I’ve been (finally) getting back in the swing of writing some new short films, and I realized there’s a crucial skill I’ve developed for vetting every idea.
Through the trial and error that comes with making a ton of short films, I learned to instinctively feel when a story “clicks.”
We all kind of know what that means, but I think it’s worth dissecting and articulating why some stories click and others don’t, because it’s so important – especially for short films.
What does it mean when a story “clicks”?
To me, the story clicks with the ending.
As I’ve said before, the ending is what gives the story a point, which is why it’s the most important part of a film.
Without a strong ending, you’re left with a premise that inevitably fizzles out once the writer has run out of steam.
This is how 90% of SNL sketches end… they push the funny premise as far as they can, work in a bunch of jokes, and then… the camera pans over to the band and they cut to commercial break.
Sure, it’s still entertaining (if the jokes are good), but it’s not at all satisfying as a narrative.
Unfortunately this same thing happens in short films all the time. Especially when the filmmaker doesn’t have much experience writing.
The reason? Most of us fixate on the PREMISE when we’re writing. We’re more excited about the setup than the story as a whole.
It’s a common trap that directors get more excited about specific shots/moments within the story than the story as a whole.
But this is a big problem, because the story or narrative is the backbone of the entire film, and if it’s not clicking, all the cool shots in the world won’t save it.
So what’s the remedy? Read on…
Gandalf The Yellow?
Let’s look at an example of a story that doesn’t click, and then try to make it click.
Check it out – it’s a movie about a man who discovers he has magical powers for 1 minute whenever he drinks his own piss! We’ll call it “The Whizzard”!!
Ok, great. What’s the story?
He gets black-out drunk, wakes up in the middle of the night, pees in an empty Gatorade bottle and throws it back on the floor.
The next morning, hungover, he reaches for it and takes a sip, not realizing it’s his own pee.
He looks in disgust at his messy apartment and waves his hand. Suddenly, his pile of clothes fold themselves and fly into a dresser drawer.
He realizes he’s magic! He cleans his whole room by waving his arms around in a montage.
Ok, fun, then what?
Umm, he does more magic stuff. Oh and everyone thinks he’s weird because he’s always drinking his own pee.
How does it end?
I’m not sure… maybe he needs to do his biggest magic thing yet, but it’s going to require drinking a LOT of piss. And he’s really struggling to guzzle it all down… Something like that?
Does this story click yet? No.
Because the ending is an SNL ending. It’s just fizzling to a stop.
What if the ending somehow gave meaning (and a point) to this gross story? THAT would make it click.
Finding an ending that clicks
Lets zoom out on this idea.
At it’s root, we have a story about a man who gains incredible power every time he does something disgusting.
Okay, cool premise, but what’s the point?
There’s actually a ton of ways to go with this, and a ton of points you could make with the ending.
Let’s just pick one…
We know that many great discoveries in history were initially met with skepticism and even hatred. Could the Whizzard be a colorful example that society hasn’t changed much since the days of Galileo?
Here’s an ending for that version of this story that could click…
The “Misunderstood Genius” Ending
The Whizzard holds a big press conference to prove to the world his abilities, promising to block out the sun (his greatest display of magic yet!).
With the whole world watching, he starts by chugging a large mason jar of urine.
The crowd is disgusted and angry. The press turn off their cameras and start yelling at him until suddenly… the sun goes dark!
The crowd all stop, looking up to the sky in awe. The Whizzard LAUGHS maniacally. The crowd turns back to him, eyebrows raised…
CUT TO: The Whizzard looking up at the still-black sun through a grated window.
We pull back to see he’s in a strait-jacket (and a diaper) in a mental asylum.
He begs an orderly to let him drink his own urine, promising to make the sun shine again. The orderly just says “If I had a nickel…” and walks away.
THE END.
Okay…
It’s not exactly War and Peace, but at least it has a point now.
And now that we know the ENDING, I’d go back to the BEGINNING and set it up a little better: Maybe have the Whizzard start as a total conformist with a comfortable life, but he yearns for significance and power. That way he ends up in the total opposite circumstances by the last page.
Only now does the story CLICK for me.
I hope that example was helpful.
So uh…. which one of you is going to go film this thing? 🪄🚽
Favorites this week:
🍿 Movie: Late Night With The Devil
I was drawn to this one because 1) David Dastmalchian has been playing minor characters in great movies for years and consistently stealing the show, so I was interested to see how he’d handle a leading role, and 2) It looked like a fun, original take on a familiar story (demonic possession).
I enjoyed the film and Dastmalchian capably carried it. That said, after stripping away the gimmick of framing the movie in a late-night talkshow, it’s still a very familiar story with familiar characters.
📱 App: Firecut.ai (affiliate link)
I’ve been noticing a lot of tools popping up leveraging AI to speed up some tedious parts of editing. One I’ve started playing with is FireCut, an Adobe Premiere plugin that YouTuber Ali Abdaal helped create.
So far in my testing, some features are really handy (the social-styled captions are great), while others still have a ways to go (like the experimental automatic stock footage placement). But overall it’s definitely a time-saver.
They offer a free trial, try it out for yourself! If you do a lot of talking head editing, the time-savings can compound quickly.
That’s it for this week.
Let’s make some movies.
-Kent
🎓 Film School for the Real World
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