Writing Short Scripts

Book excerpt: This is an updated edition of the first book to help the beginning writer enter the burgeoning world of short films from travelogues to animated shorts. William H. Phillips has extensively revised and updated to include three new and recent original short screenplays and detailed descriptions and photographs of two award-winning short films. Focusing on visualization, dialogue, settings, characters, structure, and themes, Phillips provides a guide to writing scripts for films of less than thirty minutes, from gathering and organizing materials to writing, rewriting, and formatting. Each new chapter includes new and revised ideas and examples. The glossary, bibliography, descriptions of short films, and the list of distributors of short films and videotapes have also been extensively rewritten and updated. Included are citations for short films and web site addresses useful to the short script writer.