Articles
Why You Never Finish a Short Film
By Raymond Karsten · Published · Last updated
You start. You get somewhere. Then it stalls, and a few weeks later you can't remember what the film was supposed to be. This happens to most people, and it usually isn't about willpower.
You started in the middle
Most unfinished films began with an image, a shot, or a tool you wanted to try. That's a fine place to get excited. It's a terrible place to begin production. Without a one-page story, every later decision is a guess, and guesses accumulate until the project collapses under its own weight.
A film without an ending can't be finished
If you don't know what changes by the end, there is no end. You'll keep generating variations forever because nothing tells you when to stop. Decide the ending before you make a single frame — even if you change it later. Here are six steps, in order.
Small enough to survive
Three minutes. One character. One location if you can manage it. Ambition is not the enemy, but scope you can't hold in your head is. A finished small film teaches you more than an abandoned large one.
Ship it before you talk yourself out of it. That's the whole discipline.
Raymond Karsten
Thirty years in film. Storyboards, commercials, music videos. Story sequences for Netflix. Ten years teaching story development at Høyskolen Kristiania.
Artificial tool. Analog director.