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9 DOs & DON'Ts For Short Films (Tips on How to Make a Short Film)

A checklist of what to do and what to avoid across writing and shooting a short, kept concrete throughout. Aimed squarely at a first or second film.

Film Jams · 7 min · Beginner · SCR · Screenwriting · 2020

What you take away

Most first shorts fail on the same handful of avoidable decisions.

Watch it

Filed under

Oscar winners for screenplay

Books on screenwriting

Screenwriting Tips, You Hack — Xander Bennett
Making Short Films — Clifford Thurlow
Writing Short Films — Linda J. Cowgill
The Screenwriter’s Bible — David Trottier
The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters — Karl Iglesias
The Coffee Break Screenwriter — Pilar Alessandra

Kit for this lesson

Canon EOS R6 Mark II — The affordable full-frame RF hybrid
Nikon Z6 III — Partially stacked sensor, N-RAW internal
Fujifilm X-H2S — Stacked APS-C, F-Log2, open gate 6.2K
Fujifilm X-S20 — Small, cheap, 6.2K open gate
Sony a6700 — APS-C hybrid, a first serious camera
Rode NT1 5th Generation — Studio condenser for ADR and voice-over

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Céline Sciamma | BAFTA Screenwriters’ Lecture Series — BAFTA Guru · 55m · Advanced
Essential Skill Sets Screenwriters Need To Write Professionally - Corey Mandell [FULL INTERVIEW] — Film Courage · 75m · Intermediate
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Mike Leigh | BAFTA Screenwriters' Lecture Series — BAFTA · 62m · Advanced
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