The "Aha!" Moment

I’ve been thinking a lot about short stories and short films and their structure.

They are so much harder to write than novels. You have such a short time to introduce characters and make them compelling, set up a plot of some kind, and tie it up with a resonant punch line.

I think that’s the key. It all has to build towards a powerful “punch line” of some kind. It doesn’t have to be a joke, it just has to make the audience experience an “Oh!” or “Aha!” moment.

An example: In Pixar’s awesome short film “Geri’s Game”, an old man is sitting in a park playing an intense game of chess with his alter ego. That introduces an interesting character and a humorous plot… but it all becomes memorable when the game is won- and the object of the duel is revealed. That’s the “aha!” moment.

Another example, from a short film titled “INSiDE.” 

(This paragraph contains spoilers). A man suffering from multiple personality disorder is being questioned by his doctor, who is trying to get him to claim his true name again. It builds to a noisy climax, and he finally says his name. But then the another doctor enters, and we learn the surprising truth: The first doctor was one of his figments all along. “Aha!”

The "Aha!" moment ties everything together, and makes the short story/film worth remembering. It's usually a twist on the expected, it carries some emotive punch, and it has to take place in a short amount of time (duh).

I’m currently brainstorming for a short film my family is going to make this summer. Already we’re leaning toward the epic side of things— possibly two airships, a sky pirate attack, a lost city of treasure, a mysterious device… and that’s enough fodder for an entire full-length novel! As the official scriptwriter, I’m trying to find a way to condense that into a 10-15 minute film steeped in the epic steampunk adventure feel, yet keep it short, simple, and powerful. How do I come up with that perfect “Aha!” moment? 

First, I think I have to figure out the theme or "tone" of the story (is it romantic? Wry? Mysterious? Heart-warming? Humorous? Stark?). Once we have that root theme in place, we can decide what plot elements accord with that theme, and then find a way to twist the expected resolution.

Any thoughts? I'd appreciate input, because I'm still pretty baffled by writing shorts. Anyone have any questions (or advice!) about writing short films and stories?

One last random musing: Short films are often most powerful when the story is told without a scrap of dialogue.

Script Frenzy Elevator Pitch!

Check out my *first* YouTube video, featuring the plot of one of my screenplays, "Merrily!" For more info, see this post.







Ha, I just realized how dorky the preview picture is. *slaps forehead*

Diving into Script Frenzy!

Sorry I haven't posted sooner. I've been back for over a week now, but things have been so crazy!  And I now have 40 followers! Thanks, Margaret Rowena! :)

I'm right in the thick of Script Frenzy right now. It's a fun challenge to write 100 pages of a script during the month of April. I did it last year, and loved it, so this year I'm doing it again, this time with a goal of TWO screenplays! Heh. I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Here's a brief summary of my two projects:

Project #1
"The Twin Confessions of Melody and Harmony"
A screenplay, teen/family (and a hint of comedy)

Melody is a friendly girl with an academic mind, a gift with people, and a love for the great outdoors...  and she's clumsy.

Harmony is a solitary girl with her own ways of doing things, usually with her computer or a paintbrush, but she's socially awkward.

They’re both stubborn, creative, competitive... and they each have their secrets.

Filmmakers. Rivals. Twins.

Project #2

"Merrily"

Another screenplay. This one's a humorous fantasy action thriller. *grin* The kind that makes you want to eat Milk Duds while watching.

Merrily is a girl with a secret. She’s on the run from the FBI and a group of maniacal killers, even though she’s completely innocent. But that’s not her secret. 

Phoenix is a boy with a secret. His adoptive father works for the FBI, and his own inventions are sometimes purchased by the government. But that's not his secret.

They can fly.

When Phoenix is sent across the country on a mission to catch Merrily, he discovers that she's a whole lot more than anyone could have imagined. Together they search for the truth, and along the way, find that they're part of a much larger plan.

Ha! I finally have a plot! Yay! *ahem*

So, what do you think?  Can you picture these two ideas as movies?

Our Award-Winning Movie!

My computer is still not working, but now that the film contest is officially over, I can let you see the movie that my family made. There were 68 entries in the "Quiet on the Set!" film competition, and they were all shown over the weekend at the Central library in Minneapolis. Then the top 12 films were shown at the awards gala last night, and surprisingly, our film was one of them! We received an Audience Choice Award as well as Honorable Mention for "Best Special Effects!" We never expected something like this!

My cousin won "Best Film," but she went to school for this, so that's no surprise. :) The whole event was exciting, almost like being at the Oscars. Anyway, enjoy our film, and let me know what you think!

It's Done!

We turned in our finished movie today! Yay!

It's titled "Imagine That!" and it is 4 minutes and 52 seconds long, credits and all. We don't have it up on the web yet, but we're hoping to sometime in the next few weeks.

I haven't posted in a while because I was crazy busy writing the music for our movie. It was my first official scorewriting experience, and though it was a bit stressful as the deadline approached, I had fun and learned a lot. And I had the joy of writing it on my new keyboard!

I've been saving for a LOOOONG time to get it, and when we realized that I needed to have something in order to make music for our movie, I finally had my chance. Here it is in its new home under my loft bed (which was built with this in mind!):

It's a Korg M50-88 music workstation for those of you in the know. And I love it. Right now I don't have any really great programs on my computer, just GarageBand. It was enough for our movie project, but I've got my eye on Logic Studio.... *drool*

Now I need to get back to work. Our movie may be done, but the County Fair is coming up next week, and I have a bunch of 4-H projects to work on!

Making a Movie!

The mystery project is revealed-- We're making a movie!

I mentioned it a few months ago, but now we're actually doing it. My family is entering a short film contest at the library called "Quiet on the Set!" We started filming on Saturday, and we got lots of great footage at the library.  My mom is the main character in our film, and a friend from church agreed to be the dreamy librarian, who imagines my mom as characters in the books she checks out. So my mom got to be a scientist (hence the chemistry), a detective (wearing a trench coat), a cowgirl, and a spacewoman (what the white gloves were for)! We made the books shown in the last post, one for each of the aforementioned characters. 

We had to have one scene where all of these characters are in the same shot, so we needed a few stand-ins to pretend to be my mom. I ended up being the scientist for that scene. I don't know if I'll show up at all in the film, but it was fun anyway. :)

Honest Abe watched us the whole time. I believe he thought we were quite entertaining.

We spent four and a half hours at the library, but we still have a lot of filming to do. The finished product has to be less than five minutes, including credits and such. And the deadline to enter is July 15th, so we have less than a month to finish it. *Gulp*

Here's a picture of the cast and crew:

Script Frenzy!

The funny thing is, I wasn't planning on writing a script in April. I have no idea what I'm doing. I always thought it would be cool to do Script Frenzy, another of those crazy Office of Letters and Light programs (like NaNoWriMo, for example), but I didn't think I would do it THIS year. It just happened that I recently found out about a short film contest that Minnesota libraries are having, and I decided that I wanted to enter. 

The only problem was, I didn't have a script.

So, I decided to take the leap and do Script Frenzy. I'm starting with a "practice" script, a crazy, seat-of-the-pants adventure about an 18-year-old girl who is named, strangely enough, Author Gal. *cough* I'm learning how to format a screenplay, and waiting until I have more information about the contest before I start my REAL project-- "Secrets at the Library." More on this later...