🩳 Can my script be as short as Somewhere?

How many pages does a feature really need to be taken seriously as a feature?

This week’s rebroadcast brings together posts on why delivering the expected number of pages helps make your story (and your writing) credible.

A few months ago, I downloaded the PDF version of Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere screenplay from the Focus Features website. When I saw that it was only a 44 page download, I had assumed that it was either a teaser or a short version of the script.

An hour later after reading it, and then going to the theater, I had realized that the 44-pager that I had downloaded was indeed the real thing. Even now, after owning the DVD, I’m amazed that she managed to turn a 43-44 page script into a 97 min movie.

As a screenwriter, with no aspirations of getting behind the camera, how hard is it, or would it be to sell a spec script, that could possibly be a 100-110 min movie, but only a 65-70 page script? Understanding that execution is key, is it even possible to get your screenplay looked at, with it being so short?

— Craig¹

No one would take you seriously.

With Somewhere, Sofia Coppola had already made three well-received and languorously-paced features. So a producer or studio can read her very short script with the expectation that (a) not very much will happen, and (b) what does happen will take a while. So 44 pages feels less crazy than it otherwise would.

Coppola has her style and her fans. I’m one of them. But without her credits, there’s no way that the Somewhere script would make sense in a spec situation. You have to understand her as a filmmaker when reading it.

Almost all feature scripts are over 100 pages.² The only live-action screenplay I ever turned in that was shorter was the rewrite of a yet-unproduced fable with giant set pieces. It was 91 pages, but if/when it gets made, I think it will still be a nearly two-hour movie. Describing those set pieces in the script took a lot less page length than the corresponding time in the movie. (e.g. Gone with the Wind: “Atlanta burns.”)

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?

–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.

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1. No, not the Craig you’re thinking. A different Craig.

2. Animation is often shorter; Corpse Bride is 67 pages.