Although i am currently busy writing my feature (the austrian comedy if you remember) i delayed the development a little bit and started working an another project, a short movie.
My last short, Greener Pastures, premiered a year ago and i really really need to make another movie right now.
When i started to structure my ideas i more and more realized that i won´t be able to apply my structure methods for features on short movies, it just does not fit 100 percent. The article i wrote about my approach to structure a story can be found here, but as said at some points it just doesn´t fit when developing a story for a short movie.
The idea behing the structure of a short movie
Especially short movies tend to lack of structure, many people think that the principles of structuring a plot don´t apply to short movies, but in my opinion that´s just wrong. I think there are some factors that determine if there has to be structure or what kind of structure you need for your movie.
What kind of movie should it be?
The first thing we have to take into consideration is what kind of short movie we´re talking about, is it an experimental movie? Then do whatever you think is right, because the term “experimental” is almost a carte blanche for breaking the rules.
But when talking about live action short movies (or animated shorts, documentaries, etc.) you have to work with some methods. A commercial is not really considered a short movie, but even commercials work with a certain formula, so there definitely has to be some kind of structure for short movies.
The length of the movie
Another important factor is the length of the movie, there definitely is a difference if you write a 5 minute or a 25 minute movie. In general a movie is considered as short movie when it is less than 40 to 45 minutes long.
For shorts that are longer than, let´s say, 20 or 25 minutes it would be a good idea to try to apply the structure of a feature film (meaning act structure, exposition, inciting incident, turning points, etc.).
A short with a length of less than 20 or 15 minutes will be hard to structure this way, but that does not mean that there doesn´t have to be a structure at all.
Even the shortest movies need to have some kind of dramatic arc, in fact also jokes are written with a certain formula (have a look at this post from Amanda for example, a double punchline joke).
It is quite impossible to categorize short movies by their length to determine whether to apply this kind of structure or that one, i just wanted to point out that you probably have to adjust your approach of structuring a story to many factors, one of them is the length.
What the structure is for
Like feature films you probably want the audience to enjoy the short and get it´s message. In my opinion the reason of structure is to give the audience the feeling that there is some kind of conclusion in the movie and not just different frames strung together.
After watching the short the audience should be satisfied in some way, even if someone doesn´t like the topic the movie is about, he should not feel cheated afterwards. Don´t get me wrong here, it´s a good thing to confuse your audience, but in some way the plot has to be self-contained.
How to apply the structure?
So which structure do you apply to your short movie and how? There is not one straight way to go here, but there are several points you should consider if you want to apply the structure.
The Act Structure
Most of the feature films use some kind of act structure, be it three or five acts. Whenever i start to develop a story for a feature film one of the first things i do is to group different actions in different acts. So i think about what could be the exposition and the inciting incident, what is the turning point that brings us to the next act or what is the climax of the movie, how does it end?
This thinking is some kind of safety net for me, whenever i feel lost i have a look at my outline and it helps me to get back on track, but for a short movie that approach might not work.
Many times a short movie is not a complete plot like in a feature film, it is just an insight on the characters, a little part of their life and their story, let´s say it is a snapshot of a certain part of the whole.
So when it is impossible to categorize the plot in three acts, what should we do then? I think there are certain basics that need to be present, at least the beginning and the end.
Beginning and End
The beginning starts the movie, it doesn´t necessarily have to be an exposition in a traditional way, the beginning just throws the audience into the action. Like in the exposition the setting of the movie will be shown, just not so detailed. If there is no time to tell why your protagonist is in his current situation then don´t, he just is (but it should make sense). You could give some hints, and that would be the exposition.
The end is probably the most important part, it should be conclusive (even if it is an open end). Because if the end wouldn´t be satisfying in some way the movie would have no point.
What about the middle part?
Usually the second act is the hardest one, so what about short movies? Well, if there is a beginning and an end the thing that is in between is the middle 
But the good point is that you don´t really have to take care of a solid second act if the movie is too short for it, so you can save some plot points here.
If you happen to have enough time for a second act, go for it. Whenever there is time for a solid act structure it is worth it, but if not, a strong beginning and a solid end is sufficient.
The Turning Points
Inciting Incident, Act Turning Points, Climax, all of these might not be part of the short movie script, at least not in the traditional way. Of course there will be an inciting incident in some way, but probably it just doesn´t happen in the movie. Like i said before a short movie can also be seen as a snapshot of the current live of the protagonist (or the story), so it might be that your protagonist is already right in action.
As long as the beginning and the end is well constructed that´s ok.
The Character Arc
Just like the story, the characters probably don´t have enough time to develop in a short movie. It could be that the character didn´t change one bit in the short movie, but as i said before, short movies are sometimes just snapshots.
Subplots
If we are struggling to apply a structure to a short movie because of the length we don´t really have to think about that.
Subplots are a great thing to deepen the narrative of a feature film, give more insights into character relations or drive the story forward, but when there simply is no time for that we just don´t add any subplots.
Avoid long chunks of dialogue
Dialogue usually takes time plus there is the princible “show, don´t tell”, so you can save some time when you don´t put too much dialogue in your short movie script.
If you are smart you can transport more information in less time with showing instead of using long dialogue where one character explains the plot to another.
Conclusion
I don´t think there is a unique formular to structure every short movie, they just can be so vastly different, you have to decide for each story how to get a structured plot.
A short movie does not necessarily have to be a complete narrative, but it has to be self-contained in it´s own way (so it should at least have a beginning and an end).
You could for example take the battle of helms deep from The Lord of the Rings, this battle could be a stand-alone short movie.
You´d have to strip some stuff, probably add a little bit, but in the end you don´t need to know anything about the ring, the inciting incident does not happen in the short movie, but it is a self-contained and satisfying short with a dramatic arc, a beginning and an end.
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