The Short Screenplay – Dan Gurskis
In Daniel Gurskis’ book The Short Screenplay: Your Short Film From Concept to Production, the author discusses myriad effective ways of allowing you to create a short, filmable screenplay that will be good enough to make it into film festivals. The result is an incredibly clear and easy-to-read screenplay book that walks you through all of the considerations you must make when writing a short screenplay.
With short screenplays, the point of the film must be made much clearer, and you have less time to convey what you want to bring to the audience; Gurskis focuses on these story elements in his work, teaching you writing exercises and asking questions of your writing that will allow you to understand your process much more than you do now.
The best part of Gurskis’ book is its ability to let you still have control of your story while still having help refining it; his rules are not hard-and-fast, but merely ways to navigate the story you want to tell anyway. Gurskis focuses quite a bit on practicality, and making sure a script is filmable; this is a good piece of advice for burgeoning screenwriters whose ambitions may outweigh their budget. Gurskis’ experience and knowledge as an Emmy Award-winning screenwriter is out in force in this book, as he advises you on the different kinds of shorts, and the levels of complexity inherent to them. In short, Gurskis’ book is an incredibly valuable read for anyone considering short film screenwriting.
The Butterfly Films Blog 