“Character speaks louder than words” is something I've heard over and over again from acting teachers and screenwriting gurus, but I never gave it too much thought until I started watching silent films and reading about the filmmakers who made them. One book that comes to mind is Hitchcock Truffaut by Francois Truffaut. In it, Alfred Hitchcock was talking about the power of silent cinema and how it taught him to “direct the camera and the actor without relying on verbal information.”
Silent films have the power to reveal a character’s true intentions, their malice, kindness, hopes and dreams, fears, and pet peeves, without ever uttering a word. The marriage between the actor, their actions, and the camera is all you really need to tell a story in an efficient way. Say what you will about Alfred Hitchcock, he was nothing if not efficient. I am currently working on a short silent film called Rekindle Not. The experience is teaching me a lot about effective storytelling. You don’t really need any resources, just take an actor and give him/her a strong need and put something in their way. You can shoot it on an iPhone; the quality doesn’t matter because its purpose is purely educational.