How can you write for short films and web series?

Planning is everything. Careful planning is crucial to make sure everything goes smoothly and turns out the way you want it to. Planning will help keep you organized, help you manage and use your resources well, and ensure your production is concise and meets expectations.

When developing a concept for a script, ask yourself: "What is the 'about,' and what is the 'about' about." In other words, the central idea to your story is not the actions taking place—it's the underlying meaning—the 'why.' Pride and Prejudice isn't about a woman falling in love with a man whom she detests—it's about deconstructing prejudices, and our tendency to judge others based on appearances, mannerisms, and social status. Once you've nailed the about-about, it will be much easier to craft a snappy elevator pitch that hits all the necessary notes.

My tips for writing a script for a short film would be always to have a synopsis of the short film. The synopsis is supposed to have info about the characters, the places the film is set, the tone of dialogues for the characters, the personality of the characters, and the run time. These elements will help you to put together a script for a web series.

Writing for short films and web series can be a lot of fun! Here are some tips to get you started. Get feedback on your script and be open to making revisions. Testing your script with a small audience can provide valuable insights. the key is to make the most of the limited time you have and to tell a compelling story within that constraint. Happy writing!

The concept doesn't need to be role-based. It can be a feeling, experience, transition, environment, or relational concept that you want to invest in centralising. It can also help to consider the audience early in this creative process. What do you want to deepen, enrich or change about their thinking? What structure or process will be effective, to get them to go to that place with you?

Think about the tensions between explanation/elucidation and sudden, definitive events in your plot. This overlaps somewhat with telling vs showing, in your plot. Telling/discovery phases can have a sense of unfolding, or building suspense. Used improperly, they can drag too much, or patronise your audience. Abrupt plot moments can be exciting and vibrant, but they need to be contextualised and framed to avoid confusing or alienating the audience. These tensions can be used in lots of different ways to create plot effects. It depends on your goals and vision for where you're taking your audience!

Another thing to consider is how you will market and distribute your short film or web series. Effective marketing and distribution can significantly impact the success or failure so it is important to have a well planned strategy to maximize a project's reach and impact.

For a short film it is essential to limit the scope of the project, since you'll only have a small amount of time to tell the story. Remember it's "short" so you don't want to tell the history of the world or anything -- unless you know of a brilliant and entertaining way of doing that in a few minutes! Just focus on one particular idea, image, or scene, as long as it's enough to make a complete, if brief, story.