Formatting question ...

[teddy]

I have read conflicting advice regarding the correct screenplay (film) format for dialogue margins and character names. The various sources say ....

Dialogue margins
left/right - 2.5/2.2 or 3/2.5 or 2.75/2.5

character names
4.2 inches from left or 3.5 inches from left or 3.75 inches from left

Could someone tell me which is the correct industry standard.

Thanks heaps.

[dpaterso]

The sizes must be listed somewhere -- damned if I could find 'em.

What I did however was to output an RTF file from Movie Magic Screenwriter. Looking at this file in MS Word, the various styles were assigned these indents:

ACTION - Left 1" Right 0.5"
CHARACTER - Left 3.2" Right 0.5"
DIALOGUE - Left 2" Right 1.9"
PARENTHETICAL - Left 2.5" Right 3"
SCENE HEADING - Left 1" Right 0.5"
TRANSITION - Left 1" Right 0.5" Flush Right

Are these numbers any use? I've found mm2000 to be very "sensible" and have no reason to believe anything it outputs wouldn't conform to industry standard. But you never know...

Just asking, what software are you using? If MS Word, you can download screenwriting templates. Major packages like mm2000, Final Draft and Sophocles have demo modes so you can trial 'em and check out various indent sizes for yourself.

-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)

[IWrite]

Teddy -

The dialgoue should begin 2 1/2 inches from the EDGE of the PAGE
1 inch in from the left margin which is the margin for Scene Headings and Action. The dialogue should be 3 1/2 inches wide.

The CHARACTER NAME which should always be all caps should begin 3 1/2 inches from the Edge of the Page which is 2 inches in from the left margin for Scene Heading.

I noticed that Dpat had different margins than I do. Both Final Draft & Screenwriter 2000 (the industry standard screenwriting programs) have the margins I used as the default settings. These allow for a 1 1/2 inch margin from the left edge of the page to the beginning of text - which assures that there is enough room between the brads and text so that all text can be easily seen.

Also the transitions should be RIGHT justified. The last letter of the transition should be at the far right margin.

[Joe Calabrese]

Final Draft formats it as:

SCENE HEADING - Left 1.62" Right 7.25"
ACTION - Left 1.62" Right 7.25"
CHARACTER - Left 3.87" Right 6.50"
PARENTHETICAL - Left 3.37" Right 6.12"
DIALOGUE - Left 2.62" Right 6.62"
TRANSITION - Left 5.00" Right 7.25" Flush Right

People cheat the margins all the time. Trust me. No one is gonna bring out the ruler to check it out. Just keep it around those or DP's numbers and you'll be fine.

[teddy]

Thanks guys,

much appreciated.
I'm actually using Movie Magic 2000, but have changed the default settings a while ago, so i'm not sure what mm2000 default settings are.

anyway, thanks for your help and greetings from down under!

[innocentvictim]

You can get a format guide complete with margin settings and all other S.O.P. industry parameters at: http://www.oscars.org/nicholl/forrmat2.html

[Sorry, I'm new here and don't know how to link that url]

IV

[innocentvictim]

Goody gumdrops, it did it for me!

[Andre]

Hi!
I extracted the US screenplay fromat from a Word macro and saved it as a template. You can find this template here: http://www.rssol.com/shared/download/docs/en/Screenplay2.zip

the free word macro that I used for it, can be downloaded here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/downloads.shtml

there are many other free macro's there.

Hope this helps,
André