Short Film Ideas

Idealization and conceptualization can be some of the common issues in the field of short filmmaking. Although, if you have chosen Film and Cinema as your major, and wish to further make the dream of being a filmmaker a reality, then there are certain things you can do. There are several paths you can take in the course of the short filmmaking. However, it is the choice that often becomes the problem. Often, you can come up with no concrete ideas on which story to present to the audience. So if you are having a tough time figuring things out, perhaps we can give you some short film ideas.

Short Film Ideas for Students

This section caters to ideas for short films to be made by high school and college students for project work or competitions.

This one is a basic fiction short film idea...

A man finds that his cell phone doesn't work. Flustered, he goes to an enclosed public phone booth. That phone doesn't work either. He finds that the door is jammed. Time passes by, he is still trapped. A truck appears. Our hero is relieved. Unluckily he isn't rescued. The phone booth is picked up by the truck with the protagonist still inside. He bangs on the door but can't escape as the truck hits the highway. More time passes by on the freeway. Then the man sees another truck carrying another phone booth containing another victim. Eventually there is a convoy of trucks with phone booths. Eventually we see a road tunnel up ahead. The tunnel swallows up the trucks, booths, and people. As a truck leaves the tunnel in the opposite direction with a phone booth, but without anyone trapped inside... THE END

This one is to show that friendship does last forever...

Two guys and a girl (Adrian, Peter, and Raine) have been friends ever since junior high school. Raine had met the guys through her ex boyfriend. When she broke up with him, she carried on being friends with Adrian and Peter. None of them ever felt the need to date anyone as somehow they didn't want anyone to come in the way of their friendship. However, Adrian fell in love with a girl, Marsha. But, since she was fine with Raine and her importance in Adrian's life, it was all well. However, soon Raine realized that she is in love with Peter. The day she was going to tell Peter about it, he told her about his girlfriend Monica. Raine put on a happy face for her friend. Monica was not very cool with Raine and wanted Peter to be all hers. Sensing this, Raine drifted apart, and kept her distance from both the guys. However, on one new years when Peter was having a house party, he invited Raine. But, Monica called Raine to warn her against coming. At that time, Peter walked into the room and heard her talking to Raine in a harsh manner. That instant he left Monica and ran to his friend Raine. This is when he knew he loved her too, and the three of them were back to being the trio, only better!

These easy short film ideas require perception and skill on the part of the filmmaker, as such, one will require a team to get done with the eventual scripting and implementation.

Short Film Ideas for Kids

These short film ideas for school are along the lines of simply ideas for children to be able to capture on camera. For the effects, they may need to take help from their parents or teachers.

This one is to show the importance of good health and family...

An old woman has been in vegetative state for about 10 years, after having a stroke. She has been living with one of her daughters for all this time, and when the other daughter of hers moves to the mother's old house, they move her too. About two days after being in the house, the old woman's memory is revived and she returns to her normal state of consciousness for a day. Just one day. She calls her grandson, who thinks it's a joke. She thinks it's still the mid 90s. She recognizes everyone in the family and is surprised by how tall her grandsons have become. She then goes to sleep and returns to the vegetative state the next morning.

This idea is to pass the message that child abuse is dangerous...

A boy cries to himself in a room. Flashback shot of drinking glass falling to the floor in slow motion shows previously what happened, hence, the reason why he is crying. Focus back on the boy, he looks up at the lens of the camera shocked as he has heard someone coming from outside. The boy knows he will be in trouble for breaking the glass. Shoot a pair of feet slowly walking towards the door of the house the boy lives in. Continuously cut between the boy getting even more scared and these feet getting closer. Have the boy looking really scared by the time the feet are at the door. Show a hand shot of the person trying to unlock the door with keys. The person drops them. Picks them back up. Shoot the person entering the door from the inside out. ( door swings open from inside, but only show the feet entering ). Have a side angled shot of the boy sitting with his back to the door hopefully keeping it shut. Still focusing on the boy, have the noise of the person in the other room walking on broken glass and yelling violently. Fade on the boys face and leave the rest to the audience's imagination.

These stories need the dialogs and the scripting to be done well. As such the teachers or parents will need to help out with it. Read on how to write a film review.

When it comes to funny short film ideas and silent short film ideas, one can simply choose a certain scene from a movie and act it out again silently. The charades of the scene will definitely make it far funnier than the original. Hope this article helped you out. This is where I sign off!! Happy shooting.