Before I began studying film & TV, I never really thought about doing short films or why it can be important to make them. There are several reasons why short films are important. One reason is time constraints. For example in my case while studying, all of the projects we work on are short films because we just don't have the time to learn what we need to and make feature length films. When studying, short films are a good starting point to learn the basic skills of film making that you then apply later on to feature films. Another reason is that sometimes the story isn't long enough to be a feature and is better told as a short film. A very important reason to do the short films is to use it as a platform to secure funding to make the feature length version. Sometimes a script might not be enough to get the money you need to make your film, but if you can show investors what it would look like, they can see it without having to imagine what it might look like and they may be more likely to invest. I now understand the importance of making short films and how they are a very useful way to start learning about film making.
Scene breakdowns are one of the hardest things I have learnt about directing. There are supposed to be no right or wrong answers but there are better choices to go for than you might initially think. This is why a scene breakdown takes a lot of time and effort. A film is broken down into scenes and then each scene is broken down further into units. A director does this to understand the sub text and figure out what the crucial points of the story are. A scene breakdown is made up of a scene action, which is the psychological structure of the scene. This is where you try to establish which character the scene is about and what they are trying to achieve. Once you work out who the scene is about, it makes it easier to work out the unit actions because you already know which character it is going to be about. The scene action is broken down further into unit actions. The unit action is about how that character is faring throughout the scene. The units are defined by the beats of the story, this is where there is an emotional change . Each beat is the beginning of a new unit within the scene and each unit requires a title to describe what is happening. Once you have figured out the unit actions you can figure out your objectives. An objective is the motivation given to the actor to help them understand and play the character truthfully. There are four types of objectives a character has: Super objective, Overall objective, Scene objective and Unit objective. The super objective is the life wants of the character. The overall objective is the characters goal for the whole film. The scene objective is the characters objective for the scene and the unit objective is the characters objective for the unit. The director uses the objective to communicate how the actor should portray their character. The director usually gives the actor a verb as the objective so they understand why the character is acting that way. An example a director might give to an actor would be is, "to be intimidating", where the verb "intimidating" is the objective. The scene breakdown is crucial to your understanding of the story and how you want the audience to understand it. It is also how you find the best way to communicate the character to the actor and have them play it believably. It takes multiple read throughs to come up with the right scene breakdown but it is worth it in the end because your vision of the story comes to life and you get the best performance from your actors.
Some tips I learnt from these lessons are.
- First figure out who the scene is about, this make things much easier. Once you know, you look at each unit and think what is this character doing now and thats how you title each unit.
- When it comes to objectives be short and simple. An actor will probably tune out if you give them a huge speech on what their character is meant to be doing. All you need to give them is a stong verb that sums up what the charachter is trying to achieve.
- Getting your actors to understand their charachter is how you get them to play their character believably. Everybody hates watching a movie and thinking "that is so fake" or "thats not realistic".
- Put in the work because it's worth it, you will understand the story much better and you will be able to get the best possible performance from your actors.
