What Is The Ideal Movie Length?
Your typical feature film ranges from 90 – 180 minutes in length. But many modern films are developing the tendency of getting longer and longer. And while there’s nothing necessarily wrong with a film that runs for three or four hours, the problem lies in the fact that most of these movies could be cut in half if they absolutely had to. The ultimate problem with long movies is that the story is sacrificed in order use all the material the filmmakers created, when in reality, the filmmakers should be cutting out whatever they can to make the story as succinct and strong as possible.
In the book “Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach“, the author (Paul Joseph Gulino) starts by examining the Pixar film, Toy Story. Gulino shows not only how the script is segmented into eight well-planned sequences, but also points out that the film’s length is ideal – just 81 minutes.
With such a short length of time, the filmmakers were forced to tell their story as succinctly as possible and at just under an hour and a half, the audience doesn’t feel shorted with an oddly over-cut film. In contrast, the audience comes out of that film remembering more of the story, discussing their favorite characters, and energized about what they have just experienced.
On the other hand, watch an audience that has just emerged from a three or four hour film. Most of them are tired, hungry, and thirsty. While they may have enjoyed the film, all they want to do is go home and take a nap.
What do you think the ideal movie length is? Or is there even such a thing as the ideal movie length in the first place?
Other Articles Worth Reading
If you enjoyed this article, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to you automatically!
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment