Short Film Screenwriting: A Craft Guide and Anthology

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Description

Written by a Sundance alum and short filmmaker, this book combines the practical advice of a craft guide with a curated, diverse anthology, including revealing interviews with the writers and directors. Short Film Screenwriting demystifies the process of writing effective, emotionally involving short films and, for the first time, publishes the screenplays of some award-winning shorts, providing unfiltered access to the voice, vision, and approach of the filmmakers. A ground-breaking new addition to both film and creative writing instruction, this book treats short film screenwriting as a literary mode worthy of close examination and exploration to inspire screenwriters. The book is built around accessible craft concepts and story forms: narrative design, visualizing character, uncommon relationship, the 10-minute journey, perception shift, formal experiments and hybrid forms, and revision. Contemporary, award-winning film scripts from the Oscars, Sundance, SXSW, and beyond accompany chapters as case studies, along with interviews with the writers/filmmakers about the drafting and revision process, production, and release. Each of the films is accessible for screening online, with additional screenplays included in an online Bloomsbury resource.

Reviews

This is a book that actually does what an instructor in screenwriting needs it to do. Austin Bunn creates a working knowledge base that will allow students of short film to get started right away. Readers of this book will learn about what is happening right now in film, instead of having to weed through ruminations on award-winning scripts from forty-odd years ago. I can see a student, in a single semester, working through this text, creating their own script, and actually getting some friends together to start filming. * Mark D. Baumgartner, Associate Professor, East Tennessee State University, USA *

Author Bio

Austin Bunn is Associate Professor in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University, USA. He is the author of The Brink: Stories and co-author of A Killer Life: How an Independent Producer Survives Deals and Disasters Far From Hollywood, one of the Hollywood Reporter Top 100 Greatest Film Books of All Time. He wrote the screenplay for Kill Your Darlings and has written scripts and pilots for Lionsgate, Participant Media, Fox2000, and Tomorrow Studios. His award-winning short films have screened nationally and internationally.