The BFI site gives guidance on writing short films:


The Protagonist:



"Finding the central character of the narrative is critical to any story-driven narrative... 'What does the protagonist want?' The key to answer this question in the short form, though, is to decide on an incident which will form the basis of the film's climax, and/or its narrative action." 


In our short film, the protagonist is William Acton, whose motivation in the narrative is to remove any evidence of his presence at the scene of a murder he committed. Though the killing takes place before the start of the short story we're basing the film on, it is referenced many times as Acton remembers their confrontation and where he left his fingerprints. 


"One of the key questions which helps to focus the first two questions into a potential dramatic narrative is 'Who or what opposes the protagonist?'."


Though Acton's enemy is Huxley, the man he murders, his main opposition is his own paranoia and obsession that lead him to be unable to leave the house and caught by the police. Therefore, we are going to focus on this element of the story in our film and have the climax of the narrative be his loss of control and the police finding him.


Point of view and theme:


"'Whose point of view is the audience being shown the story from?' ... The reason this question is central to short films is the need to address the scale of exposition, and background information, plus character's motivations, in a very small narrative space."


Our film will be from the perspective of Acton, as his personal obsession with cleaning his fingerprints from the crime scene is what the story is centered around, and his own memories of Huxley confronting him fuel this. 


"Finding the theme in any project is critical to giving a film a dramatic unity, which relates directly to the audience's emotions."


The major themes in the original story are obsession and paranoia, as Acton can't leave the house without doubting himself and thinking he has left fingerprints everywhere, which ironically leads to his arrest. We will use much of the time of our short film to build tension and display his overwhelming paranoia.