What's my first impression when I see that my next read is only 80 pages? "Yippie! This'll be fast!"

Though I admit, my first thought after that is that it would probably be a lot easier to justify giving a consider to a script with a little more length - the impression being that a script that short would lack depth. However, I think Scott is already giving the best advice one can give in that situation - see if there's more that you can add to the story - not just for the sake of adding length, but adding depth.

On the other hand - I recall reading the script for FEAST soon after it won Project Greenlight, and it too was little more than 80 pages. Not only did both I and the Development VP who got the script have a bit of a laugh about the length, we also felt that as a piece of writing, it was utter garbage.

But the movie apparently did well enough on its budget to merit two further sequels, and the entire production process made for a hell of an entertaining third season of PROJECT GREENLIGHT, so what do I know?

I used to work for one of the big agencies and unless a director was attached an 80 page script would never go anywhere.

Action scripts usually run 100-110 pages and it's not unusual to have 3-4 scenes on a single page. What's the scene count? 250 scenes isn't uncommon in an action script. Is the 80 page count simply because the writer isn't breaking scenes and structuring in the way the market demands?

Thanks for a very comrehensive answer!

I'll be selling this story on concept rather than a perfectly written script, but at least I'm gonna try to make it as good as possible.

Changing from Courier Final Draft to Courier New added ten pages!

And I think that Archie's comment makes a lot of sense in my case. I have very few scenes with establishing shots, transitions etc. There are not that many scene breaks either.

Correcting this I believe should put me somewhere around 100 pages. And then I'll start sending it around for feedback. (so far I've only had feedback on the core story)

Again, thanks a lot for the answer!!

/Olov

I had the same problem when I started out and I got an excellent piece of advice. A screenwriter told me to check my act breaks. Each Act should be roughly one third of the script, so if Act One ends on page 5, there's my problem.

It was very Syd Field, but when you first start out that's exactly what you should be doing. His advice worked like a charm and now I don't even think about page count.