One of the hardest things about a short film is, well, the shortness of it all. You have 10 – 15 minutes to give audiences all the feels as well as bring audience into character’s world . If the film’s really good, you can even make the audience believe they are that character. This is exactly what Oscar-winning Irish filmmaker Benjamin Cleary managed to do in his 2015 short film character drama, “Stutterer”. It’s no surprise that Cleary is now on to more ambitious projects (including a new project with AppleTV and Mahershala Ali). But let’s revisit the film that put him on the map and see what we can learn about bringing audiences into a character’s world with a running time of fewer than 15 minutes. Set The Stakes From The Opening Frame In the marvelous “Stutterer”, Cleary sets up the stakes for his filmic world in the very first frames. Our main character, Greenwood, is introduced via sharp closeup. We don’t see Greenwood’s eyes or his face. Instead, we just see his trem...