I was going to submit a script I wrote into a contest. Then, I read the rules and it said "Short Scripts 40 pages or less. Feature Scripts 80 pages or more" ... My script was 56 pages! I was stuck on what to do. I didn't know wether to trim the fat down to at least 40 pages... but I'd lose a lot of important information. Or, I would add some fat to at least 80 pages, but I fear I'd over do the story and I'd lose focus of the original plot and bore the audience. I decided to make a feature out of it. I'm at 76 pages and don't know what else to add. I've been over the plot triangle so many times, I could recite it in my sleep. LOL. I learned that every scene MUST have a purpose even if it's just two characters talking. It should either give us new information about the hero and his journey or it should give us foresight on what's to come. But is it possible to have a "down scene?" A scene with no purpose; just there for the sake of entertainment? Can anyone think of an example?
Screenwriting : Ever been stuck between standard pages....? What could be worst? by Nikki April Lee
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Hmm.. I'd be against adding scenes just for filler as they'll weigh down what might be an otherwise good script. There are three things a scene can advance: theme, character, and plot. An ideal scene would move all three. A good scene will move at least two. If you find scenes that move only one you'd do well to think how you can scrape them and reintegrate that information into your existing scenes. As for how you can expand your story-- perhaps back to the drawing board and look at your theme. Are there any other sub-themes you can still explore and develop into a sub-plot/s? How about characters? Could you flesh out more conflict? This will ensure that the additions are meaningful rather than bulky. If you really feel there's nothing substantial you can flesh out, perhaps try cutting down pages. Losing 16 pages out of 56 can be painful, but you might end up with a tighter story. Another thing you can do, depending on your style, is add white space. If you have action blocks longer than 3 lines and dialog blocks longer than 4 lines, break them up! You can even break to a new paragraph every time you 'cut' to another shot (i.e. describe something the character is seeing, etc) This will not only lengthen you script but make it easier on the eyes, which is a big one. 56 is a fairly irregular page-count for a screenplay-- I know cause I've written one of these too a couple years back ;) After a while you just get a sense for 60, 90, 120 pages during the plotting/outlining stage. Hope this helps. Good luck!
Thanks Maty! It does help! You've given me a nice checklist to go over. Sometimes when you're wrapped up in a story, you forget about its essentials. I haven't spent much time on the theme of my story. It just may be the very thing to tie it all together.
For sure Nikki, glad to help. Feel free to hit me up if you need any more feedback :)
Don't add pointless scenes just to make the script fatter. That's crazy. Think about it from a producer's stand point (your potential boss). Adding three scenes could add 1-2 days of shooting and tens of thousands of dollars to the production. Producers have at least a basic sense of storytelling. Do you really want to turn in a script with obvious filler in it? Do you think you'd be hired again? If it's too short for a feature, your story needs more depth. Study story theory to learn what. Look at the movie 9. It was 79 minutes (say 79 page screen play). Was the movie missing anything? Yes; it had no ending. I guarantee your story already has scenes that need to be cut. Even experienced writers write plenty of fat in the first few drafts. You should have enough material for 120 minutes, which you can then cut down to the best 90; or 150 down to 120. Starting at 56 is good to get down to 30.
shakespeare constantly put down scenes in his plays, i know plays and films are different but... the "purpose" for a fair amount of the down time/scene change scenes is utilized by characters to show how witty they are, maybe thinking about this can help you
i wish you had cut 56- 40 , it would have made more sense and more easier to manage i think.
Ass take you 48 hours
Nikki, I really like the book "The Story Solution: 23 Actions All Great Heroes Must Take." It is helpful in making sure that you have purposful scenes in your feature. Maybe it is available at the library or you can buy it on Amazon: www.amazon.com/The-Story-Solution-Actions-Heroes/dp/1615930841
Nikki, a great screenwriting book is also Blake Synder's "Save The Cat"...http://www.amazon.com/Save-Last-Book-Screenwriting-Youll/dp/1932907009 You can get it fairly cheap at a bookstore, just call around. Hope that this helps!
Trim the fat. Just the fact that you refer to it as 'fat' deep inside you know it can be trimmed. Usually dialogue is what I trim first. For the visuals you'll need to say the most with an economy of words -and isn't that in fact the most essential art of screenwriting?
I believe it could go both ways. Going from a short to a feature means ADDING an element, erasing an element in the reverse. To lengthen, you might not have to flesh out the main thread as much as you can add new smaller threads to it (this was described in other comments, but maybe this is another way of imagining it. I'm still a novice writer, but I've been working through similar problems and have come across professional scripts that have done the same. For example, Mean Girls by Tina Fey originally followed the thread of an ecstasy addict student from her class which got Tina's teacher character in trouble. This was later changed to the mere reference to her selling coke. She ended up cutting this entire character (who I found more hilarious than ANYONE in the final script) in order to shorten the story. 2003 script: http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/mean_girls.pdf Here, an element was taken away, but the main thread of the story was virtually unaltered. Just some food for thought! Any other helping-hand or still-learning screenwriters, I love to talk with others in the artform to learn and share, so +ADD me!
yea a montage (described in some detail).