squalid
05-17-2007, 02:11 AM
Illustrious Ladies and Gentlemen, all of whom I assume desire the rewards of a career in the field of writing and its sub category, Screen writing, including but not limited to an Oscar, a Palm d'Or, all the other awards and recognitions available, and a bloat (gotta love wikipedia) of Hippopotamuses' piles of excrement in large denomination US currency.
In a previous group of writings about the minimum length of a screenplay, I added some tidbits of information based on my personal knowledge as former executive in motion picture distribution. The fact that I grew up in independent motion picture distribution (it was a family affair) should not be held against me nor, for that matter, my lousy sentence structure and my inability to grasp the concept nor the importance of grammar and its orphan child, spelling. Alack, I stray from my original intent for this excretion of words.
A worthy and well read screenwriter with aspirations posted this link: http://www.oscars.org/79academyawards/rules/rule02.html.
While this has to do with the eligibility of a motion picture, as it pertains to theatrical exhibition, for AMPAS consideration to be nominated , it by no means has anything to do with the rules in theatrical distribution and exhibition of the minimum length of a feature length motion picture made for commercial and particularly theatrical distribution and exhibition, and these rules have little to do with the minimum length of a screenplay.
To the good screenwriter who wanted to know where to find the information I offered in my earlier posted comments (see below) there is no place to find this information. The only way to find this out is by talking to a distributor and/or exhibitor who is willing to impart their knowledge, the best place being in a seminar, or by working in motion picture distribution.
Where the rules do imping upon the length of a screenplay for theatrical distribution is in the corporate suites and producers' offices in this country, Canada and perhaps the UK. The people and companies that choose the scripts to be 'greenlighted.'
Outside of these three countries, the quality of idea still takes president over the page count, the grammer and the spelling. This of course, thanks to our wonderful "Global Village" of screened entertainments is now powered by Hollywood which is working tirelessly to raise the level of ideas up to the lowest common denominator.
So, that being said I repost below my not very original comments on the minimum length of a screenplay, and hoping that you will all keep in mind that the screenplay for a movie called Roma, Citta Aperta was under 40 pages.
I apologize if all you writers practicing work avoidance can't make sense of my excrement. I never said I could write but it's something to do while looking for a job. Sorry if bored you all Fortunately for all of you I rarely post. You all write in these forums far better than I.
Heigh ho,
squalid
As Originally Posted
In the world of motion picture distribution and exhibition there are hard and fast rules.
Any movie under 90 minutes is considered a short. Yes, there are films exhibited that are considered features with running times of under 90 minutes and they are never shorter than 75 minutes. They are the exception.
So, since rule of thumb is one page of screenplay = 1 minute of screen time, go figure what the minimum length of a feature length screenplay would be.
In a previous group of writings about the minimum length of a screenplay, I added some tidbits of information based on my personal knowledge as former executive in motion picture distribution. The fact that I grew up in independent motion picture distribution (it was a family affair) should not be held against me nor, for that matter, my lousy sentence structure and my inability to grasp the concept nor the importance of grammar and its orphan child, spelling. Alack, I stray from my original intent for this excretion of words.
A worthy and well read screenwriter with aspirations posted this link: http://www.oscars.org/79academyawards/rules/rule02.html.
While this has to do with the eligibility of a motion picture, as it pertains to theatrical exhibition, for AMPAS consideration to be nominated , it by no means has anything to do with the rules in theatrical distribution and exhibition of the minimum length of a feature length motion picture made for commercial and particularly theatrical distribution and exhibition, and these rules have little to do with the minimum length of a screenplay.
To the good screenwriter who wanted to know where to find the information I offered in my earlier posted comments (see below) there is no place to find this information. The only way to find this out is by talking to a distributor and/or exhibitor who is willing to impart their knowledge, the best place being in a seminar, or by working in motion picture distribution.
Where the rules do imping upon the length of a screenplay for theatrical distribution is in the corporate suites and producers' offices in this country, Canada and perhaps the UK. The people and companies that choose the scripts to be 'greenlighted.'
Outside of these three countries, the quality of idea still takes president over the page count, the grammer and the spelling. This of course, thanks to our wonderful "Global Village" of screened entertainments is now powered by Hollywood which is working tirelessly to raise the level of ideas up to the lowest common denominator.
So, that being said I repost below my not very original comments on the minimum length of a screenplay, and hoping that you will all keep in mind that the screenplay for a movie called Roma, Citta Aperta was under 40 pages.
I apologize if all you writers practicing work avoidance can't make sense of my excrement. I never said I could write but it's something to do while looking for a job. Sorry if bored you all Fortunately for all of you I rarely post. You all write in these forums far better than I.
Heigh ho,
squalid
As Originally Posted
In the world of motion picture distribution and exhibition there are hard and fast rules.
Any movie under 90 minutes is considered a short. Yes, there are films exhibited that are considered features with running times of under 90 minutes and they are never shorter than 75 minutes. They are the exception.
So, since rule of thumb is one page of screenplay = 1 minute of screen time, go figure what the minimum length of a feature length screenplay would be.