Scripts should always roughly be a page to a minute, so you should expect pilot scripts to be 45 - 60 pages. 45 - 60 pages equals out to about 45 minutes to an hour of screen time. Consider the channel where your script is likely to air.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as “an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits.” The general rule of thumb is that each script page equals one minute of screen time — give or take — so thirty-five to forty pages is generally the ...
Read it out loud and time it. You're right to go with a 1 page = 1 minute mindset, so your script should be somewhere between 40 - 45 pages. Just keep in mind if you have a lot of stage directions or notes that is not dialogue, the time will be much shorter.
Generally speaking, hour-long episode scripts can be anywhere from 45-63 pages, although a majority of the time you want to stick with 50-55 pages. The basic sense of it is that one page equals one minute, and with a 60-minute show, you obviously need to account for commercial breaks.
Scripts written in proper screenplay format average a page per minute. A feature is roughly an hour-and-a-half – two hours long. Thus the 90 – 120 page rule. Screenwriting books and expensive screenwriting gurus will all tell you that scripts should fall within the 90-120 page rule.
The general "script page to minutes" rule of thumb is that one page of a screenplay equates to one minute of screen time. Of course, this is not a hard and fast rule and there are always exceptions. For example, one page of nothing but dialogue will probably not equal a minute on screen.
In fact, only two-thirds were within 0.8 and 1.2, which means that a 100-page-script could have a running time of anywhere between 80 and 120 minutes – a very wide margin. Another way of looking at the data is to plot the length of the scripts and finished movies in a scatter plot.
Scripts should always roughly be a page to a minute, so you should expect pilot scripts to be 45 - 60 pages. 45 - 60 pages equals out to about 45 minutes to an hour of screen time. Consider the channel where your script is likely to air.
The same was outlined on the All About Screenwriting blog. In addition to explaining the rule, this post made the claim that the ratio of screenplay to minute of film is 1:1; and page 17 will be the 17th minute of a film.
There's nothing wrong with short scripts per se, in fact readers welcome them, but the first thing anyone does when they get a script is check the page count and if they see it's less than 90 pages it will set off alarm bells (perhaps the work of a neophyte) that will affect their perception of the script when they ...
The average feature screenplay, traditionally, is between 95 and 125 pages long. In Hollywood these days scripts generally don't run longer than 114 pages. Comedy scripts are typically shorter, dramas longer. There are, naturally, variations.
A short film script is more focused than a feature film script. It usually runs between 5-40 pages, but most short film scripts are around 15-20 pages long.
So, a 30-second spot script could be roughly 75 words. For a 60 second script, you get around 150 words.
How Long is an act? The first 30 pages, or 30 minutes of your film, and roughly 20% of your script. This is the shortest act in your screenplay, and usually features a turning point at roughly page 15-25. Some break Act 2 into 2a and 2b, because it's the longest portion of your script at roughly 55% or 60 pages.
A typical procedural drama hour will have a pre-title scene/teaser and is broken into five acts. Within each act there could be between 5-7 scenes roughly -- but this could be more or less depending on the kind of story you are telling.
Scripts. This is the first step to familiarize yourself with the hour-long format on the page. Most TV drama pilots are between 55 and 65 pages and are broken down into acts. Traditionally, these acts allow for commercial breaks on network (and some cable) TV channels.
Word Count
All you need to know is that 10,000 words of script will occupy around an hour of stage time and pro rata from there – so 1000 words take six minutes3.
Your main character is the heart at the center of your story—and the pilot episode needs to show audiences who that character is and why they should follow their journey. Make your character active, and give them a strong sense of self. What decisions are they making to move the story forward?
The general rule states that your screenplay should be between 90 to 130 pages long — 80 pages is too few and anything over 129 pages is too much.
If your script is coming in short, think about scenes that might be missing. Character dynamics or conflicts that could be injected to give the story more emotional beats.
You may be surprised, however, to learn that some of our favorite screenplays were written in just a couple weeks, even a couple days. What does it take to finish a draft so quickly? Great dedication, focus and perhaps even locking yourself in a hotel room as many successful writers have done.