How long.. (is a feature length script)
- Thread starter Azmyth
- Start date
j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
or, shoot for 1,000 pages and then trim it down to 100-110
No, in that case, remove the slug lines, and find a russian literary journal that will publish it in serial form over the next winter...
JonathanLB
Carbonite Member
Haha
Haha
Do we get a complimentary bottle of vodka with our subscription to said literary magazine?!
I would aim for 90 to 100, not 100 to 110. That's too long for a new writer. Spec scripts should not be longer than 100 pages, heard this from many people who have been readers and who do this sort of thing constantly. The problem with most scripts is they're too long, not too short. So better to be short.
Haha
Do we get a complimentary bottle of vodka with our subscription to said literary magazine?!
I would aim for 90 to 100, not 100 to 110. That's too long for a new writer. Spec scripts should not be longer than 100 pages, heard this from many people who have been readers and who do this sort of thing constantly. The problem with most scripts is they're too long, not too short. So better to be short.
Azmyth
Veteran
I'm sitting at 50 pages currently.
we are just about to hit the "climax" where everyone knows whats going on, and the good guys have to figure out how to stop it.
think I might take a break on it tonight, and play some WoW lol.
I've been doing nothing but film/film/film for the past month. I'm doing everything myself so far, and its a ton of work.
we are just about to hit the "climax" where everyone knows whats going on, and the good guys have to figure out how to stop it.
think I might take a break on it tonight, and play some WoW lol.
I've been doing nothing but film/film/film for the past month. I'm doing everything myself so far, and its a ton of work.
JonathanLB
Carbonite Member
Nice
Nice
Well just keep plugging away, don't lose momentum, it's good to step back and take a break sometimes, but not too long of one.
I speak for myself only on this of course, I don't know how it works for others, but when I'm really rolling and getting a lot done, it tends to feed off itself, like the energy is high and I seem to have this powerful train moving forward where even I'm impressed and amazed by how much work I get done. Then I feel like if I lose that, if I take a week off and relax a bit, it's very difficult for me to step back into things and really get the work flowing again. It's like I have very slow acceleration but a great top speed, lol, so that when I'm trying to get into work again, it takes me a while to get back in the groove, but when I'm there I am very productive.
I feel like I haven't done all that much in the past 4-6 weeks even, yet before that in the 4-6 weeks before I outlined and wrote two entire screenplays. Haven't even been able to revise them both yet. I'm just getting back into the flow and knocking the first one into better shape. It's actually exciting because as I got back into it, I started to get excited about what I was doing again. I think one thing that killed it a bit for me was the first 30 pages of this script is kind of brutal, it's not that it's bad, it has really solid plot points and hits the beats it needs to, I'm happy with that. But little things were not done properly because I was trying to rush through it, and because of that it kind of created a mess. Where I have things like "(FAKE MOVIE TITLE) is the one you liked best huh?" or "He has a funny t-shirt on (think of something funny!)" or even that my leads both have first names and not last names, things like that. So the first 30 pages is full of things that need fixing like that of a minor nature, and it makes it seem like I'm so far away, but actually it just needs a few nights of focusing on those details before I can step back and re-evaluate the whole picture.
Fortunately when I got past those 30 pages, the rest of the script is way more polished for some reason, and actually made me laugh reading it again, I was surprised how good it is for a rough draft actually. In my mind it was a lot worse than this somehow. I tend to do that, though. Even with work I finished totally, I'll think, "Eh, my first music video... I would have done a lot of things differently. It was kind of a nightmare shoot. It's pretty good I guess." Then I watch it again after a while and say, "Wow, this actually was a good video! There's a lot of great stuff here!" I tend to forget how good past work was because the further I get away from it, the more I think I've just gotten so much better that whatever I did in the past must not be very good, haha.
Nice
Well just keep plugging away, don't lose momentum, it's good to step back and take a break sometimes, but not too long of one.
I speak for myself only on this of course, I don't know how it works for others, but when I'm really rolling and getting a lot done, it tends to feed off itself, like the energy is high and I seem to have this powerful train moving forward where even I'm impressed and amazed by how much work I get done. Then I feel like if I lose that, if I take a week off and relax a bit, it's very difficult for me to step back into things and really get the work flowing again. It's like I have very slow acceleration but a great top speed, lol, so that when I'm trying to get into work again, it takes me a while to get back in the groove, but when I'm there I am very productive.
I feel like I haven't done all that much in the past 4-6 weeks even, yet before that in the 4-6 weeks before I outlined and wrote two entire screenplays. Haven't even been able to revise them both yet. I'm just getting back into the flow and knocking the first one into better shape. It's actually exciting because as I got back into it, I started to get excited about what I was doing again. I think one thing that killed it a bit for me was the first 30 pages of this script is kind of brutal, it's not that it's bad, it has really solid plot points and hits the beats it needs to, I'm happy with that. But little things were not done properly because I was trying to rush through it, and because of that it kind of created a mess. Where I have things like "(FAKE MOVIE TITLE) is the one you liked best huh?" or "He has a funny t-shirt on (think of something funny!)" or even that my leads both have first names and not last names, things like that. So the first 30 pages is full of things that need fixing like that of a minor nature, and it makes it seem like I'm so far away, but actually it just needs a few nights of focusing on those details before I can step back and re-evaluate the whole picture.
Fortunately when I got past those 30 pages, the rest of the script is way more polished for some reason, and actually made me laugh reading it again, I was surprised how good it is for a rough draft actually. In my mind it was a lot worse than this somehow. I tend to do that, though. Even with work I finished totally, I'll think, "Eh, my first music video... I would have done a lot of things differently. It was kind of a nightmare shoot. It's pretty good I guess." Then I watch it again after a while and say, "Wow, this actually was a good video! There's a lot of great stuff here!" I tend to forget how good past work was because the further I get away from it, the more I think I've just gotten so much better that whatever I did in the past must not be very good, haha.
Nathan.Buxton
Well-known member
Johnathan may I read your script? I've heard so much about it.
Azmyth
Veteran
Yeah, today was like that. I got stuck for a moment.. and then all of a sudden ideas started blooming. I'm just hoping my budget can afford some of the locations/props I have added because of it. The good thing is, I've left room for "sudden changes" in case anything I have written in becomes unavailable for any reason. There's always another way to get to the same "point" in the story. I'm just writing the "BEST" one first. 50 pages in I still have alot of story left to tell, so I'm confident I will have plenty of room to do so.
My problem is I tend to go back and read what I have written often, and I wind up doing more revising than writing.. because I will see things while I am going back and reading.. and I will think "THAT MUST CHANGE.. NOW!".
JonathanLB
Carbonite Member
lol
lol
Haha, I got around that one by just writing fast! I wrote the first screenplay in 8 days, which was kind of slow because there was a lot of messing around on my part. Then I wrote the second in a single day. Basically it was 22h45m with a 4 hour nap thrown in and I wrote 95.5 pages!
When you write that fast, there's no time to go back and edit and tinker, not until it's all done
It was a rush. I think I'll write my future screenplays the same as the last, because it was somehow very exciting and made me feel very alive to be required to focus that hard for a period of time like that, where I couldn't even afford a 15 minute distraction because it could be the difference between success and failure. I shoved down a few meals in about 7-8 minutes, lol.
lol
Haha, I got around that one by just writing fast! I wrote the first screenplay in 8 days, which was kind of slow because there was a lot of messing around on my part. Then I wrote the second in a single day. Basically it was 22h45m with a 4 hour nap thrown in and I wrote 95.5 pages!
When you write that fast, there's no time to go back and edit and tinker, not until it's all done
It was a rush. I think I'll write my future screenplays the same as the last, because it was somehow very exciting and made me feel very alive to be required to focus that hard for a period of time like that, where I couldn't even afford a 15 minute distraction because it could be the difference between success and failure. I shoved down a few meals in about 7-8 minutes, lol.
Martay
Veteran
Never been able to write quite that fast, though I do have a buddy (Michael D Friedman) who wrote a decent 90 page draft in 15 hours...topping his previous 2 day script prior to that.
However, that's because his process is to let an idea gestate in his mind for a long, long time and him thinking and plotting, etc. (stuff I usually do in notebooks) in his head and then finally sitting and dumping as fast as he can.
So, it depends on what your process is...(I hear that Jay Z is similar in his rap career too, he keeps ideas and songs in his head until he's ready to record and then just does it in the studio...when I rhyme it comes out of similar notebooks as my script notes).
I have different processes for different situations. My assignments are way more structured than my Specs because I often have to run detailed outlines and treatments past producers before digging into the actual draft.
However, one thing that is the same with both processes, mine and my buddy Mike, is that the story is usually completely articulated before we begin...now that's not to say that it can't be organic in the moment too, but it usually knows where it's going and has definite landmarks that must be reached along the way.
-M
However, that's because his process is to let an idea gestate in his mind for a long, long time and him thinking and plotting, etc. (stuff I usually do in notebooks) in his head and then finally sitting and dumping as fast as he can.
So, it depends on what your process is...(I hear that Jay Z is similar in his rap career too, he keeps ideas and songs in his head until he's ready to record and then just does it in the studio...when I rhyme it comes out of similar notebooks as my script notes).
I have different processes for different situations. My assignments are way more structured than my Specs because I often have to run detailed outlines and treatments past producers before digging into the actual draft.
However, one thing that is the same with both processes, mine and my buddy Mike, is that the story is usually completely articulated before we begin...now that's not to say that it can't be organic in the moment too, but it usually knows where it's going and has definite landmarks that must be reached along the way.
-M
JonathanLB
Carbonite Member
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah, well I had been toying with this script idea for at least 3-4 years, it could have been 5 years ago I first thought about the concept, but not necessarily that I would make it into a script, more so thinking about the idea of the technology, etc. So by the time that I sat down to write it, I had a lot of thought that went into it already.
But I also has a 12-page single-spaced outline, which is probably about 20% of the word count of the entire script, after all. I don't write anything before every scene is mapped out in the outline, divided into acts (for my own benefit), and then described. It will not be something like, "Jay argues with Amy." That is not an outline. It'll be a full paragraph or two about exactly what happens in that scene, from start to end, so when I'm actually writing it out it seems more of a formality in some senses. Sure, I haven't come up with the way anything is said yet, but I know all of the points to hit and then it's just a matter of letting it flow.
It's definitely possible to write something quickly if you've done the preparation beforehand, but I could never sit down and write a script in a day just from scratch, not even close. I spent a full week outlining this script, so that means I spent more time outlining it than writing it, which makes sense. I consider the outline to be far more difficult than the script itself. When the outline is done, I basically feel like I have a script, it just needs to be put to paper. It's not that tough by that point, the hard thinking has been done. The rest is kind of fun, toying with how to make the dialogue snap, how to make it all fit together, I enjoy that. Outlining can be a headache, it's like hardcore problem solving.
It's a lot like making a film. I appreciate that production may be "the thing" for some people, but I basically feel I'm already close to having what I want by the time I step on the shoot, provided nothing goes TOO wrong. It's already made in pre-production, the parts are assembled and the concept or script is ready, and by that point it's just going through the list and getting the materials. The hard part is pre-production. Production is the pedal to the metal kind of thing, though, it's the exciting part but not always the fun part. The fun part is post for me, where I see it all come together.
But basically in general the planning stage of anything I find to be the toughest part, whether that's outlining a script or pre-producing a project, because it's there where the elements are really laid out that will make this great or make it mediocre, haha.
Yeah
Yeah, well I had been toying with this script idea for at least 3-4 years, it could have been 5 years ago I first thought about the concept, but not necessarily that I would make it into a script, more so thinking about the idea of the technology, etc. So by the time that I sat down to write it, I had a lot of thought that went into it already.
But I also has a 12-page single-spaced outline, which is probably about 20% of the word count of the entire script, after all. I don't write anything before every scene is mapped out in the outline, divided into acts (for my own benefit), and then described. It will not be something like, "Jay argues with Amy." That is not an outline. It'll be a full paragraph or two about exactly what happens in that scene, from start to end, so when I'm actually writing it out it seems more of a formality in some senses. Sure, I haven't come up with the way anything is said yet, but I know all of the points to hit and then it's just a matter of letting it flow.
It's definitely possible to write something quickly if you've done the preparation beforehand, but I could never sit down and write a script in a day just from scratch, not even close. I spent a full week outlining this script, so that means I spent more time outlining it than writing it, which makes sense. I consider the outline to be far more difficult than the script itself. When the outline is done, I basically feel like I have a script, it just needs to be put to paper. It's not that tough by that point, the hard thinking has been done. The rest is kind of fun, toying with how to make the dialogue snap, how to make it all fit together, I enjoy that. Outlining can be a headache, it's like hardcore problem solving.
It's a lot like making a film. I appreciate that production may be "the thing" for some people, but I basically feel I'm already close to having what I want by the time I step on the shoot, provided nothing goes TOO wrong. It's already made in pre-production, the parts are assembled and the concept or script is ready, and by that point it's just going through the list and getting the materials. The hard part is pre-production. Production is the pedal to the metal kind of thing, though, it's the exciting part but not always the fun part. The fun part is post for me, where I see it all come together.
But basically in general the planning stage of anything I find to be the toughest part, whether that's outlining a script or pre-producing a project, because it's there where the elements are really laid out that will make this great or make it mediocre, haha.