How Simple?

In my book I say a movie is a short story, not a novel. I also say it's a simple story. Walter Lee of Sydney, Australia asks: how simple?

I was going to ask "how long is a piece of string?" but I realized that I actually can answer this question, a couple of ways:

Beats: In my experience, a movie is between forty five and sixty steps or "beats." A beat is a unit of storytelling in which something happens. It could be a fight, a revelation, a chase, an argument, etc. In my experience a beat usually becomes a two page scene; longer scenes usually have a dramatic turn of some kind within them where something new happens and you're into a second beat without ending the scene. These days I find I'm writing more compressed scenes, so practically, sixty beats winds up giving me a script of about a hundred pages. Your studio-oriented scripts probably tend towards 120+ pages with two-minute scenes, and once the director gets on board they swell to 130+ pages, but I like to shoot for 100 pages and I rarely consider a script polished that is over 110.

My last script had 58 steps. The rough draft came in at 127 pages (ack!), the first draft came in at 115, and the second draft is 97 pages. Which is the perfect length for a comedy, according to Woody Allen.

Memory: A more organic way to tell if your story is the right length is to tell it out loud -- which you should do anyway. If you can tell your entire story, beat by beat, in between five and ten minutes, it's the right length. Shorter than that and it's either too short, or you're describing the story rather than telling it. Longer than that and you're either fleshing out the scenes too much in the telling, or your story is too involved. Also, if you've told it a bunch of times and you can't remember every beat, it's likely too complicated.

That said, if you know what you're doing, you can break these rules, but that's true about any screenwriting "rules".

Rogers on Crafty

John Rogers just posted a very satisfying review of Crafty TV Writing. If you're still on the fence about buying my darn book, check it out.

Thanks, John!

Questions Questions

Q. You mention using the internet to find out how to contact people and I was wondering what is the proper way to contact people who I heard giving lectures at the Screenwriting Expo? I don’t want to ask for a job or for them to read my script, I just wish to thank them and ask them follow-up questions. Is it better to go through their agent or the TV show that they work on?

If you just want to thank them, send'em a postcard at their show. They'll appreciate it. They probably do not want to be asked follow-up questions, and their show and their agent will generally try and stop you from contacting them with stuff that will not result in a paycheck. (Especially the agent.) But if you can smoke out their email, feel free to try.

When I was talking about using the Internet, I meant using it to find like minded aspiring filmmakers you can work with. Best to leave the professionals alone, unless they've indicated they're willing to talk to the outside world -- e.g. they have comments enabled on their blog, or publish their email address.

The Body

Based on a reader's suggestion, I rented Buffy, Season 5, Disc 5, and watched "The Body" with Joss Whedon's commentary. It's fascinating to watch his stuff with commentary because I usually don't see the seams in what he's done until he points them out. Then, there they are. The episode is shocking because it's about Buffy's mother's death -- from entirely natural causes. To see the ordinary horror of death in a show about spectacular, supernatural horror, is somehow even more alarming than it would be elsewhere, especially since, of course, in the Jossverse, death comes unheralded.

Worth watching for its notes on how the script is constructed, as well as nifty points on the cinematography.

Scary Calm Article

[POLITICS] Here's a scary-calm article on just how easy it would be to steal an election given the electronic voting systems currently in use in the US.

What's wrong with optical scan ballots again?

Comparing Screenwriting Classes

Q. Is there a site out there which evaluates all the screenwriting courses, seminars, workshops that are offered. Do you know anything about the hands-on screenwriting workshops offered at www.theworkshops.com in Maine, or the 1 yr online professional screenwriting program at UCLA which they started few years ago. Gotham workshops also keeps coming up now and then, but how to find out how good all these are?

I don't keep track of screenwriting courses, but maybe you readers would like to comment on screenwriting programs and classes that you've taken?

Surprise!

I was surprised to see that NBC is bumping Studio 60 this week -- for Friday Night Lights! But it makes perfect sense. So far FNL has had poor ratings (correct me if I'm wrong, Bridget) but rave reviews. Which suggests to me that while it might not be doing all that well in the Red States (apparently Tuesday night is Peewee Football night), it's got to be doing well in upscale coastal demos. That's Sorkin territory. With S60 losing audience, it makes sense to trick those audience members into watching a show they might not think to watch, but might love once they saw it.

Or it might not. Who knows?

NYFA

Q. Do you have any feedback on the 1 year screenwriting course offered at NYFA (new york film academy)?

I think I asked people about this on this blog a while ago and people were not impressed with NYFA.

I don't know what people need film school for. Sure, if your parents are willing to support you for three years while you get a "terminal degree" (i.e. you can teach with an MFA), why not? But otherwise, why not put yourself through Robert Rodriguez Film Academy: get a camera and shoot a bunch of movies. The MFA credential does not open doors for you in show business. Cool looking if roughly produced short films do. And these days with very respectable "prosumer" cameras going for under a thousand bucks, and very fine editing software available for your Mac, why go to film school?

It used to be that film school would hook you up with people who'd work on your student films. But with the Internet, you can find those people yourself, if you have a little bit of initiative. (And if you don't, don't go into showbiz.)

Personally, I went to UCLA film school. I learned a few things there. I had a few truly great professors -- Richard Marks comes to mind. Okay, I had one truly great professor, in editing. But I learned infinitely more in my first full time job than I did in school.

As I've said before, if you're in Canada, it's a different story. The CFC turns out a disproportionate percentage of successful show people. It is really THE national film and TV school. But in the US, the business is too big for one school to dominate, and a degree will get you no respect at all.