Developing Your Short Film

Learn the development process as it relates to short films with the focus on developing a short film treatment, first draft and second draft. You gain an understanding of the basics of story structure and how the specific storytelling elements—theme, plot, characters and dialogue—work in synergy toward the goal of an effective short story. Topics include character development, creating realistic dialogue, discovering what you are driven to say through your story’s theme, and planning the scenes with a limited budget in mind. Lectures and exercises illustrated with film clips and readings emphasize the role of story, creating original characters and developing plot points for different genres of films. You submit your work-in-progress throughout the quarter for evaluation and feedback by the instructor and the class. At the end of the course, you have honed your idea and have a final short script or treatment ready for shooting.