Film Courage: Should you start a short film by writing a log line?
Kim Adelman, Author/Filmmaker/Instructor: I like writing a log line first to say what in the world
is your short film, even if you don't think you're going to have it written down. When you
talk to people about having them be part of your film they're going to say what's your film about
right so you should have a log line that can tell people what your film is and if you write it ahead
of time and have it ready to spew and say easily then that is really a good thing but ultimately
you're going to have to tell people what your film is about whatsoever when you finish your film and
if you want to put it online or send it out in the festival circuit you have to write a long
line that gets sent with that film and that log line they print verbatim so one of the short films
I produced was a film called I'm on fire and it's about a guy who's on fire we had special effects
to put them on fire so the filmmaker wrote The Log line and we're like what the hell is the log line
going to be for this because before he comes out in theory you don't know he's going to be on fire
and then he's on fire so the filmmaker came up to log on with a very short film about a man on fire
pretty much said what it was and it was it was like two minutes long it's a very short film
about a man on fire so to this day I can easily quote that log line because it is that's what the
film is about so but yeah your log line is going to follow that film on IMDb everywhere in the
world so you want to make sure you write it well but also you don't want to write it so obscurely
that people are like I have no idea because I'm on fire it could be a manifestation of Love told in a
unique way and I want to be it's that film about the Man on Fire it's like that's what it is the
title is that speaking of blocklines titles are also super important for short films and I love
a unique title because again marketing is going to be something you need to think about and so
are you going to hashtag it are you going to be a way that people can find it but there's so many
short films that just have a generic short title that means nothing and you can't there's a hundred
of those films and I'm trying to think of a oh well I have a friend that did a film called Pig
and that's a good title and you there's not that many films called pigs so we can find it easily
in that way but if you do a long title you could totally do a long title too I always tell people
a short film it's never going to be on Marquee somewhere so you can do a super long title if you
want although people will always kind of shorten it when they tell you what the version of it is
but I love a unique title I think that also shows your creativity and the specialness of the film it
makes people interested we also produced a short film called 78 and it was about a kid on a manhole
cover jumping up and down and up and down it keeps on saying 78 78 78 and so the film is called 78
and people would say to us in the festival circuit they'd see the filmmaker having watched the film
before and they're like 78 78 78 it's like how nice look at they're quoting the title and they
remember that from the film and there you go so yeah if your film is about a man on fire I'm on
fire is not a bad title for it and people kind of know what it is so writing a good long line
totally counts and you should spend time into it it's also if you write a really complicated log
line that is hard to follow or it's too obscure you can write it and they'll publicize it but
nobody's going to call it that Thunder Road is a short film that was it's a terrific short film
people love Thunderbird interesting enough also versus spring title as this I'm on fire but anyway
oh yeah that's true yeah Thunder Road when I looked at his official log line for it's about
a Cop who's giving a eulogy about his dead mother so that's my log line for it his log line is it is
officer Arnold loves his mother what okay okay doesn't mention funeral or eulogy which is a
big part of that short film but that's the log line that he wrote for it but when most people
say about they're like it's that one about the cop giving the eulogy about the mom so your film boils
down to what the essence is no matter how much you try to dress it up and do different things with it
pig is that Nicholas Cage's movie Pig no pig is oh because it's a terrific film it's a it's a
genre of urban myths so here I'll tell you the story of pigs often when people sell stories
so it's a woman in a Mercedes driving down a and she's super fancy she's driving down
this windy road and coming up from the opposite direction no she's coming up and he's going down
coming down the phenomous and direction is a really gross guide of best bunnies picking his
nose and he's totally he's like a pig right and so when she passes him she yells out of the window
at a pig when we've seen him doing specifically gross things and then we we don't see it but we
hear a crash and the move head Falls over and a pig crosses the road so she was warning him
that there was going to be a kid it's terrific and people laugh and laugh and laugh when it's online
too you can see it online they laugh and laugh and laugh when they're just not expecting to see
an actual real pig and she and so the twist was she wasn't calling him a pig she was warning him
that there was a pig at the end of the road that's fascinating so there's a payoff a great payoff and
we don't see her get do we see her getting into her car or she's just already in already driving
okay great so we've we've kind of cut to the chase in that part exactly and then I guess do you would
they call it muddy middles where we just kind of like don't have enough that's clear-cut in
the middle does that happen with short films it does it beginning is so important ending is
so important so then we're like well what about the middle the middle is so important too isn't
that terrible at every single part counts but yeah the middle is really tricky and sometimes
people put too much in the middle and we've kind of lost the thread of what's going on
or they don't put enough in the middle and it's kind of like you had a great beginning and a great
end but we don't really there was no middle to make it really work so the middle is where people
fall apart too Beginnings middles and ends all important does a short film have to have a hook
feature films and short films benefit from having a hook and filmmakers hate to hear
that they're like I don't want to do something crassic commercial and something that has a hook
but hook just means is there's something we know what it is and the hook sometimes can be genre
but it's so much easier if there is some kind of quick way that we can say what this piece is about
without destroying what it is obviously you don't want to give it all away with and that's where log
lines are tricky if the hook is something that is given away you have to craft around so that
people don't know what that twist is going to be but it really does help to have a hook and it also
shows you have kind of a a good storytelling sense and people like that and so they're like
this person knows how to deliver something that really hooks the audience and is commercially kind
of in that sense it's not in my world it's not a negative thing I'm coming from someone who's
from Hollywood so maybe the NYU filmmakers are the Columbia filmmakers are like hook no don't
even talk about the world hook but to me hook is not a negative thing it really is it gives you a
hook for so we made a short film called I'm on fire it was about a guy on fire that's the hook
right now there's a story that happens there and I'm not telling you about that story but
I say to you it's a film about a guy on fire would you like to see a short film about a guy on fire
hopefully people say yes yeah I'm interested to see what happens then what happens is what's
going to I've hooked you into wanting you to make you want to see it but what why you
would like it and tell other people about it is because there's a story that you like in
it well with PEG what was what's the hook the hook is that you think that it's going to be
that he's a pig and the trans the switches that oh no there's an actual Pig at the end I see okay
right right so the the hook is like sort of diverting the audience's attention in a sense
actually though I'll tell you the hook of that is kind of like it's an urban myth or it's a joke so
she's dramatized something that is a urban myth I see okay so typical sort of Hollywood and disdain
and then you find out oh no there's an actual animal that's Crossing okay right well Thunder
Road is a terrific short film and it's about a guy who's doing a yoga for his mom that's the
the hook I guess would be that he's doing usually for his mom the actual not the room on the short
film for people but he actually starts singing along to the song Thunder Road and so it's very
heartfelt and yet tricky and weird and it's a delightful short film but so is the hook like
it's eulogy is the hook that he actually does a dance and sings along to the song Thunder Road
there's two hooks maybe it also is a One-Shot film too so is that the hook that we've done
a One-Shot film and with short films you can do these really weird things too like the hook
is that it's all shot with security cameras or it's all shot with a drone or the hook could be
we shot this in IMAX format so sometimes it can be the format it can also be like the hook is a
vlog that is being dramatized that's the hook for it sometimes it's the storyline that it is
also a format I love is a mockumentary and so the hook there is that we're kind of
thinking taking you out to thinking it's like a real documentary but it's really a mockumentary
there's so many terrific hooks with short films primarily because they have to be about something
so there's a terrific documentary I love that was part of the New York op docs called pickle and so
pickle is the world's worst title right pickle is it going to be about a pickle maker whatever turns
out pickle is the name of a fish and it's about this couple that have all these pets that have
something wrong with them and I can't remember what was wrong with pickle but maybe couldn't
swim or something like that so it's a very very Charming doc about this couple that have pets that
have all these problems so that's kind of the hook of what the film is but it's so touching and so
moving and but yeah pickle is a terrible name for it how much conflict do you need for a short film
conflict and drama is everything in storytelling right so I think you have to have it in a short
film as well and by conflict I think it just means tension right so you could have one person
be in the entire film but as long as there's some kind of tension in what the storytelling
or the situation is you don't have to have two people battling or something like that when we
mean conflict I think it really just means tension or tight storytelling and that's what moves things
along so I think for feature films boy conflict is essential for everything for a short film you
can Define What conflict means to you but we we want it tight and so sometimes why it films 20
minutes long and it's just you feel like there's nothing going on let's tighten it and find where
the conflict is in it right let's just go for the parts that are dramatic and storytelling and leave
out the stuff that seems to be extraneous and just character but it gives them characters like we
don't have time for character in this we gotta go for what what's the conflict here what's going on
here how much do antagonists factor to short films so for feature film it's like the protagonist and
the antagonist for short it's great if you can do a protagonist and antagonist but there's no reason
that you absolutely have to do that it could be that might not be the story that you're telling
it could I've seen a lot of great short films that have one person is the story so where is
your antagonist in there the antagonist could be something like time or it doesn't have to be
a person per se that is battling the protagonist the protagonist has something that they're working
through or whatever so it's not like features that we need to have the protagonist and the
antagonists and they have their low point and their High Point and then the antagonist learns
at the end of the protagonist learns and no for a short film you really don't need to do that
but I think it's more interesting if there is something that your hero is dealing with
do main characters in short films have goals so in a feature film yeah you definitely want to
have a goal that's always like what's their want and their need and what are they trying to do
for short films I do think quite often to follow along you kind of assume that you're going to this
person who doesn't even need to be a person right it could be a dog or something like that is your
lead character but your lead character is trying to do something or something is happening to that
person and then we'll feel satisfied at the end when it is complete but it isn't like the the
the myth tell Joseph Campbell's myths or something like that with the short film your favorite film
could be two minutes long it's pretty hard to do seven stages of the tahiro's journey
or whatever in two minutes long and that should be a feature like if you're trying to do that
maybe move it on to the feature part of it for this one let's just do the training sequence
or something like that so I think every character it's great to have some sort of goal it might not
be as complex of a goal or as deep as a goal it could be totally just as little as much as
like trying to figure out what's going on here or whatever backstory should you write into the film
I think as much as you as the writer of the film you should put all your effort into as many ways
as you can right and so and actors want to know about all this backstory so nobody's
going to stop you from doing all of that but you don't necessarily need to put it into what
we actually see on screen it could be all this information that helps that character be unique
when we see them on screen so you don't you could do backstory like he loves bowling so when I'm
going to dress him I'm going to have him dress in the bowling shirt but I don't need to see him in
the bowling alley because this is about a story about when he murdered his mother or whatever
so you want to it's great to have all that backstory stuff in it but unlike a feature we
don't have to see a lot of it actually manifesting on the screen it could just be to make them and
that's what makes the character special and unique right it's not just another killer it's a killer
who loves bowling so that sets yours up from different one of like if hey do you want to see
this film about a killer who was just wearing a suit looks like a Quentin Tarantino ripoff
or do you want to see one who's the bowling guy was wearing a bowling shirt it's like I'd rather
watch the bowling shirt guy that seems different I haven't seen that before and maybe the bowling
ball will come in and play later on or maybe it won't maybe you'll just be a shirt he's wearing
right right and maybe he has like this bowling bag and you think it's his shoes and he's keeping them
meticulous but it's really whatever he is he's hiding and so yeah we've just made a short film
hell so you're saying we don't necessarily go into a long backstory of course because
we don't have time but there'll be little things that'll signify that could make it
more Rich and that's what we want too we want things that are special and unique
and have depth to it and that's why I do think when you go back to see older short films the
ones that stand out have all those layers and have all this unique elements to it and
are interesting and are not just generic we're crossing off these points to make this happen
in seven minutes look we did it okay good congratulations you did and that's hard I
don't mean to dismiss that it is hard to make a good story that works in seven minutes but
we're not necessarily going to stand up and give you a round of applause just because you did it
ten thousand people submitted short films to the Sundance Film Festival last year 10 000 people did
it it's not so much anymore like you get a ribbon because you did it a lot of people are making
short films so you want to make something that's so special and unique it was worth your time and
worth your effort and with your money and worth everybody else's effort of putting all this time
into it so put as much as you can also sometimes you're not ready to shoot yet so now why not wait
while you're waiting for to get enough money to shoot or get the right people to shoot spend that
time doing backstories and developing things more and figuring out to make a set more unique and
put it all in there put everything you want to do under there but just don't waste time on it
and storytelling time sure and you had mentioned music videos previously do you
think that storytelling currently with music videos has gotten better or worse well for a
long time music videos were almost stories all the time right that they would either
build something into it and then have the music video be just a little part of it and continue on
but like Beyonce she's just music stories that and they've shown her stuff in film festivals
and quite often there's a beginning middle and end in the story that she's doing and quite often her
music videos are heavily influenced by other films that exist so she's taken and she and her director
she doesn't direct them all synthesize all these elements that are influenced and have put out
visual albums and visual storytelling and I used to program short films by women at the American
Cinema Tech and we would always like to include a music video because that's another way that
directors direct through music videos and there were it was very often very easy to find a music
video that actually had narrative storytelling in it sometimes they weren't like lip syncing
along to the music the music was kind of in the background but they're very expensive music videos
that are made that are literally short films and and more power to them it makes them interesting
and not your standards performance somebody's just standing on the stage and we've captured it.