Overview

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 resource.

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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 *

Austin Bunn’s Short Film Screenwriting is an informative and revealing deep dive into the elements, mechanics, and poetry of the short-form screenplay. By conducting case studies of diverse material, Bunn has filled a gap in film scholarship. This is an essential book for aspiring screenwriters and film students whose first foray into the medium will likely be creating their own short films. * Andrea Berloff, Filmmaker, including The Kitchen (2019), Straight Outta Compton (2015), World Trade Center (2006), and others, USA * Austin Bunn’s Short Film Screenwriting is a valuable resource for anyone starting work on their first short screenplay or their one hundredth. The insights into the innumerable possible shapes and perspectives involved in crafting a great short film are many, and Austin Bunn provides just enough insight, information, and practical background to widen a filmmaker’s cinematic possibilities and yet bring their ideas into diamond-sharp focus. The inclusion of sample short film screenplays is particularly instructive; this book is a high quality screenwriting tool by a clearly gifted teacher and practitioner. * Venero Armanno, Associate Professor in Creative Writing, The University of Queensland, Australia, The University of Queensland, Australia, and author of The Volcano, The Crying Forest, Gabriella’s Book of Fire, Burning Down, Black Mountain, Travel Under Any Star, and many more. * We are all familiar with books on feature screenwriting—some formulaic, some inspirational. What Austin Bunn has done here is to focus instead on the short film. Short Film Screenwriting is at once a deeply useful manual on how to construct an effective and moving short film and an anthology of some of the best examples of the form. But, because Bunn is so damn insightful, and so damn generous with his wisdom, his engaged and engaging book ends up speaking to lovers and crafters of films of all lengths. In short: this is one of the best books on screenwriting, period. * Howard A. Rodman, Professor, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, USA, and former president of the Writers Guild of America West * 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 Information

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.

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