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FilmSkool — a free film school

How to write amazing endings for your film.

A breakdown of what separates a satisfying short film ending from a limp one, using real examples to show how the final beat should recontextualize everything before it. Built for writers who have a strong middle but don't know how to land the plane.

Standard Story Company · 11 min · Intermediate · SCR · Screenwriting · 2023

What you take away

The ending should re-frame the whole story, not just resolve the plot — plan it before you write scene one.

Watch it

Filed under

Oscar winners for screenplay

Books on screenwriting

Making Short Films — Clifford Thurlow
The Screenwriter’s Bible — David Trottier
Story — Robert McKee
The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters — Karl Iglesias
Inside Story — Dara Marks
FilmCraft: Screenwriting — Tim Grierson

Kit for this lesson

Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX — The S5 II with raw out and ProRes internal
Sony a7 IV — The all-round full-frame hybrid
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
Rode Boompole Pro — Carbon fibre, internal cable

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