Tell the story, know your formats and ask yourself: is hiring a helicopter the best use of your money?

I've taken part in a couple of short film competitions now and here are some thoughts and tips I've picked up or learned along the way. Some of these points might seem obvious to you, but it's the seemingly obvious stuff that so easily and so often gets forgotten.

Write an idea not a feature

Short films are moments. Don't feel the need to cram a three act structure into your narrative. Skip Act Two, and you could probably do away with Act One as well. You can still have a clearly defined narrative with beginning and end but don't worry for too long about character, story or the need to explain everything. If you've only just finished your screenplay and everyone is happy with it and then you realise its 6pm on the first day of the competition, you're in trouble.

Write a story not a trailer

All that said, your short should make sense. It should not be a rough edit of shots for a larger feature. You're proving what you can do in a short space of time on little or no money, not what you could do if you had months of pre-production and a decent budget.

Do you need a helicopter? Probably not

I took part in a competition and saw (via Twitter) that another team was using a helicopter to grab aerial shots. It's a lot of time and effort for a few seconds of footage. Also, they were complaining about waiting for the helicopter to refuel before going up again. The competition runners will be more impressed by a solid piece of film making than someone throwing money at one good aerial shot.

Know your formats

Canon 5D and 7D are great for shooting on the hoof; they can store a decent amount of footage, they're light and setting up doesn't take too long. They're great if you're moving around but you'll also need a fair few memory cards and charged batteries. Digital cameras like Red (significantly cheaper alternatives are available) are better suited for more static shoots and locations where you've got time to do full lighting rigs and so on.

Whatever you choose to shoot on, make sure you've factored in file output. Canon 5D cameras capture footage in a format better suited to presentation rather than cutting, so you're going to need to factor in making proxy files if you don't have the latest editing software.

Get the shot you need, not the shot you want

Improvisation is an important tool. Time, however, is a luxury and one you'll be short of. If you have the shot, move on. I'm not saying you won't think of something better and if you've got the time then do it, but don't waste an hour on a shot you might not use.

Tell the story

Does the shot add anything to your narrative? Tell the story as visually as possible. It's the shots that will be most evocative. This is where all that back story and world building goes. In its simplest form: why waste time on a monologue about a man who's wife has died when you just need a shot of a man looking at a picture of him and his wife together and crying.

Follow the brief

Each competition brief will contain information that will help you. Make sure you follow the rules and make sure you've ticked all the boxes. There's nothing worse than 48 hours of hard work going to waste because you didn't follow one particular instruction. The brief will also help you streamline your idea. For example, in Sci-Fi London's 48 Hour Film Challenge you are given a title, a line of dialogue and a prop that must be used. There's no reason to complicate your idea beyond that.

Great kid, don't get cocky

You want to impress. You want be remembered. You want to win. This is completely understandable, but don't try and cram everything and the kitchen sink into your short film. You're not being asked to write a 160 page screenplay. It's the simplest ideas that win – the "I wish I'd thought of that" ideas, not the "Well, I see what they tried to do but didn't have the time to do it justice" ones.

Use Twitter

Competitions will probably set up a hash tag and will run a feed letting you know how other teams are getting along. Update regularly. Keep an eye on the competition. You might stumble upon a handy piece of advice. More likely you'll be tired, worn down and feeling like you're not going to finish. Look on Twitter. Someone else will be doing worse than you.

Try again next year

Film making is a learning process. Every new shoot you learn something. Take what you learned and try again.

This content was originally published by Creative Boom

Sean Mason is a writer, actor, film maker and improv comedian. He is part of Trifecta Films and Comedysportz – follow him on Twitter @seanmason

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