How long is feature length?

Derkoi

Derkoi

Well-known member
This might not be the correct place to ask, but i couldn't find anywhere more suitable.

How long does a film have to be to be classed as 'Feature Length'?

Is there a golden rule?
 
Depends on who you ask. Most festivals consider 70 minutes feature length. Many distributors prefer 85 to 90 minutes. I say shoot for 80 minutes. That way you can always add longer credits and an extra scene to get the 90 min.
 
Pretty much anything over an hour could be feature length. This comes from the old days when you would spend a couple hours in the theaters, watching a bunch of shorts, news clips, then the main movie, the feature. Try not to go epic length though. 3 hours in a chair can be painful, even if the movie is good.
 
Derkoi said:
Thanks! 80 mins seems cool.



Yeah i agree, i'd be pushed to write a 3 hour movie, let alone shoot and edit one. lol
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Actually, it can sometimes be quite easy to write a 3 hour script, but the trick is, to know what really needs to go in, and what really needs to stay the hell out. Watching a lot of movies, it is obvious that many don't know what to leave the hell out, and cut the good stuff.
 
jls4 said:
Depends on who you ask. Most festivals consider 70 minutes feature length. Many distributors prefer 85 to 90 minutes. I say shoot for 80 minutes. That way you can always add longer credits and an extra scene to get the 90 min.
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Definitely need to know the purpose of your feature to really gauge it. Like jls says here.

Festivals might think you've got a feature at 60+ minutes but a distributor is likely to frown on anything Narrative that doesn't hit roughly 75 Minutes. At least that's the experience I've had when talking to them.

My first feature was a little short of the 90 min. Goal but I didn't want to add something just to bloat.

And if you're talking about writing, it sometimes translates to 1 page = 1 minute of screen time but sometimes it does not.

Like I mentioned before, my first feature as a director was a 95 page script that I struggled to get it to roughly 80 minutes. Conversely, I wrote a horror film that got produced and distributed nationally that was only 72 pages as written and had a run time of roughly 98 minutes.

So, definitely consider the end result when you define a feature.

Hard and fast rule is 90 minutes for commercial DVD releases and over 65 for festival consideration (they usually run a short in front of feature films).

-M
 
Nathyn said:
I always try to do 90 minutes.

-Nate
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I think that 80 minutes is okay, but I agree with Nate in that it is good to always aim for a 90 minute film if you want to call it a feature. If you hit 90 minutes and need to cut a scene out or trim for pacing, then you still have some room to do so and most likely come in at 80-85 minutes.

For me, I use the standard spec screenplay page length as a yardstick. 90-120 pages is the Hollywood spec standard. Until I become a big time studio director, I'm sticking with 90-120 pages for scripts, and 90-120 minutes for any feature films that I make.

There are special cases though. If a film plays marvelously at 2.5 or 3 hours then it shouldn't be cut just to appease a distributor on length alone.
 
Thanks for the replies guys!

Basically i'm making a feature length to hopefully get distribution and so i can prove to myself that i can do it. I've been making short films since 1994 and a feature has always been a personal goal.

I think i'll aim for the 90 minutes, a nice length for a film i think.
 
I say make the movie as long as it needs to be to tell your story. If you get a three hour flick, so what? King Kong was long, but I never once got bored and felt the need to check the time. It flew by. Same with Grindhouse. Likewise, I've seen some amazing 45 minute "shorts" that couldn't have been any longer or shorter. If you're shooting for a certain length, that's fine, but don't try to "pad out" your story to make it longer. Choose a different story.
 
El Director said:
I say make the movie as long as it needs to be to tell your story. If you get a three hour flick, so what? King Kong was long, but I never once got bored and felt the need to check the time. It flew by. Same with Grindhouse. Likewise, I've seen some amazing 45 minute "shorts" that couldn't have been any longer or shorter. If you're shooting for a certain length, that's fine, but don't try to "pad out" your story to make it longer. Choose a different story.
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Yeah, that makes alot of sense.

I'm currently in very early stages, just getting ideas together and i'm aiming for a feature, i don't think it'll be longer than 90 mins, but who knows.
 
I researched this a couple years ago, and came up with 74 minutes.

I always aim for 90 minutes -- which I think is ideal for a film. From personal experience, things always end up being longer, and here you have a whole 30 minutes to play with before it becomes "too long".
 
pmark23 said:
I researched this a couple years ago, and came up with 74 minutes.

I always aim for 90 minutes -- which I think is ideal for a film. From personal experience, things always end up being longer, and here you have a whole 30 minutes to play with before it becomes "too long".
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I guess everybody's different. I'm such the producer that I always "cut back" so it's very difficult for me to "add". I now shoot for 95 minutes so I can hopefully get the 85 I need.

Again though you need at least 80 min if you want feature movie distribution, under 70 minutes won't cut it for sales. And just try to show up with 45 minutes to the avg distributor they will laugh you out of the building. There's a huge difference bewteen the "true definition" and the "actual or socal definition." I mean you can drink orange juice from concentrate, pure sqeezed, or fresh squeezed. It's all orange juice but people pay a premium for fresh squeezed. :)
 
No one here has mentioned that SAG defines a feature as an 80 minute or greater film. You'll have a hard time getting SAG actors if you plan on making the movie less than 80 min.
 
taormina said:
No one here has mentioned that SAG defines a feature as an 80 minute or greater film. You'll have a hard time getting SAG actors if you plan on making the movie less than 80 min.
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Very good point. There are a lot of things you need to consider. Personally, I agree with the notion of 90 minutes or more. I do know that some festivals call 45 minutes a feature, etc., but really, once the festival circuit is over, what can you really do with a 45 minute film? Possibly make it an hour long special on TV or something. If your goal is distribution, as you previously mentioned, 90 minutes is a good standard.

Alex
 
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