HOW I WROTE MY FIRST SHORT FILM AND SURVIVED
A tale of perseverance, persistence, and luck
I recently directed a short film I wrote. Here are some stats.
Duration of short — 12 mins.
Number of days it took to shoot — 2.
Number of days to write and develop the story — 1460.
Or 4 years.
As Flaubert once said, art is a long patience.
Here’s why it took so long.
The Writing Process
Every piece of writing begins with an idea.
Ideas can come from everywhere. A snippet of gossip. A chance to meet with a real-life personality.
In my case, it was a headline in a local newspaper. A short paragraph about a man who refused to buy a hospital bed for his Alzheimer-stricken wife because it would have meant not sleeping by her side.
Any writer worth his salt should never wait for someone to give a writing assignment before he writes. You must find ways to keep your engine craft humming…