Johnson's Article 6 Tips For Writing Short Film Scripts That Connect

Claudia Hunter Johnson’s article 6 Tips for Writing Short Film Scripts That Connect provides the reader with insight on ways to construct a short film script that is engaging, displays clear development, and that makes adequate use of page limitations. The first tip that Claudia Hunter Johnson discusses is finding “a small, specific, significant idea you can tell well in a short script” (Johnson). The main purpose of discussing this tip is to tell the reader to start a short script with an idea that isn’t too intricate or complex. Keeping the script as simple as possible helps avoid messy and rushed stories. For this reason, it is important to approach the writing of a short story with a small or simple idea. Reading about this tip has helped

Claudia Hunter Johnson then explains the importance of pace and how it can make your audience intrigued. She notes that “[starting] your story on page one” is crucial in a short story. One of the benefits to doing this is that it will allow the writer to use the rest of their page limit to unfold the events of the story. The second benefit to making the inciting incident occur sooner in the story is that it allows the audience to become interested quickly. Doing so will reduce the possibility of your audience becoming disinterested in your story. The main thing that I learned from this tip is that quickly setting up the premise of your story will result in captivating the attention of your audience as well as allowing for optimal usage of the remaining page limit of your story. Now that the incident has been introduced to your audience, it is important that the rest of the story continues to keep the audience interested. Claudia Hunter Johnson advises the reader to “hit your scenes late and get out early” (Johnson). This means setting up a scene with a sort of cliffhanger