Secrets of the Short Film

How much story can fit into a five-minute film? How do films which are that short satisfy an audience? How big or small can a story be in ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes? Are there any rules to keep in mind when writing a short film? Is it useful to think of a short as a miniature feature, with the same structural elements?

You have spent much of your life watching and thinking about feature films, but at Columbia you will be asked – at least in the first year – to make shorts. These lectures are an introduction to the structure of short narrative films.

Each week, outstanding shorts from Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, Aspen, and other international festivals will be screened and discussed. (You might see a few duds as well, for comparison purposes.) The emphasis in the first two weeks will be on shorts under six minutes, in preparation for the “3-to-5” project. The second two weeks will be devoted to films between 8 and 12 minutes long, in preparation for the “8-to-12”. The final weeks will include a variety of narratives the size of Columbia thesis films. Altogether, over forty films will be shown and discussed.