Dramatic Exercise

Writing the Short Film
What is the rule of thumb for the length of a movie/number of pages of the script?
Most movies are about 120 pages long, each page equaling one minute of the movie, to equal 2 hours (approx).
What are the major ways that short films differ from feature films?
Other than the length differences, short films tend to not have the time to develop an elaborate plaot, so it mostly sticks to telling a situation as opposed to a long story.

Conceiving Our Story
What is the "Dramatic Moment" in the film?
When Papa says he drinks "because of Mama."
What are the major conflicts/questions in "Because of Mama?"
Parents vs. Child, Husband vs. Wife. Why does Papa drink?

Determining the Structure
The writer claims that for a short screenplay "a good story needs to have an archetypal storyline and a big idea." Why does he state this, and do you agree?
Because the story needs some form to follow. I agree to a point, but only because every type of achetype has been done and re done and re-redone so many times that it's hard to put a new spin or twist on it.
Read the Step Outline.
So read.

Discovering/Crafting Images
What is exposition, and how did the writers decide to handle it in the example they give?
Exposition is the way of telling the audience certain characteristics that can't be told through dialouge. They told it through the scene of the him playing the cello dressed in his hockey gear.

Writing Scenes. Beginnings, Middles, Ends/Tips for Writing Engaging Scenes
Read carefully - you will be writing scenes.

What are the three things you read in these sections that you found the most interesting/helpful and that you will implement?
1) A good scene reveals something new, 2) Having a resolved scene at the end even after the climax, and 3) keeping the begining scenes short and to the point.