I never noticed the title of the thread was like that, I was considering naming it "Size Problems" but that would have been a lot worse. About the infringment, I don't use any of the characters, they're all new ones, don't know if that helps, also, I don't know, I may have just wrote it for the hell of it, but mainly I wrote it for the future possibly after I've gone through the film courses and everything, long shot I know, but hey, doesn't hurt to hope.

I actually have left it for about a month, and then gone back to it. And I do have a Velociraptor appear at about 20 or so mins when it shows something going on in the island, and they're at the start as well but they're not seen. I always find its good to have a buildup to some of the nastier ones, but I could be wrong.

Thanks.

To sum up some of the finer points of this thread, your best bet is to rearrange the first 40 pages so that you get the story moving a lot quicker. Scenes should do one of three things at all times: move the plot, build a character, or get a laugh. The best do all three at the same time, and while Jurassic Park isn't the most comedic piece in the world, you should work towards building plot and character at the same time so the audience doesn't get bored. Crisis moments are the greatest character builders and if you can dump your characters into a bad situation early, then you'll build their character quickly.

Consider when James Cameron built Kyle Reese's backstory in Terminator. Kyle spouted it out to Sarah during a car chase in which Kyle had just pulled Sarah out of the Terminator's path, and tried to explain to her why while the Terminator was trying to kill them. Imagine if he'd explained that in the hotel room, or worse, over drinks before the Terminator arrived. It wouldn't have worked.

Or one thing I did in one of mine where it took 20 pages before something happened was cut the first twenty pages. I interspersed the important stuff in between the new page one and the next important event. It flows a lot better.

Most important, though, is to have an opening scene that sets the tone and mood of your film. Without that, you lose the target audience.