How to Develop Your Short Movie Script
There are so many beautiful movies that we enjoy. Behind the beautiful films that we enjoy, it turns out that it takes a long process and often requires precision. One of the first vital processes is the creation of a script. Creating a script is not as easy as making and fantasizing and then pouring it into the form of a script.
In an expert or public lecture held by the Communication Department at the UII, Agni Tirta talked about how their community produces films. Agni Tirta is a documentary filmmaker and the head of the Jogja Filmmaker Society.
In the expert lecture on April 23, 2022, Agni told me how to make a film script. He can spend more than a month making a short movie alone. “Because the first week is already a draft. That’s the zero draft. Then another week is read and developed to draft 1, 2, and so on. It can be up to draft 10, 11, or 13. So writing a script can take months if it’s a short movie,” said Agni.
It’s Not Easy to Change the Storyline in a Movie Script
In addition to data, movie scripts are very much determined by imagination. Like imagination, storyline ideas can also wander and change wildly. But it will be difficult to change the storyline when the imagination has been poured into a script.
Such is the question of Sumekar Tanjung, a lecturer of Communication Studies UII, who wants to know how the trick or mechanism determines changes in the storyline of the character in the story. “For example, he wants to change from life path A to life path B,” said Tanjung.
It turns out that making this script should not be arbitrary. It is possible for the storyline to change. But a lot must be considered, such as the character’s nature and character, the environment, and even the character’s psychological atmosphere. “When I create characters, I imagine them to be alive,” Agni said.
Agni said that changing the script should not be haphazard, and one must be careful in making the story choices. “When we create a character with a complete character and lively atmosphere, such as age, nature, zodiac, what kind of environment he grew up in, his psychology too. The rest (of the story) will follow the character,” Agni explained.
“For me, it goes back to the log line or key sentence. There are many scenes that, when we write them, we doubt whether they will be used. When we are confused, we immediately go back to the log line. When the choice is opposite and does not support the main mission of the story, no matter how good the log-line is, it will not be used.”
