Thread: Screenplay Format

kimba...
you may find, when you get out into the cold, cruel world of the film industry, that agents and producers aren't quite as 'accepting' as your uni teachers... if i were you, i'd check actual scripts of movies that have been done by australian prodcos, to see if the format matches what you're being taught [if you haven't already done that]... plus, if you ever intend to submit work to the hollywood market, you'll need to adjust to their mandated 'standard'...

re the site errors noted here, i don't know how else i'd have been expected to do so and hope it didn't bother you that i did... 'twas only meant to help... it's something that's often done in this forum by other members, too, as it's so easy to overlook goofs in our own work, and no one wants their site to exhibit writing flaws, when it's a site dedicated to writing, right?

hugs, m

This reply is a little dated but here goes ... maia, thanks for the words of advice. Just so that you know, many of my uni tutors have actually worked in the Australian Film Industry at some stage of their careers and are basing what they know about the script format to teach it to us.

I take a lot of time to write tutorials for screenwriting which you can find at http://forums.celtx.com/viewtopic.php?t=2744&start=0 Enjoy!

EDIT: Tutorials are in the process of being taken down.

it's admirable that you would take the time to do that, david... but since you are, in effect, 'teaching' others how to write something properly, you should take more care to not have all those misspellings and other goofs in your writing... it doesn't inspire the reader to take you all that seriously...

in addition, some of the sample script you provide isn't done correctly at all... for instance, you capitalize character names after they've been introduced, which is never done in a real script... and your scene-setting description, character intros, and action are not at all well done, sorry to say...

another major problem is telling newbies they can use camera directions/angles in their scripts... that is absolutely verboten, unless the writer is also the producer and director... in spec scripts, 'using the cameras' will usually get your script dumped w/o being read past the first page...

if you'd like detailed examples of all of the above, let me know and i'll be happy to help you clean it up, so it will be a good 'tutorial' for beginners...

love and hugs, maia
maia3maia@hotmail.com

Hi. First off, This i my first post (yay!). I'm an eccentric High School dropout with quite an interest in writing (what do you think my chances of screenplay writing success are??? ). I read the screenplay via the link posted, and was curious what a couple of abbreviations may mean?

1. V.O. (After April's name. I'm guessing it means Voice Over?)

2. S.O.

3. The locations mentioned start with INT.

Thanks, and thanks for the (very useful) link.

Ciao!

(P.S, despite the simplicity of my vocabulary on this post, I am a very articulate person, for those who may not take my post seriously)

There are examples in Final Draft if you don't already know. Warner Brothers scripts.

sorry i didn't see this sooner:

Hi. First off, This i my first post (yay!). I'm an eccentric High School dropout with quite an interest in writing (what do you think my chances of screenplay writing success are??? )

...can't tell, without seeing what you can do... some make it, but many, many more don't... if you have the passion it takes to spend years learning how to do it well enough to turn out something with a chance to be sold/optioned and have the necessary skills, you'll have a shot at making a decent [not huge] living writing and rewriting scripts for hire and maybe even selling one of your own now and then...

1. V.O. (After April's name. I'm guessing it means Voice Over?)

...yup!...

2. S.O.

...no such thing... but if you meant 'O.S.' that means 'off screen'...

3. The locations mentioned start with INT.

...all slug lines [scene headings] start with either INT. [interior] or EXT. [exterior]...

since you are, in effect, 'teaching' others how to write something properly

Excellent point. Since YOU are giving so much advice, perhaps you could show us a script you wrote. You talk about the cold world of the screenwriting world...but how do beginners know they should take you seriously?

And I don't mean your usual fluff and how you humped Kier Dullea's leg one time... I mean, if you know how to write scripts, show us one.


Other than that... newbies, your best bet is to look at examples on the many screenwriting websites.

Your best bets are:

wga.org or

A Few Notes on Formatting - Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwritign - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Nicholl competition)

in re this foul-fingered person's posts about/to me, that aren't deserving of a personal response, i'll let some of our most revered writing forebears speak for me:

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. Euripedes


It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. Mark Twain


The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool. Richard Feynman

that aren't deserving of a personal response,

Aw, she responded even though I didn't deserve it. That is SO sweet.

Nothing about posting any of her writing, though. Hard to say if this is because she's fooling herself along with the rest of us or just doesn't want to show her work and remove all doubt.

Most people would agree with this principle, I would say: If you pretend to be an expert and give people advice, especially newcomers to the field...you should give some indication that you actually now how to do what you are talking about.

No?????

Thanks for that. So it was you who increased the counter number. I didn't expect anyone bring the spelling errors to my attention in this forum [admittedly I didn't reaslise I'd made those errors] so thanks once again.

you're entirely welcome on both counts... best of luck with your site and your work, kimba!

hugs, m

Quote:
that aren't deserving of a personal response,
Aw, she responded even though I didn't deserve it. That is SO sweet.

Nothing about posting any of her writing, though. Hard to say if this is because she's fooling herself along with the rest of us or just doesn't want to show her work and remove all doubt.

Most people would agree with this principle, I would say: If you pretend to be an expert and give people advice, especially newcomers to the field...you should give some indication that you actually now how to do what you are talking about.

No?????

you're a really pathetic individual, lin... you obviously can't see that your obsessive need to pounce on me at every opportunity only lets everyone here see how sick you are... please know that you are no longer capable of angering or upsetting me with your childish bullying... all that's left now is pity... i sincerely hope you get the help you so clearly still need [san diego, wasn't it?]... and i'll repeat this message every time you launch one of these totally uncalled for spite-ball attacks...

love and healing hugs, maia

I'm working on a screenplay and was wondering if anyone knew what date to put on the title page, the date started or finished. Thanks

Date finished... or so. I always give my most recent date possible to show it's my newest draft. This is really for your information than anyone elses though. And the difference won't be by that much unless you are spending years writing a first draft.

I've seen some writers put the date begun AND the date finished, and it really just is ugly to look at. My two cents. ;0

Brian