I am writing a horror screenplay, but it is probably going to wind up being a short, 45-60 minutes. It is contained, low budget, with few characters. Does anyone even buy something like this?
Screenwriting : Question about short by Steven M. Cross
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The length might be an issue to be honest. Shorts tend to be best around the 8 to 12 minute mark. If it's 45-60 minutes, it might as well be a feature.
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Basically, no.
Kind of what I thought. I don't want to pad it. Would one as short as 80-90 minutes sell?
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Feature horror scripts are usually around 90 pages.
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The version of Buried I read when it was circulating was around 75 pages. I just read Rubble which I think was 92 pages or thereabouts. I have recently read some netflix "original" scripts that were just under 80. Shudder has several films that fell into the 60-90 page range. 45-60 is pushing into a new area. But Quibi is set to do some stuff with ten minute "episodic" pieces of features. Basically, under 10 minutes is a micro/super short. Under 25 is a standard short. Under 60 is an extended short. Is there a home for them? I want to say no but the first two big movies I worked on were Cabin Fever and Two Soldiers. Cabin Fever's script was only 88 pages. Two Soldiers was 44 pages. The Blair Witch Project had an 81 minute runtime. Paranormal Activity ran around 85 minutes. I would make sure I had made complete use of my whitespace to tell the story and that I wasn't missing any character development or scene development at all before I would call it a day. But, a script is what it is. If I personally was trying to do something with a 35-60 minute feature, I'm probably trying to make it myself for festivals or some specific streaming service a la Shudder or the Blackpilz or maybe Quibi or Qibi. It would definitely be a tough sell unless it was just an out of this world premise.
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It's an awkward length. Typically about 80 mins+ is feature territory and for a short aiming under 30 mins is good territory.
I met someone last year who shot a horror feature on a cell phone. It came out to about 60 mins. He said he got a distributor for it at AFM. But don't know what's happened since talking to him. Horror isn't my space.
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Streaming services will show shorter content. There is a good Aussie show called Restoration. It was originally 5 x 12 webseries. Edited and sold to streaming.
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There independent producers that do very short, like 20 minutes or less. So either shorten it, lengthen it, or do what I did: make an anthology.
I sat down with my screenplay and started writing, finished about ten pages of the rough draft. I am at 41 now, so I think I can make 80 by the time I revise it.