John August

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Script length

Formatting, QandA

Your advice of 110 to 120 pages for script length agrees with what others
say, but upon sampling a large number of films I find their lengths usually
fall between 85 and 115 minutes, including five minutes of credits. At a minute
per page, something doesn’t click. Do producers expect 15 extra pages because
they feel scripts usually have fat that needs trimming? Or perhaps producers
know that during script development, writers find it less distressing to eliminate
scenes and hope no one notices, rather than turn them into something far removed
from the original vision. Just a thought.

–Ryall

It’s true that a lot of movies clock in at 100 minutes or less, and that the
one-minute-per-page rule of thumb really depends on whose thumbs are doing
the measuring. Moviemaking is more art than science, so it never holds up to
much mathematical scrutiny. Whatever the reason for the discrepancy, I assure you
it doesn’t come from producers trying to spare writers’ feelings.

One variable that really effects running time is pacing. GO was about 102
minutes long. The script was 126 pages, and almost nothing was dropped. The
movie never dawdled, however, which is how it got the story told so quickly.

Even movies that end up at 85 minutes probably began as screenplays in the
110 to 120 page range. In the course of production, or post-production, scenes often get cut. Either they are never filmed, or they end up on the cutting
room floor, just waiting for the DVD version.

Since scenes are going to get cut, why not just start out with a shorter script?
It’s not a bad question. In television, where programs have to be delivered
to the network at a precise running time (at ABC, it is 42 minutes, 20 seconds
for a "one-hour" drama), it is obviously preferable to avoid shooting
scenes that couldn’t possibly fit into the allotted time.

In terms of features, however, anything shorter than 100 pages "feels" too
short. It’s literally just not enough pages in your hand. And if you go much
beyond 120 pages, people get nervous. Even if it’s great, it feels long.

Is film school necessary?

Education, QandA

Is it necessary to have a film-related degree/course in order
to break into screenwriting?

–A. Plange

No. The truth is, no great screenplay has ever sat unsold because the writer
didn’t go through an acclaimed program. No writer has ever been denied the
Oscar because he didn’t finish his master’s thesis.

Frankly, a film degree isn’t a prerequisite for any job in Hollywood, from
actor to gaffer to studio chief. The Industry is one of the last bastions of
apprenticeship, perseverence and pure dumb luck. All that really matters is
whether you can do the job.

That said, I personally went through USC Film School. And before I get dropped
from the alumni rolls, let me retrench a bit and give two reasons why film
school might be right for some people, and why it was right for me.

First, there’s a hell of lot to learn about filmmaking, and while you can
learn the specifics of any trade on-the-job, film school can give you a broader
perpective. In making GO, I was surprised to find myself dealing with budgets,
lenses, preview screenings and TV spots. It went way beyond my "writer" function,
but the breadth of my education in film school paid off.

Second, film school is a place to make contact with peers, experts and people
who can ultimately hire you. I got my first job, my first agent, and my first
paid writing assignment all with the help of friends I made in film school.
To this day I work with many of them. This isn’t cheesy, gross let’s-swap-business-cards "networking," but
simple reality. You tend to help people you like, and people with whom you
share a common experience. The "boot camp" aspect of film school
can be important.

Is film school right for you? It depends on your circumstances. If you’re
still an undergrad, by all means switch to film. Follow your bliss. If you’re
recently out of college, a two-or-three-year grad program could be great. Pretend
it’s an MBA or law school. Beyond that, the benefits are harder to calculate.
Because the truth is, it’s not an MBA or law school. There’s no guarantee you’re
going to make any money. You might be better off learning film along the way.
Take a course or two, read a lot of books, go to seminars when you can.

And most of all, if you want to write, just write. One hundred and twenty
pages of quality screenplay are worth more than one page of diploma.

Moving to Hollywood

Film Industry, QandA

My question involves networking.
I’m at the level where most of my trusted, objective readers agree I have a
legitimate shot, but I live far from Hollywood. Time and again I hear how important
it is to network to get one’s work in the hands of the industry players, but
I don’t have access, being so far away (DC). Do you have any good ideas about
how to make such connections apart from simply relocating to LA?

–Robert Remy

Unfortunately, I don’t have any brilliant suggestions. Outside of a few screenwriter-specific
competitions, such as the Nichols Fellowship or the Austin Film Festival’s
screenwriting awards, the kind of networking you’re talking about relies on
some face-to-face interaction, and that’s pretty much impossible if you’re
in the wrong city.

If you’re trying to make Hollywood movies, this may be the time to move to
LA. If it’s independent films you aspire to, you may find just as many opportunities
in New York, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco or other metropolitan cities. The
Baltimore/D.C. area does have a film community (we used a crew based there
for my television show), so it’s even possible you could make a movie right
where you live.

But I suspect it’s big movies you’re talking about, and big movies require
big money, which pretty much means LA. Some of the bigger screenwriters live
outside of Southern California, but most of them started their careers here
or in New York. If you’ve done everything you can in D.C., consider whether
you feel ready to make the move.

Writing is hard

Psych 101, QandA, Writing Process

questionmarkI’ve been busy
writing a script, and I have the whole idea mapped out in my head. But for
some reason, my writing doesn’t seem to flow. I struggle to get from one point
to the next. Is this normal? If I go back through the script
again after I’ve jotted down my rough dialogue, will it flow then? Do you do
a quick rough draft before you get into the real writing?

–Bob

answer iconWell, are you a good writer? I ask because it sounds like this is your first
screenplay, and there’s every chance you’re a terrible writer. It’s my experience
that most people in Los Angeles feel like they could write a good movie. The
reason why most of them aren’t successful screenwriters is that they’re really
aren’t good writers.

It’s easy to see how they get mislead: If you read a script, you’d think any
monkey could do it. Most monkeys can’t.

I’m not picking on you, honestly. I hope you’re a terrific writer who’s just
realizing how incredibly difficult screenwriting can be. It’s great when the
writing flows, but most of the time, it doesn’t. You work your ass off to get
to the end of a sentence, then start another. You end up deleting scenes that
took you four hours to write, then rewriting entire scripts based on problems
you should have spotted before you even started writing.

It’s not grueling, back-breaking labor like building a road, but it is labor.
It’s exhausting. And while Final Draft might make formatting your script easier,
it’s still just as hard to write.

Often, when I approach a scene, I will do a quick rough draft, by which I
mean all of a scene’s crucial dialogue lines scribbled on the back of an envelope.
It’s mostly just to get the shape of the scene, but it is "real" writing
just as much as the endless tweaking that will inevitably be entailed.

Above all this, I would stress: Don’t wait for flow. It might come; it might
not. But it’s your job to keep writing anyway.