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Stull: Advice on Writing a Short

John August turns his advice laser on short films.

He's brief. I can be briefer in summation: 1. Set the stage quickly - characters, location, tone. 2. Make sure we know what the hook is by 1/3 way in. 3. After that, just exploit the joke or moment - or whatever is the climax - as fully as possible.

Speaking of shorts, the short I've been working on since last May, "Stull," is getting closer to completion. The climactic special effect is about 95% of the way there. The edit is pretty much locked, although not officially, since I don't have anyone waiting to do the sound mix.

(If there's anyone in LA who would like to work for credit - and access to a sweet little ProTools mixing suite - shoot me an email: makingthemovie AT gmail DOT com.)

About J. Ott

John Ott is a writer, filmmaker and futurist. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.