Scriptwriting

This years Sitcom Mission deadline is at the end of the month and I have been spending the last few days trying to finalise a script. The writer has to produce a script of no more than fifteen minutes in length; now this is hard to do. Although it is pretty common knowledge that the usual script is one-minute per page, I have just timed my twenty-one page script to nine minutes. How does that work?!

Admittedly, I was reading quickly in fear it would overrun/

It is hard though to find the right level of interest without the story flagging, I can see the point of putting a time frame on scripts, after all, successful scripts would have to fill a time slot on the radio or television, but this is something that can be frustratingly limiting for a writer. The advice would be that if the characters are strong enough then it should be natural to add a few minutes here and there.

In case anyone would like to know, my story is called Monk and is about a promiscuous man who has undertaken an oath of celibacy who then finds out he has a daughter and she wants to move in with him.

What was interesting from a writers POV was The Artist, which I was lucky enough to see yesterday. What a magical movie it is, really, it is absolutely wonderful. The story has you gripped from the very beginning, partly due to the actors brilliant portrayals but also because it had a heart. This was a movie that paid deep loving homage to movies of the golden age of Hollywood and every detail was paid glorious attention to.

This was ninety-minutes of pure joy, no swearing, no sex, no violence; just a love story told in a beautiful setting with real depth to it. I can’t praise the movie enough, it should be taught in media studies.

Of course, a silent script wouldn’t work so well on radio, maybe it wouldn’t on the stage, but it may be a decent model to work with in regards to character development.