Script Sanctuary

I admit, I rarely write in a short form unless it's for a competition but I can heartily recommend Writing the Short Film by Pat Cooper and Ken Dancyger, which really helped me formalise some things in my head and has been really useful for analysing the short film scripts that occasionally come my way. I'm going to summarise some of the things they say about structure and analysis in terms of the short, as it's a much different format to a feature and imposing a full three-act structure on a short film script can be quite unhelpful. They suggest a shortened structure, which goes like this:

1 - Show the protagonist going about his or her normal life (briefly!) before things start to change.

Reader Question: Could the story work better with a different character as a protagonist and, if so, which one?

2 - There is a catalyst that has a visible effect on the protagonist and propels us into the main dramatic action.

Reader Question: Is the catalyst strong enough to launch the protagonist into the dramatic action and, if not, can it be strengthened?

3 - The main dramatic action is developed through a series of incidents where the protagonist strives to overcome the obstacles to his or her goal. These incidents generally increase in intensity as the story goes on so that we get a rising level of action.

Reader Question: Does the protagonist's dramatic actions to attain his or her goal result in conflict? (Because drama is conflict :) )

4 - The action is resolved when the protagonist either succeeds or fails to reach his or her goal.

Reader Question: Is the dramatic question 'Will the protagonist overcome the obstacles and achieve his or her goal?' answered?

5 - Closure: a brief scene, or sometimes even a single shot, which reveals or comments on the protagonist's situation at the end.

Reader Question: Are the settings, locations, sounds and images used in the script the most appropriate ones for the story in terms of tone?