Mailing the Script

[macneacail]

Contacts within the industry have requested that I send them my script. I have been corisponding with most of them periodically over the phone and by email. Admittedly, I have not followed convention, i.e. query letter followed by synopsis, etc., fortunately I just new who to call. At any rate, now I’m finally “finished” and would like some general advice from those with more experience. When I was at Uni, we used to bind long reports in a clear plastic cover with a plastic bit that slipped on to bind it all together. Is this good, or should it be loose, or perhaps stapled, whole punched…??? Cover letter?

Thanks, Mac

[SimonSays]

Mac - first of all be sure to run a spellcheck on your script - if you've got the same kind of errors in your script as you do in your post you are going to be in big trouble.

As for the script.

3 hole punch paper
Card stock front and back covers
2 Brads (1 1/4")

[joecalabre]

I agree with Simon.

Add one thing. For card stocks, use white or light gray. No fancy colors or fonts.

[macneacail]

Obsessing again… but hey, it’s fun!

First off thanks for your replies, secondly I am reading different things online and cannot seem to sort out the proper way of doing things. For example this from:
www.writing-world.com/screen/film2.shtml (http://www.writing-world.com/screen/film2.shtml)

“I would love to see the second page of your submission be the logline and mini-synopsis!”

“Title Page: Have the first page of your submission be the title page. Print the title, author's name, info on copyright or WGA-registration,[dont worry i will skip this advice] and the author's contact info: mailing address, phone number and e-mail address.”

“Covers: Use plain cover-stock or card-stock. Print only the script title and author name on the front.”

And this from:
www.betweenborders.com/usscreenplays/ (http://www.betweenborders.com/usscreenplays/)


“Standard advice for US screenplay covers -- front and back -- is that they be left completely blank and be made of card stock.”

This is a very comical article if you have not read it, the following are highlights:

“Brad comes, via Middle English, from the Old Norse 'broddr' meaning spike.”

“These non-standard, non-metric, peculiar to the US (actually, peculiar to the US film industry in particular) requirements represent a real barrier to people outside the United States marketing their work into the US film industry.

Personally I'd love to say 'stuff it, the rest of the world uses A4, and it's about bloody time you switched.'

That won't help sell screenplays, however. And, given how fetishistic the US film industry is about this stuff, such an attitude will actively harm a writer's chances.”

And finally, Brads - Acco no. 5 or 6?

Re: spell check...
email and forum posts do not get the same amount of attention as my script. Sorry... my time is too limited these days.

-Mac

[joecalabre]

Your first link refrenced is about contests. If that is where you're submitting your work, then do what ever each individual contest requires in thier FAQ or Rules section.

If it is for a producer, agent, manager or anyone with interest and the cash, then I would just have a plain cardstock with title third down centered, name and contact info right bottom. (and don't even ask about putting a copyright notice on it. There's another thread that has gone on way too long and I'm not in the mood to start it back up again.)

As for brads, 1 and 1/4" I think that's Atco #5. That's good for a script under 125 pages. A script that is substatialy over, go to 1 and 1/2". I personally use only two brads on either end and I use the brad washers on the back. It's gives a polished look.

Good luck and like you I can't take the time to spell corectly on posts.

[macneacail]

Thanks everyone, boy these brads are hard to find in the right size, I think I’ll just buy the larger and trim them back. As for the washers, God only knows where these are sold. If anyone has a favorite office supply store, please share. By the way, does any one do this:

“I would love to see the second page of your submission be the logline and mini-synopsis!”

Also If I could get a second witness on Joe’s advice regarding contact info on the bottom left of Title. I agree with Joe but I have someone else telling me something different.

-Ciao

[macneacail]

One more if I may, The card stock cover is completely blank?
and Tweeners?

[MrJayVee]

Do NOT buy the larger brads and trim them back. Those suckers become razor sharp when you do that. Go online and visit the Writers Store (www.WritersStore.com) and get the brads there. You'll want the Acco #5 brads.

If you can't find washers, don't worry about them. They are not a necessity.

Put contact information on bottom RIGHT of cover page.

Put nothing on card stock covering.

[macneacail]

Thanks for all the help.

Additionally I have found many answeres here...

www.empirecontact.com/scr...ility.html (http://www.empirecontact.com/screenwriting/presentability.html)



But here is one more question...

Is the script to be returned? Should a return package be included?


Thanks

[MrJayVee]

A script doesn't always look very presentable once it's been read -- and you certainly wouldn't want to send it to anybody else. Besides, it costs just as much to mail a script as it does to make a copy. (Usually.) And chances are decent they'll keep your SASE for other purposes anyway. So don't ask them to return the script. Let 'em keep it, toss it in the garbage, recycle it, whatever.