I, and some of my filmmaking cronies (as well as my Filmmakers Alliance community) are involved in something called 3rd Page. It's an awesome creative exercise, an inspiring project and talent incubator as well as a great short form filmmaking vehicle. But here, I'll let it speak for itself. At the bottom are a bunch of my own 3rd Page scripts. Enjoy!
3rd Page is a collective of writers and filmmakers who like to make stuff. We started as an informal writing group creating “3-pagers,” our term for three-page screenplays that are self-contained (i.e. they have a beginning, a middle and an end). To spur our respective imaginations, we come up with weekly writing prompts consisting of three (often divergent) elements, for instance: an animal. a religious figure. a distant sound.
We interpret these elements in any way we wish, with one simple guideline: the resulting screenplays must be easily producible with micro to zero budgets. We try to set our screenplays in accessible locations with as few spectacular car chases and fire breathing demon spawns as possible. This makes it easier for us — and for you — to make our 3-pagers into actual movies.
And that’s the whole point of 3rd page: we encourage anyone, anywhere, to use our screenplays or finished films for whatever purposes they wish, as long as they adhere to theCreative Commons license agreement [read more]. So please, go ahead: shoot these screenplays. Add to them. Remix them. Submit your own for publication on our site. Let’s make stuff.
We don’t have a manifesto. But if we did, it might contain these 3 principles:
#1: Shared culture
We embrace the idea that cultural works should be shared, freely and openly. We think this philosophy contributes to a creative environment that cultivates the unconstrained, the unusual and the unexpected. That’s why we’re huge proponents of Creative Commons [more info]. Every piece of writing on our site is freely available for your creative interpretation.
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2: Micro Cinema
Why 3 pages? It may be an arbitrary limit, but we know from experience that smaller-scale projects spur experimentation. Each week we challenge each other to tell a complete “micro” story at exactly three pages in length. As writers, we find these parameters to be both frustrating and freeing. In any case, we believe “micro” is the ideal length for digital producers and online audiences alike — easily producible and consumable.
#3: Take risks
We strive to challenge ourselves (and our audiences) with writing that stretches the boundaries of conventional style, form and content.
My 3rd Pagers (alphabetically):
This is really interesting, really cool!
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