Short Attention Span

The Oscars are my Super Bowl, it's true.  Yesterday, the IFC Center in NY began its screening of the 2010 Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts, a showcase of all five nominated films from around the world. 


Here's why shorts are important.  

1.  Concise writing is good writing.  Boiling story down to its core, it’s simple essence.  Studying good short films can teach how to find the importance and cut through all the stuff we don’t need in six, twelve, twenty minutes. 

Exposition, flashbacks, montages, all those timewasters that don’t move the story forward.   Sometimes these are the “darlings” of your script, the places where it’s evident that the writer is writing, or being “witty,” or has clearly been waiting to use that line forever, and they don’t seem quite right.

Darlings are elements that have been crammed into where they don’t belong.  (Which is a very fun concept for a story, now that I’m thinking about it.)  “Kill your darlings,” as they say.  Who are they?  I don’t know.  Twain?  Faulkner?  At least ten people in my graduate writing workshops?  But it’s true.

It is an exercise in control, something all writers need.  First drafts always tend to be overwrought with imagery, thematic symbolism, characters doing nothing, preachy dialogue, repetition, and the glorious hammer-over-the-head in the third act, just so the audience really "gets it."

2.  Studying good short films (like Ray Tintori's "Death to the Tinman," still shot on the right,) helps writers to also understand the importance of trusting your audience.  Your audience has been watching films all of their lives.  They are an attentive, smart bunch who want to draw conclusions on their own.  Part of the joy of being told a story is interpreting that story, right?

I think it's only after understanding these concepts of telling only what is important, driving the story forward, and trusting your audience that a writer can attempt a feature script.

Watch What's Considered "Good"

So, I keep italicizing the word good, because there are a lot of bad short films out there.  There are short films that are nothing BUT “darlings.”  And, since in today’s technologically advanced, Flip Cam, iMovie, 2.0 society, everyone can be a filmmaker, you need to watch the films that are set apart from everything that’s on YouTube. 

Go watch this short showcase at the IFC center if you're in NY/NJ.  (For Jersey peeps, they're showing down is Asbury Park, too.)  But there are tons of other screenings of this year's short nominees across the country.  Visit Oscar Shorts for showtimes and locations.  While your watching, note the use of Vonnegut's  rule of starting as close to the end as possible.

Don't want to leave the house?  Do a power search under movies in the iTunes Store.  In the description field, put the word “Oscar,” “Sundance,” “Slamdance,” "Cannes," "Toronto," Berlinale, IFC,” or Tribeca.  Start there.  They won’t all be great, (I’ve seen some stinkers at TriBeca over the years), but at least you’ll have a measure for what a successful short can achieve.  Say what you will about Sundance and the Oscars.  My opinion, well, that's a whole other blog post, but the truth of the matter is, they and a number of other great film festivals are the pinnacles of cinematic success, and if I were to be accepted to or nominated, um, I wouldn't turn my nose up.