In Need of Some Advice

[James @rmstrong]

I am very "green" in the screenwriting process. When I say green, I'm talkin' the "Monstah" at Fenway Park green.

So what I am somewhat confused about is some of the formatting of a screenplay. Aside from the obvious, "INT. GARAGE - NIGHT," what are the major "no-no's" and what is a "must."

Thanks for your time,

-JRAII

[Optimus]

Read some professional scripts (www.script-o-rama.com).

Also, browse through the following forum (and, check out the entire messageboard) for the answers to all your questions:

http://www.scriptsales.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=2

and, visit the main (non-messageboard site) at www.scriptsales.com


HTH

[James @rmstrong]

Thanks brah... will do.

-JRAII

[NikeeGoddess]

and purchase David Trottier's, The Screenwriter's Bible - it's a major must for all greenies with answers to all your major questions.

[preyer]

a lot of those scripts aren't necessarily written in the same format as we'd write a spec script, either. we shouldn't number our scenes, for example, but you'll obviously find that in shooting scripts.

[scripter1]

the message boards.
You'll get quite an education.
Any question you could come up with has all ready been asked.
Browse through the topics and you'll understand.

Most certainly get the Screenwriter's bible.
It's the best book to start with.

Read scripts, you can find a link at Bill Martell's script secrets and also at donedeal. Others here can post links to the most popular script libraries like Drew's Script Orama, etc.

Luck to you, and after you've educated yourself a bit feel free to come back and post again.
We're happy to help you out.

[Joe Calabrese]

Online scripts.
(some links may be old and broken)

http://www.joblo.com/moviescripts.htm
http://sfy.iv.ru/
http://www.scriptcrawler.com/
http://www.script-o-rama.com/
http://www.moviescriptsandscreenplays.com/index.html
http://physiosoft.uibk.ac.at/hitman/scripts/
http://www.pumpkinsoft.de/screenplay451/
http://www.screentalk.biz/gallery.htm
http://corky.net/scripts/
http://www.simplyscripts.com/
http://www.weeklyscript.com/
http://www.awesomefilm.com/
http://www.angelfire.com/nj/PLAQUE2/
http://www.imsdb.com/

[JustinoXXV]

I'd recommend you buy or check out books before you start writing or even before you start reading scripts. There isn't any one book that's necessarily going to do it. Go to a bookstore like Barnes and Nobles and thumb through their screenwriting section. Pick the one or ones you feel comfortable with, after reading/skimming over the book.

[Maryn]

Go to http://www.oscars.org/nicholl/format.html to check out their properly-formatted script samples and their don't-do-this list. The books can be wonderful reference tools, but if you're working on basics at this stage, this'll do it--for free.

Maryn