Philip Brown's Lounge Discussions

So, are you trying to say when you finish a script; Drama or Adventure... And the pages count up to 130 or more... And you know for sure that everything in there needs to be there to make the script a whole, you still need to cut it down to 120pp or less???

What if forcing the script to 120pp or less won't help it's perfection???

Felix, in general, yes cut it down. Obviously I don't know your work or the material, but I am willing to bet that it is not "perfection." It's where the term "kill your darlings" comes to mind. Have you had someone give you notes or coverage on it? How do you know every single scene, action description and line of dialogue drives the story to a synergistic completion? The first thing I would do is to get professional feedback from a trusted source who can tell you where it needs some attention. As mentioned, the hardest thing for a writer who has not made a name for their work is to get read. And that page count is a detriment to that endeavor. If you are Tarantino and/or making this yourself, it doesn't matter. But if you want others to make it for you, you have to get them to read it.

I get you in some case, Laurie... Thanks for talking back.

Phil, the bottom line is, if you're trying to sell your script, and I assume you're a hell of a great writer, then it doesn't matter how many pages you have, because once you sell it, it now becomes the property of whoever bought it and they will do with it whatever they want, i.e. cut it down, wring it out, tighten it up, remove what they don't like, etc. And unless you have an iron clad contract, you may even find your script with some other writers name on it.

So, it doesn't matter if your script is 90, 100, 130 or a 140 pages. What matters is if you can grab the reader on page one and prolong that grab to the end of the script.

I find most people have different guidelines for what they accept I haven’t looked at Stage 32’s yet though. The only thing I would say is look at you format your font and text size. If not done right your script could take up more pages than needed. I know a lot of people who make the text size much bigger than realistically needed or required by the company reading the script. You’ve probably done it fine but I just thought I’d mention it.