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Home: Video University Forums: Filmmakers & Screenwriters:
how many pages per minute?

X-john
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Jun 6, 2004, 6:01 PM

Post #1 of 5 (874 views)
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how many pages per minute?	Can't Post

I'm in the process of writing a script, but i'm not sure whether i should make it into a short, or a feature. So i was wondering, what is the avg. amt. of pages in a script, per 1 minute in a movie? Is it like, 1 page usually equals 1 minute, or is it somthing else? Thanks.

X-Doug_Graham
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Jun 6, 2004, 7:13 PM

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Re: how many pages per minute?	Can't Post

Read a few pages of dialog out loud, and see!
Regards,
Doug Graham

X-Bill
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Jun 6, 2004, 9:40 PM

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Re: how many pages per minute? [In reply to]	Can't Post

1 page of a movie script usually equals one minute. Screenplays don't normally
have camera directions, that comes later (the director puts them in). Think of a
script as something that is usually read vertically up and down rather than
horizontally. By the way, I'm a film composer in New York - electronica and
instrumental (music is more emotionally based than just filler or any particular
genre). Write for documentary and indie films.

X-Bill
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Jun 6, 2004, 9:43 PM

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Re: how many pages per minute? [In reply to]	Can't Post

Not so, if there's a scene that you want to last 30 second, it should take up only
half a page in a screenplay. Read "The Complete Guide To Standard Script
Formats - Part I: The Screenplay" by Cole/Haag

Postal_Boy
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Jul 7, 2004, 6:08 PM

Post #5 of 5 (866 views)
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Re: [X-Bill] how many pages per minute? [In reply to]	Can't Post

I agree with bill...1 page per minute.

I did a book conversion once, turned out to be over 200 pages long and began to understand how screen "adaptations" came to be :o

Got it down to about 140 pages and felt pretty good about it, but it still needed a lot of touch up before my hard drive crashed :(
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