screenplay ending??

That really depends on the story... I think between 0 and 5 pages for my stories. The worst example I have seen is Lord of the Rings - Return of the King. It took freaking 20 minutes from the end of the climax until the film ended.

You mean the denouement? I looked at a couple of my scripts, maybe 1 or 2 pages, depends if emotional loose ends need tied up, that kind of thing.

-Derek

dpaterso said:

You mean the denouement? I looked at a couple of my scripts, maybe 1 or 2 pages, depends if emotional loose ends need tied up, that kind of thing.

-Derek

Click to expand...

Not to be a stickler, but in strict dramatic theory, the denoument refers to the section of the script that follows the "Climax" -- the moment of greatest dramatic tension -- or the point at which the "apparently insoluble problem" has been reached. It refers to the "unraveling' -- the subsequent solving of that apparently insoluble problem.

That point -- the insoluble problem, may come literally seconds before the end of the movie, reducing the denoument to mere seconds -- or it may come significantly earlier, depending on how long the "unknotting" of that problem requires.

The distance from the establishment of the insoluble problem to its solution is the length of the denoument.

Problem "unknotted" -- denoument over.

I think that what you are referring to might be more appropriately referred to as a "coda" -- a kind of "after story" moment.

NMS

So noted! Dictionary definition certainly leans toward this,

coda n. 1 Mus. final additional passage of a piece or movement. 2 concluding section of a ballet. [Latin cauda tail]

So that would be, for example, the end of the first two DIE HARD movies where peace finally descends and Bruce and Bonnie are united?

-Derek

Think of the moment in SIXTH SENSE when Bruce Willis' character realizes he's dead. THAT certainly is a definable Climax. The denoument would be the moments following that, where we - the audience - are looking back at the process, it all 'unravels' for us.

Now, as I recall - (been a while since I've seen it.) There was a 'coda' as well - that would be the scene where we see the kid accepting his fate, and talking with a dead person - right?

So in SIXTH SENSE , there is a denoument and a 'coda' if memory serves correctly. As to how long each is - you'd have to look at the script.

In my own recently completely screenplay, there is a similar "AH HA" moment to Sixth Sense. A moment where a knot is untied, and the entire perspective of what has come before is shifted. (p111)There is a page or two after that moment, that puts all the preceeding storyline into context. SO what we thought was "ABC" was in reality "XYZ" which makes perfect sense now.

Following THAT moment, there are six more pages - where everyone's relationship loose ends are tied up - that's the 'coda'.

My simple advice is this: there is nothing worse than a movie that doesn't end when it should, so keep it short. I will also refer to the Lord of the Rings - wow that took way to long to get the the credits.

These days, scripts aimed at the Hollywood system are typically 110 pages, more or less. 120's okay. More than 130's a real problem.

According to various pro readers, the story should change around page 30, page 60, and page 90. So the ending runs about 20 pages or so. By "ending" I mean the inexorable, inevitable movement towards the conclusion.

But this is story craft. The length of the ending should be appropriate to the story. It's not something you can figure out by taking a general poll.

Best advice I can give is find ten movies in the same genre as the one you're writing, and figure out why their endings work the way they do. Figure out what works for you, and what doesn't. Apply what you've learned to your own script.

Be prepared to take your carefully worked out intros and endings and just throw them away (metaphorically speaking, that is.) If your story can work without the lovingly crafted finish, you're better off leaving it out.

Think outside the box. Take the middle and make it the end. Take the end, and make it the beginning. Take the beginning, and bury it your backyard.