The scene

Want, obstacle, change

Before you write a scene, name who wants what in it. The want can be tiny: a glass of water, an apology, five more minutes. Then name what stands in the way, which is usually another person who wants something else.

Robert McKee describes a scene as turning on a value. A value is something at stake in the character's life, such as trust, safety or hope. If the scene starts with hope and ends with the same hope, nothing has turned, and the film may not need the scene.

So check the charge. Note how things stand for the character at the start and again at the end. The two notes should differ.

Enter late, leave early

Screenwriters pass around an old rule: come into a scene as late as you can, and get out as soon as it has done its work.

Cut the arrival, the greeting and the pouring of tea, unless they matter. Start where the trouble starts. End on the line or the look that changes things, not on the goodbye.

The cut to the next scene will do the rest. Audiences fill gaps quickly and enjoy doing it.

One scene, one job

A scene that tries to do four things does none of them well. Decide the one thing this scene must do for the story, and let everything in it serve that.

Write the job in a line above the scene while you draft: 'Leela learns the money is gone.' If you cannot write that line, you are not ready to write the scene.

What the scene leaves behind

Each scene should hand something to the next: a new problem, a decision, a secret the audience now holds. That is what pulls a viewer forward.

Try taking the scene out. If nothing later breaks, the film is better without it.

In a short film this matters twice over. You have only a handful of scenes, so each one carries a large share of the story.