“TV and film work is pure craft. It’s like building a table. No matter how well you build it, how well you carve the legs, it will always be a table. Because I have to outline my TV and film work, because I have to write scripts to the page count, I tend to be less structured in my playwriting. I simply let myself go where I go.”
— Sally Nemeth
Screenplay structure is more rigid than, say, a novel, which can be 350 pages or a thousand. A screenplay is regimented. The page-a-minute rule is imperfect, but works as a general guideline. Comedy ideal length should be 90-100 pages. Drama: 100-120.
Yes, I know Benjamin Button went over 2 ½ hours. Lord of The Rings, Apocalypse Now… Many movies go 2+ hours. Those scripts can be 150 pages, so why can’t yours?
Don’t give the bastards a reason to say no.
Charlie Kaufman gets 150 pages if he needs it. David Benioff (Troy) gets 150. David Goyer (Batman Begins, Blade) gets 150. He can also write it in aquamarine crayon or COPPERPLATE GOTHIC BOLD if he chooses. Dude could bind it on seven-hole punch paper with seven brads—literally, he could punch 7-holes in the thing. He’d still get paid. William Goldman uses CUT TO’s as sluglines…why can’t you?
Professionals get away with things you, The Unknown Screenwriter, won’t.
Control what you can control.
Know industry standards. To not care about page count shows no discipline. It’s problematic at best, arrogant at worst. Don’t give the bastards a reason to say no.
Agreed. We’re not positing Benjamin Button as a good script…are we? Just curious, Mick
Benjamin Button was more like a slide show presentation with effects. “Here’s what I did in the 20’s, here’s where I was in the 40’s…”
The F. Scott Fitzgerald source material has few flies, but as the fortune cookie once told me: “Some things are better read than said.”