PMA Associate Professor Austin Bunn is the author of a new book called Short Film Screenwriting: A Craft Guide and Anthology, which will be published by Bloomsbury on October 31. The book “combines the practical advice of a craft guide with a curated, diverse anthology, including revealing interviews with the writers and directors.”
Bunn will be discussing the book at P&T Knitwear Bookstore in NYC on October 24 with Oscar-winner Marshall Curry ("The Neighbors' Window") and Jason Sondhi (ShortoftheWeek co-creator). He will also be appearing at Liquid State Brewing on November 7 with additional screenings/readings planned in Michigan, Chicago, and Los Angeles in the coming months.
Bunn took some time to speak with us about the book:
What inspired you to write Short Film Screenwriting?
With fiction and nonfiction writing, every young writer starts by reading (and falling in love with) short stories and essays and then trying their hand at their own. But screenwriting has this strange anti-literary, anti-developmental approach where newer writers are told to watch successful movies and TV shows and then produce 120-page feature film scripts or 50-page pilots – like trying to train for a marathon by only watching the Olympics and then only running marathons. Weird, right? Then I discovered teaching screenwriting that short film scripts are almost impossible to find. They don't get published or anthologized. So what's a young screenwriter to do?
But every great new filmmaker — from Ryan Coogler to Damien Chazelle to Janicza Bravo to Jennifer Kent and on and on — starts with shorts and this is a book for them, and for film lovers and storytellers generally. Because I came to screenwriting from fiction writing, I've always loved shorts. Every time I saw a great one at a film festival or online, I would reach out to the filmmaker to ask for a copy of their script to teach from. Over time, I had this extensive private anthology of compelling scripts to share with students. Having taught screenwriting for a decade, I decided to capture my thoughts on the craft into ten essays about screenwriting and tether them to the scripts I had, which now appear in print for the first time.
How has your work at PMA contributed to your thinking about creating short films?
This book brings together everything I've learned as a fiction writer, journalist, playwright, and professional screenwriter working for Oscar-winning producers. In that way, it's a great example of the PMA interdisciplinary ethos. I've also come to direct and produce short films, connecting screenwriting with filmmaking, and giving myself permission to grow into being a writer/director/producer is the kind of exactly the kind of enfranchisement we try to instill in our students.
What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
Anybody who knows me knows I am enthusiast. This book is an expression of love for the form, my admiration of the filmmakers who are included in it, and my best thinking about how to create emotionally involving short scripts. If you want to understand how to create an inner life for your characters, or the importance of uncommon relationships, or how to build progression in your stories, you'll find the answers inside.
Austin Bunn is an Associate Professor at PMA. Read more about his work.
