions of other people be damned. You've earned a subscription.
Mildly reminded of 2 things 1) The pilot short idea; I'm doing an adaptation of a video game series into an animated series. At some point during the writing of the thing, there was one place that the protags don't go to on the "Main Quest". Instead of tossing it or trying to shoehorn in the location, I instead took that to make a basic thing of "Here's what the show's about". Though, at 20+ minutes, all I got is storyboard and no big animation going. Which leads me to... 2) A question of length; I got this idea bug that hit me while I was doing a challenge. I drew up these small lil' characters overlooking the main protag of the... "IP"? And then I spiraled. After the dust settled, I found myself with the idea of a 40min animated thing. Knowing that, as a 1-man team, I couldn't possibly do 40min of animation, I went and decided to split the whole thing into 3 parts to focus in on, the main protags, the small lil' characters, and the setting overall. Thus far, I'm aiming for maybe 5 shorts focusing on each clocking in at least 2~3 min for the sake of my sanity. At least 1 has hit the storyboard stage, but most of them are kinda stuck in the idea-zone ooze.
i think a good example of what yr talking about would be like the opening to the cube where its just some random guy chucking a boot into a room checking for traps then he gets cut into lil cubes its short in one spot gets across pretty much the whole films idea in like 5 minutes
Sorry, that won't stop me from making my 3 hour student short monster epic film with themes of Machiavellian power and Freudian imagery! Okay, jokes aside, this was another banger vid. I'm not exactly planning to go into film production (though who knows?) but it's always useful and interesting to see how you can simplify narrative content down into something digestible and sweet.
There's a short film about death I saw a few weeks ago named Coda/Koda, It was so bittersweetly sad and heartwarming? It's gonna stick with me for a while.
Развлечения
When the script man has MS paint open, you know he's cooking
Commissions $1,000,000
@@localscriptman insert futurama "take my money" meme
Hahaha fax
@@localscriptmanI'll start saving
@localscriptman demand must be high
A lot of this is applicable to short stories too! Too often, instead of simplifying and narrowing, people just try to cram a full 3 act epic into 5000 words. Great work, man.
Thank you sir, I do my best
omg it’s hfm, hi
Oh, hello Tim!
Two of my favorite guys right here
I found myself struggling with this recently. Had to write a short story for class, and had a very strict wordcount. My ideas kept being "I want to write this book and I have a page to do it". Thankfully I realized myself it wasn't going to work and narrowed it down to just one small but significant moment from said theoretical book. I'm now onto making my second draft of it and it's going to be interesting taking these new thoughts about it with me to see if I can improve it further!
And then it hits you.
He probably had 6-10 pieces of advice for making short films, all the mistakes he made and how to avoid them. 20-30 minutes of analysis and insight that most of us would probably watch.
But the medium is the message.
Pretty good catch, dude
Insert meme of guy tapping the side of his head
I'm learning from the comments here lol
He Marshall Mcluhaned all over this!
I saw the thumbnail in the preview notification and deadass thought it just said, “Don’t.”
DO NOT
YOU MAKE A SHORT FILM AND I SWEAR TO GOD
I thought it just said overthink!
Wanna make a short film? Don’t. You better overthink it too.
this is why I enjoy the humble novella: not as sprawling and girthy as a novel, but typically more thicc with engaging concepts than a short story
agree but dude, phrasing
Damnnn The wording my guy, aothree alert
bro what are you describing 😭😭
this made me realize why all of my project ideas end up becoming fully fledged stories. because i’m trying to dissect every aspect when i really don’t need to
Bro you SPITTIN. I’m making a shit ton of shorts on webtoon to practice getting the flow of creating on paper and releasing to hold myself accountable.
I realize most people try to bite off WAY more we can chew, so to anyone I think it’s great practice. I’d almost say it’s like practicing your fundamentals in art, before actually making fully fleshed out content!
Oh yeah totally, I believe making a bunch of little things will teach you more than laboring for years over one big thing
and yet it's so hard sometimes to put my head down and truly work on those smaller yet complete works instead of spinning my wheels over the same grandiose magnum-opus-story-of-all-time that my heart sings for yet my brain cant even get on with cause it GRINDS TO A HALT EVERY TIME IT REALIZES IT DOESNT KNOW WHAT ITS DOING - 404 EXPERIENCE NOT FOUND
it's almost as though you have to fire up the darling-killer-9000 not just within a story but across an entire productivity timeline, or at least in the beginning to ensure you get ahead at a kind of reasonable pace.
Yeah, I totally agree. If I didn't listen to this lesson after others learned it, I probably would have gotten stuck on the very first game I tried to make.
Its a very important thing to understand for anyone who wants to delve into the creative arts, methinks
just realised i'm diagnosed with quentin tarantino wannabe syndrome
🤣🤣
I literally had the same thing not too long ago
Real af💀
It’s a good thing to love a director. You know your style
whats the cure
Did anyone else catch that ancientscriptman Saul cosplay in front of the courthouse? I cried. Incredible lore
Definitely my best Halloween costume
>didn't slide down the slide
>tremendous lack of payoff
>just sitting there talking
>no explosions
>3/10 use of setting
Jk
I've been having similar thoughts this last year, so glad to see you make a video about this. Succinct and very well-communicated. Excellent work, man.
I actually did go down the slide but I didn’t want to give everybody the ick so I cut the clip early
@@localscriptman Fair
All us ADD kids watching his vids are thinking that a l l t h e t i m e
Thanks for telling me this after I filmed my final project
I think a lot of this is applicable to D&D/TTRPGs as well. People want to create these highly complex multi-year epic campaigns, but the typical group lasts maybe a few months before half the players have cycled out or it fizzles out entirely-and even if the group gets through the whole thing, most players struggle to remember 90% of the detail & nuance. Instead, consider a string of short discrete adventures, each no longer than a session or two, each laser-focused on one idea you find fun or interesting.
One adventure can focus on some high concept. Another can be as simple as “what if they go on an underwater quest”? As players progress, their affinity for their characters will organically create a sense of continuity, which can be seeds for other adventures (“What if the kleptomaniac thief has to choose between $10,000,000 or their own hand?”)
It can take a lot of pressure off of you, because you’re no longer trying to be JRR Tolkien, and it can improve your relationship with your players, because you’re no longer forcing them to pretend that you’re JRR Tolkien. It also makes it much easier for players or characters to cycle in & out of the group and still have a satisfying experience. But it can also lead to much more fun, memorable sessions, because each has a clear focus & theme that stands on its own.
And this is also why I love and prefer to play OSR
Summarized: Instead of having a 50 hour long Main Quest break it down to 30 minutes up to 3 hours, or howeever long a season takes. I would even say have multiple sidequests and a standalone Main Quest in one session. The more standalone and short it is the likelyhood of it being an enjoyable Session is way increased
You can also have a standalone complete main Quest in every season with a different story and mew characters so every Session feels like a complete experience.
Thanks a lot this gave me a lot of good ideas for my Game Development project.
I really did DM the most epic campaign ever. 4 years, almost daily. 1 central player with guest players who'd come and go. Like, 50 levels.
But it started super simple. Wizard apprentice delivering little stones for his master. It wasn't initially supposed to be epic but the player was super open so I was able to reveal his backstory throughout the game and build things up in every dimension.
You just blew my mind with that Titanic short film. What a great way to get to the core of a story.
Just started the video and already a fire line "don't think of it as a short film think of it as a small film"
Here in New England, we have bells and the smell of the atmosphere too.
But do you have a giant HELL IS REAL sign didn’t think so
@@localscriptmanyeah but we have the Star market over the pike whuddabout THAT
@@localscriptman We have pine trees.
Still haven’t seen you in the supermarket, my script has not chipped nor shattered, thinking about giving up. Inspire me, Lucas. Inspire me.
You gotta ball out
@@localscriptman I’ll bash myself over the head with the ‘writing 101’ book I was gifted in 2016 a few more times, transfer some more knowledge into my brain.
@@youpeoplearevampires That’s a lot of pressure but I’ll do my darndest
Also very applicable to animations! I've met a lot of young animators that don't know where to start, including myself, and the advice is always the same: focus in on one part of your story, a snapshot. Especially animation, it's a lot of effort and not a lot of wiggle room for mistakes to fix after the fact. Go out there and make some stuff!!!
this video is gonna pop off, great title, great hook, clean thumbnail design
also new upload :D yay!
Honestly you can only predict the 🅱️algorithm to a certain extent, but I hope so
@@localscriptman we shall wait and see 😎
I want to make a short movie about a guy that just cleans his room. No investing, no gym, just cleaning room.
I didn't mind the dystopian sci fi short you did. I thought you did a good job acting-wise
I 100% agree with the sentiment though, I feel nervous asking friends or family if they've watched my short film. Mine has a 50/50 success ratio of jokes stretched over 20 minutes and I dread when people ask about it. It's kind of in no-man's land and I was rejected from nearly every festival I assume due to the length. Runtime is real
I NEEDED THIS!! i had a feeling my short film had too much going on, so I'll take the ambition and themes and pour it into the best part of the movie. THANK YOU!!
On a larger scale, do you have any thoughts on mini tv series? I just finished watching Shōgun yesterday, and the way they tied all of the major and minor characters plot lines together in the end while somehow managing to draw a satisfying conclusion was so impressive to me, given that the entire series was just short of 10 hours long.
Yeah the second half of my true detective video is about that stuff!
Shogun was freakin poetic. Another amazing mini series that’s still my top series is Chernobyl (2019). Amazing what they did with just 5 episodes.
Holy shit, this is EXACTLY what I needed to hear. Thank you so much!
The video chapters are completely useful and super necessary. Thank you!
"Nah im tryna deh" 😂😂
I could listen to this man ramble about writing for hours
That "nah I'm tryna di" delivery made me spill.
This is such good advice.
A story that I mostly completed and then gave up on has the issue of using too many things. If I am ever to go back to it, I would cut out most of the scenes except for one, since only one is ACTUALLY needed to convey the story.
Thank you LocalMidwestMan!
Agreed. I wrote a story two years ago that was way too complex and I came back to it and was able to divide it up into two separate short film concepts and now they both can breath much better and I’m actually excited about them instead of frustrated and banging my head against the wall constantly trying to reconcile everything in one.
I've just opened your character maps; you are a beautiful human, thank you so much, these are an excellent resource to have open free access too!! Much love!
Me reading the thumbnail : “Over Don’t Think” that’s what I needed all along
I'm currently struggling with writing a short story (different medium, similar concept) when this vid just popped up in my feed. Figured it was fate. I can't believe you posted this five hours ago it really was just the perfect timing.
And I think you gave me the advice I needed to figure this damn thing out. Thanks dude :)
Really like the new thumbnail style, looks sick! As always it's a pleasure getting to watch more content of yours, especially on a topic such as this. Goodness knows writing a well made short film is definitely easy sounding on paper yet quite challenging in practice.
In film school we had a project that was to make a 1 minute short, with 1 character in 1 location. You have to start and end on the same shot. But the challenge is to change the context/meaning of that shot in 1 minute. It was incredibly creative.
I love your thought process
Love the video, and while you were describing showing character progression with a simple motif, I immediately thought of the episode called Forks from season 2 of The Bear. So good
Excellent video! I’ve had a short comic idea outlined but unfinished for years and this vid made me realize how the only bit that matters is like one scene out of five lol
Wow I did the opposite of this. My first short film bloated to 20 minutes and took almost 3 years to complete. I'm proud of it but I would do it completely different
Hell yeah free thinker
I enjoyed the intro and the music so much I went back to watch it a second time before watching the rest of the vid
This is perfect. Me and my buddies are planning on making a short film next break and this helped a lot.
I needed this right now your actually insane thank you
i have so much to learn. I'm in film school and I've written and directed one short film so far. i found your page just today and i've been watching your videos all day. i wish i found it years ago. it's almost overwhelming (all the Information I’m trying to absorb) but i won’t quit and i thank you for putting out all this wisdom. I feel super confident that this will help mold me into the director and writer i aspire to be.
Thank god you uploaded rhis. I have been trying to write something for a small local festival.
So smart, this is going to help a lot of filmmakers! Thanks for making it!
title does not lie, I neede this video years ago but im happy ive got it now realy helped with an animation im working on
Eyy don’t think we missed how you also made this youtube video short with one key idea being explored
Respect👏
Damn, I was just trying to come up with a short film idea this morning(and making some of the mistakes you pointed out) and this video comes up. Nice perspective as always.
OMAIGAD i needed this video IN MY LIFE
I was stuck writing my first short until I saw this video. I had a very simple concept that I thought needed more conflict, which it did, but thought to do that I needed more locations and characters. After 8 drafts I'm now going back to the original core idea and making that my movie. Thank you as always, LocalScriptMan.
short video for a video about short films which includes one main point and some elaboration, truly living up to the title
Fantastic video
Loved it
This is the greatest lesson I learned going into college. Great stuff!!
I took the opposite approach. I began writing small shorts, but with every one, I began honing this knack of making them dense while still maintaining the essence of what is required to create something large in scope but small in actual scale and thematically tight. It's been working out so far. I find the necessity of short films needing to be small to be a hindrance to the medium, not a genuine limitation, but something that prevents people from experimenting beyond what they think is possible or effective. With enough care and a clear north star, larger ideas can be effective, and there's no need to limit the number of characters or the scope of the project, just as long as you know what the story requires and you keep a close eye on what is absolutely required to make your message (hopefully) resonate.
Generally speaking, though, your approach is the best for people that aren't trying to push the medium in the way I am. There are a million others aspects of creating a short that any one person can want to go in the direction of. And if anyone is still new to the short game, they should absolutely, 100%, keep it small. Build a foundation before breaking rules, and find what stories you want to tell and how you want to tell them, as for most people their preferred methodology will end up being what is described in the video - so skip the unnecessary failures by learning from others. Everything else will have you failing upwards because you'll be pushing yourself in ways that lead to you becoming a better filmmaker due to you being focused on what you need to make, not just what you "want" to make.
The last piece of unsolicited advice from someone anonymous on the internet:
Never think your foundation is entirely solid. Even masterworks of engineering need structural maintenance at times.
Came to say how cool the thumbnail is. Well done. I don't think I've ever watched this channel before, but this video just showed up on my homepage.
Justamente llevo un año más o menos trabajando en el guión para un cortometraje pronto a filmar en mi universidad. Ha mutado muchísimo y estoy contento, he ido aprendiendo un montón y tus videos han sido de MUCHÍSIMA ayuda, todos tus videos. Justamente, esa primeriza necesidad de querer contar todo el lore y condensar un largometraje en 5 minutos ha sido algo muy difícil de entender, de superar y de trabajar. Sin embargo, el hacer recortes a la historia me han servido muchísimo no sólo para centrar el tema sino para entender su esencia/corazón y, al mismo tiempo, el mío. De nuevo, todos tus videos me han ayudado muchísimo a comprender estos procesos de escritura y exploración. En noviembre más o menos empezamos a filmar con mis amigos y compañeros, eso si que será divertido.
Saludos desde Ecuador!
I really like your videos because they are really helpful. I'm trying to make a comic and i didn't know where to start and was thinking of making a long story but i can make a short comic
Im not writing scripts or intend to do so, i come simply for the distilled brilliance delivered with attitude. A rarity, a gem, a little high-pressured well-polished cut.
This is so helpful and true!! I relate sm
Another great advice. Simple, boiled down, practical. Loce it.
Dude your videos are legit
I needed this video for sure
Final Space's orignal pilot episode was exactly that. a short film.
a 7-8 minute essence of the main character nd it was oh so good!
Watched it again, i think i understood your point. Thanks man👍🏼
This timing is so perfect because I've been trying to write my first screenplay for like a month and until like ten minutes ago was about to go insane until I watched this video and realized I'm just hurting myself by thinking so abstract when in reality I should be making the simplest shit imaginable given I got no experience.
5:17
Okay but this had me chuckling for a good minute
I fuckin love the Midwest, man. Minnesota born and raised with no intention of leaving anytime soon.
I love videos that get me inspired
"nah im tryna die " lmaooo took me out
I appreciate the Midwest shoutout 🙏
fun fact: that smell we all like, the storm incoming, is called petrichor: the smell of rain
also fire vid as always
“I made two short films in college and I’m not gonna link them”
Challenge accepted
"And the church bells go 'din don din duuuun...'"
As someone in Lansing MI, I know exactly what you mean.
How convenient of you to make this video an hour after my professor said my short script needs work. Thank you Messiah.
The opening funeral scene of Thunder Road was also originally a short film, another really great example!
"Today's the day" is probably one of the best short films I've seen and I don't even know what the message is. But I feel it.
i dabbled a little bit in making small games for a year back in school and this video basically boils down to the lesson we were taught over and over again there, which was “don’t overscope”
now make the secret sauce for a 4 hour "snyder cut" type film
Slow motion
@@localscriptman Bro has no chill
the algorithm is crazy for recommending this to me when im trying to make a short film RIGHT NOW
Short films that try to be compressed feature films are a pet peeve of mine
Great vid, that outro song is cool too I wonder what the song name is
Thank you for introducing me to the movie, "The FP." It looks like one of those so-bad-it's-good type of films that I need to watch. In turn, I'd like to mention Godfrey Ho and his universe of 80s ninja films that seem to be in the same lofty pantheon as The FP.
That's so interesting though - in film school, they usually require 5+ minute short films, with my current assignment being 8-10 minutes.
I've definitely been trying to take this advice for my films. In 2022, I wrote a 76 page script for this monstrous choose your own adventure "short film" and while I am proud of the final product, it's definitely inconsistent in its quality. I've done 3 short films since then, all of which feature a single location between 2 characters, and I think they're a lot better. However, I've now found myself in a position where I have these massive, high-concept ideas and I'm seeing my peers tackle their own monstrously huge ideas to varying success, and I'm really antsy about making a film that has this spawling narrative with 5+ fleshed-out characters, but I know that it's probably not a good idea. But since I don't have the budget or the studio support to make a feature, I'm stuck between (A: play it safe and make a shorter, more condensed film that will probably be pretty good, but I'm not super excited about the idea) or (B: take a huge risk on an idea that I'm passionate about but basically throw every piece of advice I've ever been given about short films out the window)
Never mind, I just watched your video on Creative Insecurity and I've come to the conclusion that I'm suffering from just that. I like the stories that I like and I think I'm onto something and I want to write something that gives me an "aha" moment, and even if someone else deems it to be too much crammed into a space that is too small, I shouldn't care because it feels like a natural next step in my process, and the opinions of other people be damned. You've earned a subscription.
thank you so much for the secret sauce mr script man
Dude, perfect. Does anyone else give more on the subject of making stories about one thing? I find it so hard to stop myself from adding stuff.
I'm so glad that I found you
Someday our Local ScriptMan become an InternationalScriptMan
Mildly reminded of 2 things
1) The pilot short idea; I'm doing an adaptation of a video game series into an animated series. At some point during the writing of the thing, there was one place that the protags don't go to on the "Main Quest". Instead of tossing it or trying to shoehorn in the location, I instead took that to make a basic thing of "Here's what the show's about". Though, at 20+ minutes, all I got is storyboard and no big animation going. Which leads me to...
2) A question of length; I got this idea bug that hit me while I was doing a challenge. I drew up these small lil' characters overlooking the main protag of the... "IP"? And then I spiraled. After the dust settled, I found myself with the idea of a 40min animated thing. Knowing that, as a 1-man team, I couldn't possibly do 40min of animation, I went and decided to split the whole thing into 3 parts to focus in on, the main protags, the small lil' characters, and the setting overall. Thus far, I'm aiming for maybe 5 shorts focusing on each clocking in at least 2~3 min for the sake of my sanity. At least 1 has hit the storyboard stage, but most of them are kinda stuck in the idea-zone ooze.
i think a good example of what yr talking about would be like the opening to the cube where its just some random guy chucking a boot into a room checking for traps then he gets cut into lil cubes its short in one spot gets across pretty much the whole films idea in like 5 minutes
Im about to make my first short film in college, so this video was really well timed for me to realize its probably gonna suck
Shout out to one of my favorite short films of all time, Stalled by Matt Black, doing a Nolan-level plot entirely in a single location
Was just wrapping up my own short film draft when this popped up. Time to second guess every decision I just made
Sorry, that won't stop me from making my 3 hour student short monster epic film with themes of Machiavellian power and Freudian imagery!
Okay, jokes aside, this was another banger vid. I'm not exactly planning to go into film production (though who knows?) but it's always useful and interesting to see how you can simplify narrative content down into something digestible and sweet.
Holy shit that DDR Cyberpunk movie was a blast from the past!
I had no idea they'd made a feature length version
Remember that failure is inevitable, but don't ever let your lack of talent make you give up, or keep you from being successful,
Local script man dropped a video Les go.
Spiderverse mentioned w
i appriciate the the short film video itself was a short video, very thematically appropriate
My first big film effort was a 50 minute ninja epic. I definitely would have learned more making 50 one minute ninja movies.
Yes! Yes!! This is what I tell people. But you told it better. Yes! 🎉
There's a short film about death I saw a few weeks ago named Coda/Koda, It was so bittersweetly sad and heartwarming? It's gonna stick with me for a while.
Timestamps were especially useful this time, you never fail to impress