Today, I want us to take a peep at what the feature film is all about. If you dream of writing for Hollywood and other Indiewood everywhere in the world, you must know this.
That been said, what is a feature film?
A feature film is a film (also called a motion picture or movie) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole film to fill a program.
The notion of how long this should be has varied according to time and place. According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute, and the British Film Institute, a feature film runs for at least 40 minutes, while the Screen Actors Guild holds that it is 80 minutes or longer.
Motion picture screenplays intended for submission to mainstream studios, whether in the US or elsewhere in the world, are expected to conform to a standard typographical style known widely as the studio format which stipulates how elements of the screenplay such as scene headings, action, transitions, dialogue, character’s names, shots and parenthetical matter should be presented on the page, as well as font size and line spacing.
One reason for this is that, when rendered in studio format, most screenplay(s) will transfer onto the screen at the rate of approximately one page per minute. This rule of thumb is widely contested — a page of dialogue usually occupies less screen time than a page of action, for example, and it depends enormously on the literary style of the writer — and yet it continues to hold sway in modern Hollywood.
There is no single standard for studio format. Some studios have definitions of the required format written into the rubric of their writer's contract.
I will see you again soon with another writing tip that can help shape your screenwriting career.
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P.S. – “Be Optimistic and open, if Opportunity(s) don’t come, create one”
Iorwuese I. Iorshagher
Author/Instructor:
Screenplay In 30 Days
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