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screenplay ideas.. i need some help?
a short screenplay 15-20minutes long. How do I get a good story going by that time and how to introduce characters.. i am not the best at coming up with ideas hopefully you guys could steer me in the right directon or give me any tips you have to get ideas flowing.
2 Answers
- RunningBearLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
First act (4-6 pages): A good story needs a protagonist (main character) with a problem to solve or a goal to achieve. Aim small with a screenplay this short; give your protagonist a small goal - not saving the world or going on a quest or solving a complex mystery - but make it important so that we care whether he/she wins or loses. Think of a story that can take place in as few settings as possible (maybe just one) and as short a time as possible (maybe just one evening or one day). Make sure the audience knows what's at stake - what he'll lose if he fails. And put someone in his way who will prevent him from reaching his goal too fast. With a short, plunge straight into the action and set up the story question straight away. Put your inciting incident in the very first scene. There's no time for getting to know characters first, but it doesn't matter - we'll get to know them as the story goes on.
Second act (5-10 pages): A short doesn't have many twists and turns; the hero may make just one attempt at his goal which fails, making things worse, and shows him what he really needs to do.
Third act (4-6 pages): The hero tries again and wins/succeeds or loses/fails. The outcome should ideally rely on something set up very early on in the story. Then wrap the ends up nice and quick.
It's hard to help with ideas not knowing what kind of story you want to tell or what genre or what kind of characters but here's an example of an idea that might work quite well. Act one: A guy waits nervously for a first (blind?) date. She arrives (p1) and they start to get to know each other, but he says or does something wrong, or takes her to a place she hates (p3) - he gets off on the wrong foot and his problem is set up; he has to win her over again. Act two: he tries everything he can think of to make her like him again but only makes things worse. (Be careful to make her likeable and not snooty or mean.) By p10-12 it looks like she's about to leave. Act three: Then he does something amazing or romantic (perhaps without even meaning to) and she's impressed and, just when he's ready to give up on the evening, she takes him to some great restaurant instead, or suggests they get takeout and go to her place, and gives him a kiss.
Hope this helps.
- ?Lv 45 years ago
I do not know what a screenplay is however permit me inform you a tale as a substitute. A bunch of shrewd ducky's are on a boat within the center of the gulf of Mexico they usually cant break out. Then in the future a duckling thinks that their webed ft will permit them to swim. The different geese snigger. So the duckling hangs himself. The different geese are unhappy for what they did. So all of them come to a decision to kill themselves additionally, so they are attempting to drown themselves. So all of them bounce off the boat simplest to discover the little ducky was once correct. Now extremely good depressed all of them blow their possess heads of with M80's. THE END