Structurer un court métrage : 5 beats pour une histoire de 3 minutes

Transcription de la narration en anglais.

0:04A feature film has two hours to set up its world, lose its way, and find it again. A short film has three minutes. That doesn't mean structure matters less, it matters more, because there's no time to recover from a weak beat. In this lecture, we'll build a structure you can use for any short, and we'll test it on the photo.

0:26Start with the oldest shape in storytelling, in miniature. A set up, who, where, and what's normal. A turn, something happens that changes the situation. And a resolution, we see the consequence. In the photo, the set up is the silence in the car. The turn is the photograph and the line. The resolution is her face. Tears, then a smile. Three acts in 18 seconds.

0:55For three minutes short, break those acts into five beats. The opening image, which shows the world before. The disruption, the moment the story starts. The pressure, where the character has to react. The climax, the moment of change. And the closing image, which often mirrors the opening so the audience feels how far we've come. Roughly 20 seconds, then 40. Then a minute, then 40 seconds, then 20.

1:23Here's how the photo could grow into a three minute short. The opening image, Emily alone in the car, rain on the glass, checking her phone. No message. Disruption, Thomas gets in, soaked, holding something against his chest. Pressure, small talk that goes nowhere and an old resentment between them. Climax, he hands her the photograph. I found it at Mom's. Closing image, the same car, the same rain. But now she's smiling and her hand rests on his arm.

1:59Here's the rule that holds it all together. A short film is about one change, in one character. In our project, it's Emily. She starts closed, staring straight ahead, and ends open, smiling at the past. Write that change down in one line. Then go through every beat and ask, does this serve the change? If it doesn't, cut it, no matter how beautiful it would look.

2:23Now, a principle that matters even more with AI. Show, don't tell. Video models are brilliant at images and terrible at exposition. So every beat has to be something we can see. You can't shoot, she forgives him. You can shoot, she looks at the photo and smiles. Write each beat as a visible action, and you've already done half of the storyboard.

2:48Here's a quick test. Cover the dialogue and read only your beats. If the story still makes sense, your structure is visual. If it collapses, you are telling, not showing.

3:02Your structure is also a production plan. Count what each beat needs. Characters, locations, props, shots. For a first short, aim for one location. Two characters and fewer than 20 shots. Every element you add is one more thing to keep consistent. The photo has one location, two characters, one prop and four shots. That's not a limitation, that's why it holds together.

3:33Then give each beat a shot budget. Opening image, two or three shots. Disruption, three. Pressure, five or six. Climax, three or four, getting closer each time. Closing image, one or two. That's about 16 shots for three minutes. The number you can actually generate, check and keep consistent.

3:56AI is a great structure partner, as long as you stay in charge. Ask it to map your logline onto the five beats. Ask it for three alternative endings. Ask it to find your weakest beat and explain why. In Screenweaver, this lives in the outline of the script tab. Sequences, story beats and scenes. Laid out above the page and you can tag each beat as an inciting incident, a midpoint or a climax. The structure and the script stay connected.

4:28Here's a prompt I use. Here are my logline and my five beats. Point out the weakest beat. Explain why in two sentences and propose two fixes that don't add a character or a location. That last part matters. Always give the AI your production constraints or it will solve every problem by adding more.

4:49Spend extra time on your ending because endings are what audiences remember. A twist surprises once. Resonance stays. The photo ends on a smile and on everything the characters don't say. Leave the audience one thing to finish on their own and they'll carry your film with them.

5:10A practical trick. Write your last image first. If you know exactly what the final frame looks like, every beat before it has a destination.

5:21Your exercise. Write your five beats on a single page. Each one as a visible action with the one change of your main character at the top. Then count your characters, locations and shots. In the next lecture, we'll turn those beats into a real screenplay written so that an AI can actually shoot it.