How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

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  • #61
    Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

    Originally posted by JeffLowell View Post
    ... My fear is that what you want is not for someone to explain it to you, but to agree with your definition. ...
    And I was willing to bet that your definition of scene is the same as mine.
    "I am the story itself; its source, its voice, its music."
    - Clive Barker, Galilee

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    • #62
      Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

      No, you weren't.

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      • #63
        Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

        Hey TwoBrad -- why does it matter whether your pages are one scene or two? Why does it matter how a scene is defined?

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        • #64
          Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

          Originally posted by jcgary View Post
          Hey TwoBrad -- why does it matter whether your pages are one scene or two?
          - Response to the pages was favorable. Could the reason be the structure of these pages?
          - Can they be used as an example of One Scene - many Locations, or, One Scene - One Location, or both?
          - Is the result what I intended?

          Why does it matter how a scene is defined?
          - If I didn't know I couldn't answer this question, let alone the OP's question.
          - It would be a benefit to have a common language in conversation.
          - To be able to take into account different meanings for the same word.
          "I am the story itself; its source, its voice, its music."
          - Clive Barker, Galilee

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          • #65
            Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

            Originally posted by JeffLowell View Post
            No, you weren't.
            Well, yes, actually. I just never said how much I would bet.

            Scene (a definition):
            A single dramatic unit with a beginning, middle, and end that advances story and/or further develops character, through conflict resolution.
            "I am the story itself; its source, its voice, its music."
            - Clive Barker, Galilee

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            • #66
              Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

              Originally posted by TwoBrad Bradley View Post
              Scene (a definition):
              A single dramatic unit with a beginning, middle, and end that advances story and/or further develops character, through conflict resolution.
              I notice the definition you offer says nothing about location change creating a new scene.
              Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

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              • #67
                Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

                Originally posted by jcgary View Post
                Uh, if a book recommends against scenes longer than 2 pages, it's a pile of sht.
                lol true... I usually say around 3 minutes a scene is enough time to let something breath. Over four minutes in a scene and it better be REALLY snapping otherwise you risk boring people.

                Bill's probably written more than anyone here, he's a good guide.

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                • #68
                  Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

                  Originally posted by asjah8 View Post
                  the problem is the screenwriting books. i had a hell of time wrapping my brain around the concept of scene because of the books so maybe my comment will help somebody else...

                  most of the books say that a change of location means a new scene. what they should say is a change of location means a new slugline. a scene is only done when the scene-goal is accomplished. it's true every scene begins with a heading but not every heading begins a new scene.

                  as always, i defer to the pros for corrections.
                  Guys who've been writing forever like Bill Goldman for example are all over the joint with slugs, I mean Goldman cuts for every different camera set up he envisions. So he might say "cut to:" 10 times in one scene.

                  Most books/writers that are coming out now seem to tend to think of a scene as a slug in a new location where a full beat/thought runs its course. The rise and fall of the beat occurs and the thought or motivation is completed both internally and externally.

                  However, let's say you're taking a car chase and you start out with an ext. shot of a road with two cars hauling balls down it. Then you cut to int. shots of the cars, have some dialogue, and so it goes, intercutting outside, inside from car 1 to car 2 etc...

                  There may be a ****-ton of cuts there but ultimately that's just one scene.

                  And let's say car 1 manages to duck down into hidden treelined trail (new slug/location) and park then there's dialogue as they wait for the pursuers to hopefully speed by without noticing where they've gone. To me, that would be a new scene. It's a different beat for me.

                  Or so I figure. But what do I know...

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                  • #69
                    Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

                    Originally posted by TwoBrad Bradley View Post
                    Well, yes, actually. I just never said how much I would bet.

                    Scene (a definition):
                    A single dramatic unit with a beginning, middle, and end that advances story and/or further develops character, through conflict resolution.
                    Nope.

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                    • #70
                      Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

                      Originally posted by JeffLowell View Post
                      Nope.
                      Ah ... Bach.
                      "I am the story itself; its source, its voice, its music."
                      - Clive Barker, Galilee

                      Comment


                      • #71
                        Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

                        This is still an active thread? The horse is long dead.

                        There can be no specific answer (57 scenes) because every script is different. The real answer is that you don't want your script to drag because your scenes go on too long - and some new writers (and probably some pros) have that problem.

                        The solution isn't number of scenes, but effectiveness of each scene. You want to know the purpose of the scene, have the scene accomplish that purpose, and then get on to the next scene. And you want to do that in a way that doesn't seem like it's all about the scene's purpose.

                        When I have a scene that goes on too long, usually it's because I have my characters keeps saying the same damned thing in different ways. Once is enough. So I have to go back and snip out the redundancy.

                        The other issue I see frequently is scenes that start too early and end too late - you need to get to start the scene when it gets juicy and get out before it gets boring. Movies *cut* - they don't have to start at the beginning of the conversation, they can start in the middle.

                        Also, scenes that only do one thing when they could do a couple at the same time. This results in a bunch of scenes that are one-note and seem to go on forever. If you look at the information you need to get to the reader/viewer and think of ways to combine two or three pieces of information in the same scene, the scene can accomplish more and it also becomes more interesting.

                        It's not about how many, it's about how well each one works.

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

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                        • #72
                          Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

                          My definition of a "scene" is when someone does something that embarrasses or humiliates you, like when a babe calls you a "no-dick ******* loser" in a bar -- in front of her babe friends. A scene can also be when your male friends call you a no-dick loser alcoholic before you can flee the place.

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                          • #73
                            Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

                            Originally posted by sc111 View Post
                            I notice the definition you offer says nothing about location change creating a new scene.
                            Good catch (perhaps that is what Jeff saw).

                            But, I'm sorry ... my bad ... It's actually the definition of a Sequence. Just kidding, it's the definition of an Act. No ... seriously ... it's the definition of a Story - that logline thingie.
                            "I am the story itself; its source, its voice, its music."
                            - Clive Barker, Galilee

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                            • #74
                              Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

                              Here's a question I never asked before:

                              When a scene spans, say three, locations to "play out", do those locations have to be consecutive in the screenplay?
                              "I am the story itself; its source, its voice, its music."
                              - Clive Barker, Galilee

                              Comment


                              • #75
                                Re: How Many Scenes Does a Screenplay Usually Have?

                                I was researching something in a technical field I was unfamiliar with, and I actually came across some blogs where the commenters were arguing about the use of some name/terminology in an area much less subjective than this topic. It cracked me up.

                                So this kind of debate is not peculiar to just screenwriters and this forum.
                                "The Hollywood film business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Hunter S Thompson

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