The general page limit allows the screenwriter to figure out their beats in advance and set short-term goals along the way to hit.

While the three-act is far from obligatory to making a great story, it inexorably appears time and again in feature screenplays for the simple reason that it works so effectively for the format. Perhaps the most important feature is the three-act structure that lies beneath the surface. In a general sense the plot is contained within those pages with little regard for where the story might go after “the end” (although if you’re writing a franchise movie this is different). Side characters are rarely sketched out in as much detail as the protagonist and the antagonist is specifically tailored to offer a potent opposition to the protagonist. With there being a limited amount of pages the screenwriter usually clarifies and focuses in on one specific character and their journey through an exciting plot filled with internal and external conflict, with a strong inciting incident. A feature script will use all the basic conventional screenplay formatting rules and is a great training ground to learn the mechanics of screenwriting.Īlthough your mind may go to the likes of Star Wars that has a sprawling universe full of mystery and adventure, feature scripts are actually quite contained in scope. A feature screenplay is usually a self-contained story that runs somewhere between 80-130 pages with the intent of turning the story into a feature film that runs somewhere between 80-130 minutes (approximately 1 minute of screen time per page). These are what the stereotypical image of a screenwriter pumps out on their archaic typewriter before typing “fade out” after churning out a massive stack of pages. Perhaps the best known kind of scripts are the screenplays for feature films. Although conventional wisdom indicates that outlining your story is the first step in the screenwriting process, I want to dig into a question that too often goes unasked: What is the best medium for this story? Feature scripts

Short film scripts