What is the Story of a Movie?
Question by Tim: What is the Story of a Movie?
I’m planning on writing a film action/adventure story, that obviously I want to sell.
But I don’t know how should be the story formed. Apparently it shouldn’t be like a book or a novel. Maybe it should be shorter?
I’m asking because I have seen that the Story credit in a film is different from the Screenplay credit. I know the difference of those two, but I don’t know in what way should I write the STORY. So i would like to know how long should be a film story.
*I don’t want want to write a script/screenplay*
Thanks.
Best answer:
Answer by Sabot03196
A typical screenplay is roughly 20,000 words long. An average book is around 100,000 words long. If you adapt a book for the screen, you’re going to be chopping out a good chunk of that material to stuff it into the body of the screenplay. The opposite is also true of a short story a 5000 words (or less). You’ll be adding a lot of filler to bring the story up to weight.
The most effective story form to transfer to film is the Novella at 20,000 words. Some of the most effective films to be made have come out of this format. Frank Darabont has done very well for himself with Stephen King’s Novella’s in this realm. Shawshank Redemption and The Mist were both novellas as was Stand by Me. John Carpenter’s, The Thing is a pretty direct translation of the original Cambell story, “Who goes there.” Though he did leave out all the anti Communist subtext.
If I were you, I’d concentrate on becoming a good writer and selling your literary fiction to that market. If your sales are any good in the marketplace, Hollywood will come sniffing around or you could do it as a limited edition comic. Graphic novels are all the rage down there these days. Much less reading for the development execs and plenty of pretty pictures to look at too.
I’m a produced screenwriter with feature film and TV credits.
What do you think? Answer below!
