The second way is the way I'm going. I've been commissioned to write an autobiography. True life stories can generally run longer anyway... but I'm going to be taking the key facts and aiming for a 2-hour film.
You're meant to write per camera shot. If your writing is as concise as it should be then your action blocks will naturally fall in at one, two, three or four lines. Although you can do more on occasion too... depending on flow.
If your scripts are coming in that long, then your writing may not...
The negatives are where it's at. People just saying it's good or they liked it, is great for a morale boost, but the crunch is in the negatives.
I liked it, the negatives are the letterbox thing and the unrealistic gunwork Artistically though i liked it. I'm a screenwriter so I can't comment on...
I think we should always write with budget in mind. Amount of scenes does not matter, it's the amount of different scenes that have a bearing. 30 scenes in a hospital is fine because they can all be filmed at once.