Www.fiveminutesitcom.com aspires to be 1/100th of the blog that johnaugust.com. John is both a great screenwriter and a nice man, and meeting him was a bright spot in the 2007/2008 WGA strike.
As I've taken to viewing his blog as the final word on pretty much anything, I was psyched to see him answer questions about writing shorts (not strictly the same thing as a five minute sitcom, but a 5ms is like a short that.
My favorite part: The hero’s fundamental problem/challenge/obstacle needs to occur by the time you get to the 1/3rd mark. So, if your short is meant to be three minutes long, the big event needs to happen on page one. If it’s a 10-minute short, it happens around page three. It’s not that you’re worried about your reader getting bored before then — if you can’t entertain us for three pages, there’s a problem — but rather that if you delay any longer, your story is going to feel lopsided: too much setup for what was accomplished.
Do yourself a favor and read this article.
Scripting a short film (from Johnaugust.com)
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