A few years back, I wrote a document called the Screenwriter's Manifesto. Here's an excerpt about long scenes.
Recently, I watched The Graduate. I had not seen it in years and way before I started writing screenplays. I firmly believe that today, The Graduate would never see the light of day. I was amazed that during the first hour of the film, some scenes with Mrs. Robinson lasted ten to fifteen minutes and with shitloads of dialogue. Perhaps with the exception of Quentin Tarantino, this is a no-no in today’s world. But generally speaking, producers are scared of too much talk. In today’s cutthroat marketplace, I wonder if Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf would be greenlighted? Or if for time’s sake, My Dinner with Andre would be reduced to a cup of coffee or a power date?
For one scene, how long is too long?
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I'm going to rewatch the first scenes of "Social Network" and "The Player" to refresh.
Is it a courtroom drama? Then all bets are off the table! But you make a good point to think about.
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There are a lot of low budget thrillers, often contained thrillers, that are very dialog heavy, e.g., Brake, Buried, 10 Cloverfield Lane.
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It's not how long the written scene is - it's how well the scene is written. Remember that when blocking and shooting a long two character dialog heavy scenes, the Director can break it up into various shots: 2 shot, OTS, Reaction shots, Wide Close, throw in a couple of inserts, include a little foreground and background action. You just need a Director with cinematic vision. Few young 'uns do.
As a rule of thumb, I try to keep it under 3 pages. If the scene needs to be longer than that, I try to break it with a change of setting or characters.