createIntermediateAbout 90 minutes

Write and Direct a 90-Second Short Film

Maps to: Filmmaker · Director · Editor · Creative Director

Make your own short film.

You leave with a short film you can show people. It shows you can tell a whole story in 90 seconds.

You're going to make a 60 to 90 second film about a girl taking the last bus home. You plan it, choose the shots, then cut it down. That cutting is called editing, and it's most of the job: deleting shots even when you love them.

How this shows up on a resume or college app

I directed a 90-second short film from a night of footage: I wrote the plan and the words, chose the voice, picked the shots, and cut them down so every shot earned its place. I learned that a film really gets made when you choose what to cut.

When you finish you have the thing itself, plus a Common App activity description Sidequest drafts from what you actually built.

Not sure yet? Play 5 minutes as a filmmaker first and see how the work feels.

See what this career pays and what it takes to get in.

The plan

1
Step 1
Write your film idea on one page
Your film is about a girl taking the last bus home. Write a one-page plan for it (that plan is called a treatment): the ONE feeling you want to leave a stranger with, and 3 to 5 moments in order, one line each. Every shot you pick later has to fit that page.
2
Step 2
Write the words, then pick the voice
Turn your plan into the words people will hear in your film. Then choose how those words sound, or whether anyone talks at all. Each shot stays on screen as long as its line takes to say.
3
Steps 3-5
Film the last bus home
You ride the last bus with a camera. Then you go through the night's shots and keep the ones worth using. Filmmakers always film far more than they use.
4
Steps 5-7
Edit it: cut every shot the film does not need
This is where it becomes a film. Put your shots in order, watch it through like a stranger, and be honest: what drags, what doesn't belong? Cut it, even a shot you love. How fast it moves is your taste. No right answer, and it's the whole job.
5
Step 8
Add music, give it a title, put it up
Choose what plays under your film, then give it a title and decide where it goes up.