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under estimated film length

dlevanchuk

dlevanchuk

Weird!
Today was the last principal photography day (WOOT!!!). Script I've had was almost 8 pages. I've quickly cut everything together, to see the flow, and the video came up to little under 4 mins :-S

Has anybody else had same experience of underestimating their video length?? This is weird, everything matches, all dialogs there, cuts are as long as they have to.. mystery lol
 
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ah, Very possible its the dialog..

There is two page of a phone conversation.

i'll have to check it tomorrow with fresh pair of eyes, to see maybe my action cuts are too short..


Oh well! Better chances to be accepted into a film festival haha
 
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The one-minute-per-page average is only for feature length...shorts can go way over or way under, depending on what they are. This happens to me all the time. It's why I gave up 48 hour projects...my scripts were always four pages but ended up being 10 minutes films. Or the opposite.
 
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Uranium City said:
The one-minute-per-page average is only for feature length...shorts can go way over or way under, depending on what they are.
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Yup! A feature is long enough that the groups of pages that go way faster and groups of pages that go slower equal out to about a minute per page.

It's not just dialogue that makes it go faster, but they type of dialogue. For example, a comedy, usually read and cut quicker,doesn't last as long as a drama with pauses and breathing room.
 
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d-

Seems to me that if the story is told well, then the length is just right-- regardless of the ultimate pages-to-minute.

What's your gut feeling about how well the story is told in that 4 minutes?
 
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'Destroyer ' was a four page screenplay - with dialog (that never made it to the final product).

I shot about an hour of material.

All relevant shots from the script would have easily made a fifteen minute short.

Preliminary cut was almost nine minutes.

Final was around eight minutes.


I have a fairly good recollection of your first script, know that you tinkered with it some, and find it quite interesting your eight page boiled down to four minutes of screentime.


I recall from the writer/director commentary on 'Shaun of the Dead' that White & Pegg stated they purposefully wrote less description into the screenplay so that they could cram in more dialog while keeping the final page count within industry norms, presumably to secure financing. They (sensibly) probably didn't want to make potential investors balk at a thick sheaf of a screenplay.

However, the important take-away is that the screenplay can PURPOSEFULLY fluffed or thinned to suit ulterior goals.
 
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I think it fits perfectly well into 4 mins. I've showed no mercy to my footage, and hacked off 10 more seconds :-S Somebody needs to stop me!

But it looks to me the story still gets told. I'll post the rough edit in post production, hoping somebody else could say if things make any sense :)
 
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1 minute per page is a misguided "rule".

Comedy and Horror will nearly always move faster than the page count. An action-heavy script will do the same.

A feature-length script is fat for a reason, 120 pages is a healthy size to shoot.

Don't do too many shorts (read:None) so I wouldn't know, but I assume the same applies no matter what length.
 
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I've found it to be really accurate to time a script, in my head. I start a timer, and begin reading the script aloud, by myself. I ignore all of the action instructions, but imagine what is happening, and might even make sound-effects. :D

As directortator, I control pacing, and what is in my head ends up on screen. I love taking all sorts of suggestions for new ideas, especially from actors, but when it comes to pacing, I know exactly what I want. If I ever write a book on directing, it will be titled, "That was great. Now, do the same thing, but faster." :)
 
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I do comedy, and I write 8-10 pages per script and I know that i'll cut them down to about 5 mins. Cutting the air out of the scene is so important. Like cracker funk said, "do the same thing but faster" I was directing a scene, just two guys sitting down. When i filmed it, it felt like, 5 pages so i called them we shot the same thing again, and took 30 seconds of footage off that scene, now I don't know if you want to make yours longer or shorter but whats wrong with short, id rather have a well structured 4 minute flick than a film that feels longer than it is. My opinipon
 
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dlevanchuk said:
I think it fits perfectly well into 4 mins. I've showed no mercy to my footage, and hacked off 10 more seconds :-S Somebody needs to stop me!

But it looks to me the story still gets told. I'll post the rough edit in post production, hoping somebody else could say if things make any sense :)
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Yeah, post it, would like to watch it with this aspect in mind.
 
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