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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board    General Boards    Questions or Comments  ›  How long is a short?
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  Author    How long is a short?  (currently 3011 views)
tomson
Posted: August 21st, 2006, 9:31am Report to Moderator
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What is considered a short? How many pages? When does it turn into a feature? Is anything under 80-90 pages a short?

I have a 45 page script I'm thinking about possibly posting, but don't know if I should call it a short or not.

It seems I remember seeing this question before, but I couldn't find it.

Thanks,

Pia
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dogglebe
Posted: August 21st, 2006, 9:51am Report to Moderator
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That depends on who you ask.  I've seen competitions where they say a short must be fifteen pages or less.  Other competitions say thirty or even sixty pages.

I, personally, would put a 45 page script under the shorts section.


Phil
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Helio
Posted: August 21st, 2006, 10:03am Report to Moderator
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I have my two pence for this matter.

I believe that a scrrenplay more than 20 pages longer is very difficult to sell as a short, because most of contests ask no more than that. In other hand if it will be a a documentary piece, 45 minutes longer is sastifatory length.
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DOM
Posted: August 21st, 2006, 10:12am Report to Moderator
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Yeah, I pitched a short once, it was 25 pages, and the judge said it was too long to be a short.
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Jonathan Terry
Posted: August 21st, 2006, 1:46pm Report to Moderator
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I wrote a 40 page short and posted in the shorts section.  No one seemed to mind it.

I think it won't matter where its posted but it being in the shorts section may get you more reads.  That's usually the first place I go, knowing that its quicker and easier to read a short than a full-length script.

Jonathan


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dogglebe
Posted: August 21st, 2006, 1:55pm Report to Moderator
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These boards are pretty lenient when it comes to the length of a short script.  Competitions, otoh, have stricter guidelines.


Phil
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Kujan
Posted: August 21st, 2006, 8:07pm Report to Moderator
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What they taught in school was, anything less than 80 pages is technically a short, since it falls "short" of both cinema and TV full length requirements. Zoetrope uses the same standard, for whatever its worth.
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tomson
Posted: August 22nd, 2006, 7:13am Report to Moderator
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Thanks,

Sounds almost like i'd be better off either adding 35 pages (that would be tough) or trim 20-25 (that would be sad).

I'll keep in mind for the future, that 45 pages isn't really a good length for anything.
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dogglebe
Posted: August 22nd, 2006, 7:22am Report to Moderator
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Forty five pages is good for an anthology television show.


Phil (an answer for everything)
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Martin
Posted: August 22nd, 2006, 8:55am Report to Moderator
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I wouldn't worry about the length, Pia. Just submit it and see what people think.

Accident Happen was 40 pages and that got picked up off the site, the current draft is 30 pages.
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jimmywins
Posted: August 22nd, 2006, 6:23pm Report to Moderator
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I read on the Academy Awards site that to win an Oscar for a short, it has to be less than 40 minutes. So that's the max Oscar length.
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Takeshi
Posted: August 22nd, 2006, 7:27pm Report to Moderator
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Quoted from jimmywins
I read on the Academy Awards site that to win an Oscar for a short, it has to be less than 40 minutes. So that's the max Oscar length.


I've always wondered what you have to do to get a short film nominated for a short film Oscar. Are there certain film festivals you need to win, to qualify?

If anyone knows how it works, I'd love to hear about it.

On the topic of this thread, I've noticed that a lot of short film competitions don't want films going over 10 minutes. And at short film festivals I've noticed that the majority of films are less than 20 minutes.

As for 45 minute scripts, I really think that they're in no man's land, too long to be a short and too short to be feature length; you to need cut them down or flesh them out.


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Takeshi  -  August 22nd, 2006, 7:40pm
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Helio
Posted: August 22nd, 2006, 7:28pm Report to Moderator
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As much as a feature is short !
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jimmywins
Posted: August 22nd, 2006, 9:03pm Report to Moderator
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Here is the web site with the official rules for an Oscar winning short. http://www.oscars.org/79academyawards/rules/rule19.html

Remove the rule19 and you get the beginning of the full official rules.
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George Willson
Posted: August 22nd, 2006, 9:07pm Report to Moderator
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The hardest part of those rules in my opinion is the one week run in Los Angeles with a standard promotional campaign. Next would be getting the 1024 x 768 resolution.


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