An idea is not a topic. "Disability" is a topic. "A man's wheelchair breaks down outside the one shop he has been avoiding for a year" is an idea. The difference is that one of them contains something that happens.
Start with a moment, not a message
The most common mistake in a first film is starting with what you want the audience to think, then building a story to deliver it. Audiences feel that coming and stop listening. Start instead with a moment you cannot forget: something that happened to you, something you watched happen, something somebody told you about.
The message will arrive on its own. It always does. Your job is the moment.
Try this
Write down three times in the last year when you felt something strongly — angry, embarrassed, delighted, wrongly judged. Do not explain them. Just write what happened, in one sentence each. One of those three is your film.
Where ideas actually come from
- Something that annoys you. Irritation is a reliable engine. The thing you have explained to people fifty times is a film.
- A misunderstanding. Two people who each think they are being perfectly clear. Almost every comedy is this.
- A day that went wrong. Small disasters are more watchable than big ones because the audience recognises them.
- Something you are good at that nobody sees. Expertise is fascinating on screen, whatever it is in.
- A question you cannot answer. If you knew the answer you would write an essay. Not knowing is what makes it a film.
Does your idea work? Four questions
- Can you say it in one sentence? If it takes a paragraph, it is probably two ideas. Pick the more interesting one.
- Does somebody want something? A person who wants something and has trouble getting it is a story. A person to whom things happen is a situation.
- Does something change? By the end, somebody should know, feel or have something they did not at the start. Even a small change is enough.
- Can you actually film it? The best idea in the world is worth nothing if it needs a helicopter. Be honest now rather than three weeks in.
Writing disability into your film
If you are disabled and making a film about disability, you already know more about this than any guide can tell you. Two things worth naming anyway.
You do not owe anyone an explanation film. Films that exist to teach non-disabled people about disability are exhausting to make and rarely the best work. You are allowed to make a comedy, a thriller, a love story, or a film where disability is simply present and not the subject.
And you do not have to avoid it either. If the story you want to tell is about access, pain, bureaucracy, or the specific fury of being spoken to like a child, tell that one. Specific always beats universal. The audience will find their way in.
Keep it small
Short films fail by being too big far more often than by being too small. One location, two characters and one problem is not a limitation, it is a format that has produced thousands of excellent films.
A useful test: if your idea needs more than three locations or more than four speaking parts, look for the smaller film hiding inside it. It is usually there, and it is usually better.
How long should it be?
For a first film, aim for three to five minutes. That is long enough to tell a real story and short enough that you will actually finish it. Check the length limit for any festival you plan to enter — the Focus on Ability rules are on the entry page.
Before you move on
- You can say your idea in one sentence
- Somebody in it wants something
- Something is different by the end
- You can name every location and every character
- Nothing in it requires money you do not have