Minimum length for a feature?

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  • #16
    Re: Minimum length for a feature?

    Originally posted by ATB View Post
    There's no reason to describe a minute or two of screen time in only one line. Don't be the dude who writes, "And they fight for 2 minutes." Try to describe every beat of that 2 minute sequence.
    Or as Jonathan Nolan calls it: Weak Sauce.
    what the head makes cloudy the heart makes very clear

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    • #17
      Re: Minimum length for a feature?

      Originally posted by wcmartell View Post
      If something in the film will take 2 minutes of screentime - there is a *reason* why it is in the film and why we need to see those 2 minutes. We aren't just killing time, we're telling a story. And every second counts. So, what is important about those two minutes?

      If it's a battle scene - why is it in the movie? Why are we spending the money to shoot it if it doesn't matter? If it *does* matter - figure out why and write the scene so that it's about that.

      The average studio film costs $106.7 million to make and market... so taht's about a million bucks a page, a million bucks a minute. And that's an average film, not a blockbuster (which tend to cost $200-$250m to make... and maybe $50m more to market). So, if you have 2 minutes of cleaning the house, that's $2 million bucks. Why are we spending that money? Now, it could be critical to the story that we see her clean the house - and in that case, you want to make it clear *why* it is important.

      I read the OWL CREEK BRIDGE story last night, and the moments are stretched out like crazy in that story... and that is important to the story. Every second of his life is suddenly precious, and the story is written to demonstrate that. "Rope breaks, he falls in the creek and swims away" is what happens, but it is not the story.

      - Bill
      Terrific post.

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      • #18
        Re: Minimum length for a feature?

        If there's a minimum length for a feature, I'd like to know what the maximum length is?

        But I guess Until you have a hit produced with the same box office take as Avatar, Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, you'll have to play by the rules.
        http://www.mortalremainsthemovie.com/

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        • #19
          Re: Minimum length for a feature?

          I have the opposite problem.

          I'll have a full page of dialogue that will only take 15 seconds to read through (or about 15 seconds of screen time). It's really difficult getting all that down to a quarter page.
          "I am the story itself; its source, its voice, its music."
          - Clive Barker, Galilee

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          • #20
            Re: Minimum length for a feature?

            Originally posted by TwoBrad Bradley View Post
            I have the opposite problem.

            I'll have a full page of dialogue that will only take 15 seconds to read through (or about 15 seconds of screen time).
            I always suspected you were a pro in disguise, but Aaron Sorkin? Damn.

            (Yes, I went for the trite, obvious joke. Needless to say, I feel dirty.)

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            • #21
              Re: Minimum length for a feature?

              Originally posted by SoCalScribe View Post
              Where did you get these numbers, Bill?
              MPAA annual report.

              PS: MPAA stopped releasing budget numbers a couple of years ago after the press jumped on the high cost of movies, so the average movie may actually cost *more* now.

              - Bill
              Last edited by wcmartell; 06-28-2012, 07:35 PM.
              Free Script Tips:
              http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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              • #22
                Re: Minimum length for a feature?

                Originally posted by wcmartell View Post
                The average studio film costs $106.7 million to make and market... so taht's about a million bucks a page, a million bucks a minute. And that's an average film, not a blockbuster (which tend to cost $200-$250m to make... and maybe $50m more to market). So, if you have 2 minutes of cleaning the house, that's $2 million bucks. Why are we spending that money? Now, it could be critical to the story that we see her clean the house - and in that case, you want to make it clear *why* it is important.
                Bill, can you tell me how a 2 minute house cleaning scene costs $2 million?

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                • #23
                  Re: Minimum length for a feature?

                  Originally posted by Hamboogul View Post
                  Bill, can you tell me how a 2 minute house cleaning scene costs $2 million?
                  Teamsters.

                  - Bill
                  Free Script Tips:
                  http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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                  • #24
                    Re: Minimum length for a feature?

                    Originally posted by Hamboogul View Post
                    Bill, can you tell me how a 2 minute house cleaning scene costs $2 million?
                    You might be joking, but if you really want to know how easily a page of script can swallow a million bucks, I could show you. If you've got a star whose fee is $12.5m and they are contracted for 60 days, that's over 200k a day while he/she's on the payroll. It doesn't exactly work like that but you get the idea.
                    "Friends make the worst enemies." Frank Underwood

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                    • #25
                      Re: Minimum length for a feature?

                      Bill, can you tell me how a 2 minute house cleaning scene costs $2 million?
                      Directed by James Cameron and Starring Will Smith.

                      The shoot will probably go over budget and it'll be a $5 million scene.
                      Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue

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                      • #26
                        Re: Minimum length for a feature?

                        Until one has actually seen a movie, television show, or commerical shot, it can be difficult to really comprehend how big of a production the whole thing is. Dozens of people, all kinds of equipment, supplies, wiring, craft services, and that's all behind the scenes. Add in the above the line talent, plus location rent, transport, all the associated fees and taxes, on site paramedics, and you might start to get an idea of how many people are there. Now add in the amount of time to reset everything after each shot. Now add in the average from all the time and money and people involved in preproduction and post production. Lawyers and CGI gots to get paid too.

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