The very first assembly of our new screenplay has weighed in at 172 pages. According to the one-page-of-script-per-minute-of-screen-time rule, this would put the movie at two hours and fifty-two minutes. No worries; we believe this rule is flawed. The actual adjusted screen time would be closer three hours and fifteen minutes. Whew.
Of course we do not intend to deliver a three-hour comedy. We'll cut it down to about 100 pages and all of this preliminary length is more about fleshing out characters, writing wildly, nonediting, just like in the Novel Writing Month of yore.
But it got me thinking about how sadistic it would be to film a three-hour comedy. And it got me wondering about long comedies in general and if any actually exist. I can't think of any comedies--actual comedies, not dramas with comedic elements--that roll in over the 2-hour mark. Even the much-maligned Ishtar (very very underrated, quite hilarious actually) is only 1 hr 47 minutes, even though everyone felt it was a two and a half hour stick in the mud.
What is the longest comedy you've seen? Lisa B?
Does something happen to our brains after 90 minutes of laughing?
8 comments:
Some Shakespearean comedies clock in at 3 hours. Of course people in Shakespeare's day talked really fast and did it in 1.5 hours--you know just like everyone moved really quickly during and prior to WWI. It was only after WWI that people slowed down.
Check out the megastore for my research on your question.
The ideal comedy is 93 minutes long. Why 93? 93 is divisible by 3. When so divided it makes 31 and nothing is funnier than 31 except 93.
Yeah, but Shakespeare always has that awful 5th act where nothing happens...people get married and all the best man talks about how horny he is...stuff just drags on for another 30 minutes after everything's been resolved.
They dance and sing a lot in the 5th act of Shakespeare too, just like they end up fighting in the 5th act of his Histories/Tragedies.
The fifth act is bullshit (in the comedies).
But they dance! They dance, damn it!
Don't all the comedies end in marriage, by the way?
that's what makes Othello a really intriguing play. It is set up just like many of the comedies but spirals into this horrible place. They don't dance there.
And our little interchange is cool with the pictures. It is like we are yelling at each other over the 5th beer.
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