Last year, during a class with Louis Gonzales, a question stuck with me:

Can a 1-minute short even have structure?

At the time, it felt almost… unnecessary.
Like, what structure could possibly fit in 60 seconds?

But then there’s that famous line:

And somehow, that sentence holds an entire story.
Beginning, middle, end — and a punch to the gut.

Which made me wonder…
maybe structure isn’t about length.

Maybe it’s about impact.

At the start of this year, I joined a reading club while going through John Yorke's new book Trip to the Moon, and we started breaking down structure — midpoints, shifts, emotional turns…

And at some point, we circled back to that sentence.

Not because it shows everything.
But because it makes you feel everything.

And it kind of blew my mind a little.

Because this isn’t just about short films.

It’s about:

How little information do we need for a story to feel structured?

Hemingway's sentence is basically:

Setup
Theme
Scene Turn (Emotional payoff)

All in 6 words.

And the crazy part?

The audience is doing most of the storytelling.

why? let me break it down…

“For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.”

What’s actually happening there?

Something is for sale…. what it is? Baby shoes… and then the scene turns: never worn.

Setup → for sale (ok, something is being sold)
MidPoint → baby shoes (nice, a bit of context)
Twist → never worn (wait… something’s wrong)

And that’s it.

Six words… and your brain fills in the rest.

That gap?

That’s everything.

I guess in storyboarding terms, it’s kind of like:

you don’t show the event
you show the aftermath
and you trust the audience to connect it

Which… is kind of genius.

Anyways, back to 1-minute shorts!

I peeked into the rabbit hole and most of what I found leaned into:

horror
comedy
or a twist ending

Which makes sense — they’re efficient.

But then I asked:
**Can you make someone cry in 1 minute?**
The general answer was:
“Yeah… if you kill a dog.” (lol)

And of course, my brain immediately went:

ok but… what if I don’t?
So obviously, I decided that’s exactly the challenge I want to take on.

Because I think in short formats, storytelling changes.

It’s not about building more.

It’s about choosing the right moment… and trusting the audience to do the rest.

So… I’m going to try and make someone cry in 60 seconds.

This is part of a series where I’m trying to build a 1-minute short that actually makes someone cry. So if you found it interesting, maybe subscribe for more? hehe

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Can you make someone cry in 1 minute?

Hi There!