Screenwriting for Fiction Short Films

A good story has its foundations in a structure and base that hooks the audience instantly. But this base is only that—a base—designed to give the writer a framework where they can experiment and apply their own ideas and personality.

Alejandra Moffat—screenwriter and advisor—is passionate about stories, compelling her to write screenplays for fiction, animation, and documentaries that have been recognized in festivals like Berlinale, Havana Film Festival, among others.

In this course, Alejandra teaches how to write a step outline for a short film fiction screenplay, defining the plot, characters, and action progression, as well as contemplating the types of conflict, beginnings, and endings.

Alejandra starts the course by presenting herself and talks about the cinematographers that inspire, move, surprise, and transform her. Discover a new writing journey, and like all journeys, you have to choose what to take with you and what direction you’ll take to get to your final destination. This trip will lead you to write with freedom, as well as acquiring methodical tools so that your stories are brought to fruition.

See how to develop an idea for a movie in a short film format, uncovering what the consequences of a shorter action time-frame imply. Define, with some practical exercises, the first coordinates that will shape your step outline, to finally know what you need to investigate so as to not fall into prejudice or monotonous situations.

Discover how to generate a structure, defining the scenes you need to develop your short film. Understand what audiovisual writing implies, what you should include, and what you should omit to smoothly unfold your story.

See the step outline progressively, create a list of the scenes with the unfolding of each scene, and test out the global development of your short film. Throughout the entire process, visualize the sequence of images, from the beginning to the end of the film, writing and rewriting what is necessary along the way.

Write a developed step outline of a short film fiction screenplay, including the developed scenes from start to finish.

For anyone who wants to give life to ideas in a script format.

No previous experience is needed, some notions in writing and how to use a word processing software such as Microsoft Word is enough to take this course.