Mid-length: 3 to 40 minutes

Between a Short and a feature sits the format most independent work lives in: the short film, the YouTube video essay or mini-documentary, the branded film, the web series episode. At this length you're asking for real attention, so story structure matters again.

Know where it's going

• Festivals and awards. The Academy defines a short film as one with a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits. Many festivals set lower limits for their short programmes, so check each one before you lock the cut.
• YouTube long-form. Anything wider than square, or longer than three minutes, is a regular video rather than a Short.
• Branded and client films. Length is set by the brief and the platform it plays on.
• Web series. Several episodes of a few to twenty minutes, with a world and cast that last.

Structure for the length

A three-minute film can be one scene and one turn. At ten minutes you need a beginning, middle and end; at twenty, a middle that escalates. Use the Script Editor's Report to check runtime as you write, and Tools → Beat sheet and Pacing heatmap to find where it sags.

Keep it consistent for longer

The longer the film, the more shots have to match. Before you generate:

• Every recurring character, location and prop is an element (see "Build your cast").
• Look & Instructions is set, with style references.
• Every scene's continuity bar is filled on the shot list.

Budget it

Price the film before you make it. The shot list's Pace shows runtime, and Generate shots shows the cost of every shot before you run it. Draft the whole film on a cheaper model, lock the cut, then re-render only the shots that need it on a premium one. For a series, plan the cast and look once and reuse them across episodes.