A crime feature film typically runs 100-115 pages and is defined by stories centered on the commission, investigation, or consequences of criminal acts. crime features explore morality through the lens of law and transgression.
Crime scripts need meticulous procedural detail — the audience must believe in the world whether it's cops, criminals, or both. Dual perspectives (cop and criminal, or competing criminals) create natural tension. The crime itself should reveal character, not just plot. Moral ambiguity is the genre's lifeblood — avoid pure heroes and pure villains. Dialogue should feel specific to the world (street language, cop jargon, legal terminology) without becoming impenetrable. The consequences of violence should feel real.
Act one establishes the criminal world and the protagonist's position within it, ending with the crime that sets everything in motion (25-30 pages). Act two follows the consequences as the plan unravels or the investigation tightens, with a midpoint betrayal or revelation (50-55 pages). Act three brings the moral reckoning — justice, escape, or destruction (20-25 pages).
Map the crime itself in detail before writing the script. You need to know everything — even what you won't show.
Give your criminal and your investigator equally compelling motivations. The best crime stories make you understand both sides.
Ground the world in specific, authentic detail — the language, the procedure, the geography of the criminal world.
Write the scene that shows the personal cost of the crime. That's what separates crime drama from crime procedural.
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