Is 33 Scenes in an Outline too few?

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DTimesThree

Just finished outlining my feature length film and I’ve managed to come up with 33 scenes, give or take one or two. I've read so many places that all feature length films should have an outline containing at the very least 40 scenes. The way I figure is if 33 scenes are 3 minutes apiece, I roughly have a 99-minute film. Opinions?
 
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The number of scenes is irrelevant and won't give you an indication of duration. The key to judging the lenght of your film is the number of pages.

If you are using Final Draft this will give you an industry standard page layout, then you are looking at about one minute per page. Although that isn't completely accurate. I normally figure on 120 pages to get ninety minute of screen time.
 
Yeah, i've found that scenes can be tricky to define. I'll sometimes have a few INT./EXT. lines in one "scene." If a script flows well, is of a reasonable length, has a good story arc and engrossing characters, it doesn't matter how many scenes it contains.

You're probably better off worry about those things and letting the scenes count themselves.
 
I'd say it really depends on the movie. For an action film or thriller, 30 scenes is probably not going to be enough to tell the story. Figure on about 60 scenes or so for those genres. On the other hand, a deliberately paced drama will almost certainly contain fewer scenes with longer dialogue moments.
 
Scenes

DTimesThree said:
Just finished outlining my feature length film and I’ve managed to come up with 33 scenes, give or take one or two. I've read so many places that all feature length films should have an outline containing at the very least 40 scenes. The way I figure is if 33 scenes are 3 minutes apiece, I roughly have a 99-minute film. Opinions?
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Although my own screenplays normally fall somewhere between 45 and 60 scenes, 30 could very well be enough for your story... It all depends on how you create each scene within the script. Dialogue heavy scenes usually run long vs. visual or mainly action scenes.

My only advice would be as follows...

If you feel you have a complete story with the 30 scenes, start writing. You can always create a "tween scene" if you need to alter the pacing.

If, after you've written the script it comes out to say... Less than 85-90 pages, you might want to stick a few more scenes in there. If you come up with over 90 pages, you might just be okay.

It will really depend on how you write them up...

filmy
 
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