Scene length?

avid-dreamer said:

Ok, back with another question.
Still reading David Trottier's book here and he states that writers should "challenge" any scene that's longer than 2 pages. He also states that some scenes should be long. I want to know the limit you guys place on your scene lengths.
(there might be another post like this, but I can't seem to find it)

Thanks!!!

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Well, as I've said, I never really monitor that stuff but just for kicks, I went back and checked the last two scripts of mine that were optioned. One of them, the longest scene was six pages. The other, the longest scene was ten pages.

But these are both movies that have extended action scenes -- and these scenes are both extended action scenes that take place in quite elaborate locations with a lot of stuff happening.

I understand the appeal of "rules of thumb" -- never do this. Never do that. No flashbacks. Scenes should only be so long and no longer.

And they can be useful for beginners because they can prevent you from making certain common beginner mistakes, like using flashbacks for exposition (bad idea) or letting scenes run too long (bad idea) or using "we see" ten times on every page.

And that's fine so long as you understand that rules of thumb are just that -- they're approximations.

They take the place of a deeper and more thorough understanding of why things work and when they work and how they work -- and thus when you can use flashbacks effectively, when you can run scenes long, when and where you can use "we see" or parentheticals or whatever it is that you're not supposed to do.

Because it isn't really that you're "not supposed to do" anything -- other than commit the fundamental crime of bad storytelling.

NMS

Max for me is 7 pages. And those had better be some really critically important 7 pages.

I have "cheated" by breaking up a scene by inserting a flashback, or by having someone take a phone call during the scene and so the phone call itself becomes a different scene within the scene (especially if he has to excuse himself from the main room to talk on the phone in a different room).

I think I answered this type of question a few weeks ago (I don't recall who asked it) and I mentioned the difference between a "scene" and a "sequence." A "sequenc" is a string of several scenes played back to back that make up a sizeable chunk of an act. Such as a "chase sequence" or a "heist sequence" or a courtroom sequence." A sequence can run for ten minutes, twenty minutes--or longer. However many scenes it takes to play out the entire sequence. But an individual scene should be no more than 7 minutes.

I think only Masterpiece Theatre can get away with anything longer than that.

sounds reasonable. the important word here is 'challenge,' eh? i think the idea is make sure the scene needs to be that long and you're not just writing because you like the look of your own words on a page. it's not hard finding scenes longer than two minutes, it's even easy to find an action sequence longer than two minutes. i'd have to sit down with a stopwatch, but i don't think there are that many scenes (if any) lasting longer than two minutes in, say, 'legally blonde.'

the upshot is if your aim is a 'four quadrant' family movie then this advice is probably worth more than if you're writing 'godfather IV.' just my guess there. fortunately, this stuff is easy and fun to research, all you have to do is watch a movie and pay attention to how long scenes run.