LESSON V.
Length of Play.
Have your play last about 20 minutes to the reel. It is best to take your manuscript and go through all the action, in this way you can plan the length of the play.
Some inexperienced writers send in plays which could be shown in 6 to 8 minutes, while others send them in so full of incidents, it would require twelve or fourteen hundred feet of film to portray them, as written, and would take 25 or 30 minutes to show them on the screen.
Always arrange your scenes so that they can be clearly understood.
The way to time a play is to start with the first scene and enact all the scenes of the Play.
If it takes you only 8 minutes to act out your Play, then you know it is too short for a one reel picture or 1,000 ft. of film.
Comedy action is much more rapid than drama and in Comedy plays more scenes are used.
Split Reel Pictures.
Split reel pictures are not in demand now and only a few companies are buying them.
One Reel Pictures.
The average one reel pictures, now in demand, have from 40 to 50 scenes for Dramas and from 60 to 80 scenes for Comedies. The number of scenes, of course, depending on the length of the story. Some scenes take longer than others; one scene might be 25 seconds long, and another 3 or 4 minutes. The stage director sometimes adds a few scenes or cuts some out, as he thinks advisable.
Two Reel Pictures.
Two reel pictures are wanted by the majority of Producers and are in greater demand at present than one reel.
The number of scenes for a two reel picture is naturally about twice as great as a one reel or from 80 to 160 scenes, depending on the kind of Play and the amount of action.