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How do I clock out a script?
- Thread starter PwnyBoy
- Start date
They way many pros do it is read the entire script out loud with
a stop watch running. But a very close rule of thumb is what
chilipie mentions. Assuming that the script is properly formatted.
a stop watch running. But a very close rule of thumb is what
chilipie mentions. Assuming that the script is properly formatted.
I didn't realize that pros actually did this. I thought I was the weirdo.
Yeah, I've done this before, just as directorik mentioned. Except, the only part that I read out loud is the dialogue. I don't read any scene descriptions or action. Instead, in my head, I imagine it visually -- the action. I play it out in my head like a movie.
This method has proven to be quite accurate for me. But that's because I direct my own work. If someone else were to direct it, there's no telling how they might pace it.
Yeah, I've done this before, just as directorik mentioned. Except, the only part that I read out loud is the dialogue. I don't read any scene descriptions or action. Instead, in my head, I imagine it visually -- the action. I play it out in my head like a movie.
This method has proven to be quite accurate for me. But that's because I direct my own work. If someone else were to direct it, there's no telling how they might pace it.
I wrote a script for an action movie, and because there is a lot of action I have a feeling that it might come out to maybe 150 minutes on film, even though it is only 120 pages. But since you have directed your own work, and I am just starting to, you probably have a better idea than me.
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Chilipies got it.
But take note of what, CF mentioned. If this is something you plan to direct yourself, it depends then, on how you shoot, your style.
For example, we shoot long. Alot of drawn out silences, similar to the early Korean movies. Taking into account the material, ofcourse, but that's our style, more often than not, we shoot long, and cut fine.
This, however, if you haven't filmed anything before, is where you find out. If you're planning to produce it yourself, that is.
But take note of what, CF mentioned. If this is something you plan to direct yourself, it depends then, on how you shoot, your style.
For example, we shoot long. Alot of drawn out silences, similar to the early Korean movies. Taking into account the material, ofcourse, but that's our style, more often than not, we shoot long, and cut fine.
This, however, if you haven't filmed anything before, is where you find out. If you're planning to produce it yourself, that is.
The professional timing of a script doesn't take any of that into
account. For obvious reasons: no way to know who will be acting,
directing or editing.
The one page = one minute guideline is quite accurate. But no one,
not a pro and not the director can time a script accurately. As all of
us who have made movies know, the movie is made in the editing.
You know we can turn a five page scene into three minutes and we
can take one line and shoot a three minute scene. And we all know
things change while shooting, too. Actors ad-lib, scenes are added or
removed.
Since PwnyBoy is just starting my advice is to keep your script to 90/100
pages and not think about the timing of a script.
In my experience also the 1 Page = 1 Minute is very accurate with the caveat that it gets more accurate the larger the sample (i.e. the longer the script). It's like flipping a coin, flip it ten times and it may come up 7 heads and 3 tails, but flip it 100 times and it will be closer to 50/50. Flip it 1000 times it will be even closer to 50/50. As the script gets longer the 1 = 1 average gets more accurate.
Everybody has covered the basics--a properly formatted script is fairly close to 1 page=1 minute. Scripts that are more dialog intensive tend to be closer to the ideal than those with action.
The actual time will be the end result of editing and any imposed budget constraints.
If you're producing this yourself, you can make it as long as you want. If you are submitting it for consideration by someone else to produce, most will reject scripts from newbies that run over 150 pages. Which is roughly 2 1/2 hours. Most films today run between 1h 20m - 2h 20m (90 - 150 pages).
Feature film scripts are more free. TV scripts are more highly structured sometimes down to the page count for a given act. (Acts are more important in television as they delimit commercial breaks.) Usually a writer's guide for a series details that.
The most challenging aspect of screenwriting is telling your story in a limited amount of pages. If you need more than 150 pages, it may be necessary to re-examine the idea. Most people complain that a film is nothing like the book. Well, a book can have 500 pages to be eloquent. Well, yeah, to put it on screen you often get the 150 page "Reader's Digest" condensed version.
Often you will read posts about how by page X that you should have done Y. Well, there is both truth and myth to that. Within the first 20 pages (20 minutes), the audience should know the primary character(s) and the setup for the movie. Exactly 20? No. Some audiences are more critical and others less so (and it depends on the genre). However, as a rough gauge as a writer, for a feature, around page 100 I should be starting to make my final descent. There is nothing magical about that number but it helps me keep in mind that I have only 20-50 more pages to wrap up the movie.
Unfortunately what you see in a lot of bad movies (from writing and editing), is that you have a great story line and then the last 10-15 minutes turn into a glaring "and they lived happily ever after. The End." Others, like Waterworld, don't seem to abridge their ideas. Most producers will not go spastic if a good film has 170 pages but I wouldn't start off with that target in mind. The safe bet is 120-150 pages which will get you in the ballpark of 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
The actual time will be the end result of editing and any imposed budget constraints.
If you're producing this yourself, you can make it as long as you want. If you are submitting it for consideration by someone else to produce, most will reject scripts from newbies that run over 150 pages. Which is roughly 2 1/2 hours. Most films today run between 1h 20m - 2h 20m (90 - 150 pages).
Feature film scripts are more free. TV scripts are more highly structured sometimes down to the page count for a given act. (Acts are more important in television as they delimit commercial breaks.) Usually a writer's guide for a series details that.
The most challenging aspect of screenwriting is telling your story in a limited amount of pages. If you need more than 150 pages, it may be necessary to re-examine the idea. Most people complain that a film is nothing like the book. Well, a book can have 500 pages to be eloquent. Well, yeah, to put it on screen you often get the 150 page "Reader's Digest" condensed version.
Often you will read posts about how by page X that you should have done Y. Well, there is both truth and myth to that. Within the first 20 pages (20 minutes), the audience should know the primary character(s) and the setup for the movie. Exactly 20? No. Some audiences are more critical and others less so (and it depends on the genre). However, as a rough gauge as a writer, for a feature, around page 100 I should be starting to make my final descent. There is nothing magical about that number but it helps me keep in mind that I have only 20-50 more pages to wrap up the movie.
Unfortunately what you see in a lot of bad movies (from writing and editing), is that you have a great story line and then the last 10-15 minutes turn into a glaring "and they lived happily ever after. The End." Others, like Waterworld, don't seem to abridge their ideas. Most producers will not go spastic if a good film has 170 pages but I wouldn't start off with that target in mind. The safe bet is 120-150 pages which will get you in the ballpark of 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
I just fell off the turnip truck here at IT having spent nearly the last year at another site for spec screen writing.
So, here goes.
As others above have stated - when writing for yourself do whatever you want, but when writing a feature with the intent to sell to someone not your buddy then you'll likely need to follow spec screen writing format as opposed to what the "pros" do.
Here's the short version of how the process goes:
- You will write a masterpiece <cough, cough>.
- You get knowledgeable peer review feedback for FREE (Not family and friends, they probably don't know WTH they're looking for).
- Rewrite
- Seek peer review, again
- Rewrite
- Seek peer review, again
- Knock off the edges then PAY for a professional read for "coverage".
- Rewrite
- PAY for coverage, again
- Rewrite
- Begin finding an agent to broker between you and a producer and dealer
- Put down your writer's hat, put on your marketer's hat, goto pitchfests whenever you can
- Keep in mind the overwhelming majority of these scripts never go anywhere. (Keep in mind YOU are asking for THEM to spend THEIR money on YOUR story).
- If it gets optioned don't get excited.
- If the producer/director actually starts working on the project don't get excited (get only interested!)
- If it actually gets filmed and edited don't get excited because it still has to be distributed.
- Get your a$$ back to work on your next five screenplays.
Also, keep in mind even with a screenplay "approved" by the studio/producer/director everyone and their dog is going to change it between script to screen.
- The studio will want to move major story lines or push a actor's contractual obligation into your story.
- Budget restraints may force story changes.
- The director is going to want to add his/her artistic slant to your story.
- The actual set or setting may force changes.
- The actors are going to fabricate eight different ways to tweak your story.
- The editor is going to select the best take and use that, no matter how your wrote the scene to go.
- The MPAA is going to screw with it, too.
- You'll be expected to show your professionalism by constantly rewriting the script on the fly.
- The original script and a transcript of what is released in theaters or DTV ain't even the same thing.
In your spec script don't include camera angles - JUST tell the d@mn story.
Learn what an "unfilmable" is and don't include those.
Don't write a descriptive novel in screenplay format.
Pretty much you'll only write down about 10 - 20% of what you envision. Deal with it.
Unless you've already bought software, download Celtx for FREE:
http://celtx.com/
Here's one of the better FREE online format guides:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12721428/Professional-Screenplay-Formatting-Guide
Here's Blake Snyder's popular three act structure diagram:
http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab352/rewriteitagain/ScriptStructure.jpg?t=1301260546
Here's database of produced screenplays:
http://www.imsdb.com/latest/
Read a lot of recent ones.
GL
Oh, and BTW - since theaters can show a 90min film more times a day than a 110min film their purchasers lean towards those to buy from the distributer, if you should get so lucky!
So, here goes.
As others above have stated - when writing for yourself do whatever you want, but when writing a feature with the intent to sell to someone not your buddy then you'll likely need to follow spec screen writing format as opposed to what the "pros" do.
Here's the short version of how the process goes:
- You will write a masterpiece <cough, cough>.
- You get knowledgeable peer review feedback for FREE (Not family and friends, they probably don't know WTH they're looking for).
- Rewrite
- Seek peer review, again
- Rewrite
- Seek peer review, again
- Knock off the edges then PAY for a professional read for "coverage".
- Rewrite
- PAY for coverage, again
- Rewrite
- Begin finding an agent to broker between you and a producer and dealer
- Put down your writer's hat, put on your marketer's hat, goto pitchfests whenever you can
- Keep in mind the overwhelming majority of these scripts never go anywhere. (Keep in mind YOU are asking for THEM to spend THEIR money on YOUR story).
- If it gets optioned don't get excited.
- If the producer/director actually starts working on the project don't get excited (get only interested!)
- If it actually gets filmed and edited don't get excited because it still has to be distributed.
- Get your a$$ back to work on your next five screenplays.
Also, keep in mind even with a screenplay "approved" by the studio/producer/director everyone and their dog is going to change it between script to screen.
- The studio will want to move major story lines or push a actor's contractual obligation into your story.
- Budget restraints may force story changes.
- The director is going to want to add his/her artistic slant to your story.
- The actual set or setting may force changes.
- The actors are going to fabricate eight different ways to tweak your story.
- The editor is going to select the best take and use that, no matter how your wrote the scene to go.
- The MPAA is going to screw with it, too.
- You'll be expected to show your professionalism by constantly rewriting the script on the fly.
- The original script and a transcript of what is released in theaters or DTV ain't even the same thing.
In your spec script don't include camera angles - JUST tell the d@mn story.
Learn what an "unfilmable" is and don't include those.
Don't write a descriptive novel in screenplay format.
Pretty much you'll only write down about 10 - 20% of what you envision. Deal with it.
Unless you've already bought software, download Celtx for FREE:
http://celtx.com/
Here's one of the better FREE online format guides:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12721428/Professional-Screenplay-Formatting-Guide
Here's Blake Snyder's popular three act structure diagram:
http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab352/rewriteitagain/ScriptStructure.jpg?t=1301260546
Here's database of produced screenplays:
http://www.imsdb.com/latest/
Read a lot of recent ones.
GL
Oh, and BTW - since theaters can show a 90min film more times a day than a 110min film their purchasers lean towards those to buy from the distributer, if you should get so lucky!
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