Trimming Tricks of the Trade

Page count. A screenwriter must be cognizant of it. Even if you don’t subscribe to the theories of screenwriting gurus like Syd Field, who asserts that the typical Act I ending plot point falls between P. 25–27 and Act II ending plot point between P. 85–90, the fact is you will run up against those who do subscribe to this thinking — producers, agents, and studio execs who have all been schooled in the mysteries of screenplay paradigms. So if your end of Act I plot point is at P. 40, that is likely to be a subject at a notes meeting a la “Act one feels a little long.”