Standardization of format

I was following a scriptwriting book just a few years old when to my surprise, I discovered that "CUT TO" has been eliminated from scripts.

I'm wondering if there is some sort of official screenwriting standardization page that has these "rules" updated, since books on the topic so quickly are out of date.

Any book that you look at, if it's not more than, say, five years old, should give you a pretty accurate format. It might be nice if there was some kind of consortium that agreed on this stuff and published it online, but it's all agreement by silent acclimation. You'll get slightly different answers everywhere you look.

Yeah, Cut to is rarely used anymore. It's just assumed that when a scene changes that there's a cut.

BUT

There's no such thing as a standardize format. There's a general consensus about what a screenplay looks like; there should be sluglines; dialogue should be centered on the page; it should be about so long, etc.

And as long as you're script falls within that general, broad range, "looks" like a screenplay, stuff like fonts, "directing" from the page, cut to, whip pan, CAPS, no caps, CLOSE ON, VO, DISSOLVE to, etc...don't mean that much.

The most important thing is that the story is good and the screenplay reads well.

The kiss of death for a screenplay isn't going to be a formatting mistake, it's going to be a bad story that no one is excited about seeing made into a movie.

i'll hafta beg to differ...

And as long as you're script falls within that general, broad range, "looks" like a screenplay, stuff like fonts, "directing" from the page, cut to, whip pan, CAPS, no caps, CLOSE ON, VO, DISSOLVE to, etc...don't mean that much.

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your script has to do more than 'look' like a screenplay to make it past the mail scanners who are looking for any reason to dump as many of the jillions per day agents and prodcos get... and the wrong font [yes, there IS only ONE approved font!], micro-managing, verboten camera directions and stuff DOES mean that much, because it'll get your work rejected on sight, before you can say 'spit'...

The most important thing is that the story is good and the screenplay reads well.

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and if no one gets to read it, due to the above-mentioned non-nos getting it dumped before anyone gets to page 3, no one will ever know if it's good or not, will they?...

The kiss of death for a screenplay isn't going to be a formatting mistake, it's going to be a bad story that no one is excited about seeing made into a movie.

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it WILL be the formatting mistakes, if there are enough of them, or major enough ones that no one will look at it long enough to get excited...

if you think enough of your work to submit it to agents and prodcos, you should think enough of it to take the time to write it as well as any professional would... if you don't want to bother doing all the work the pros do, you'll never get to be one... and shouldn't!

love and hugs, maia

Re: i'll hafta beg to differ...

It is never so black and white. If the script gets to the production company or to the studio, I assume it has been requested. If that is the case, the mail room or an intern has no authority to dispose of it even if it is written with a crayon on a roll of toilet paper. The only person that can pass on the script is the person who requested it or the assistant to that person. If we are talking studio-level, they NEVER dispose of scripts. It has to be read and fully covered no matter what the font is or how it is written. It is a rule, and it is never broken. That said, the formatting sometimes does affect the coverage and general perception to some degree. One rule you don't want to break is the font and your margins. 12pt. Courier with all the right margins. Otherwise, your length and the appearance of your script will be affected.

If your script is read and covered by a newbie, minor formatting irregularities (such as camera angles) may come back to haunt you. But if your reader is a seasoned assistant or a studio story analyst, that is not an issue. I don't think I ever passed on a script on the bases of format. Times New Roman would bother me, I guess. Otherwise, it's story, story, story. If you tell it well, I honestly don't give a d@#$ whether you used CUT TOs, FADE TOs or whatever else.

it should have been clear...

...to anyone reading my post, that i was NOT referring to scripts that had already made it into the hands of a producer, but only to those jillions of unsolicited scripts sent to agencies and prodcos...

however, even if the agent or producer does ask to see the script on the strength of a good query/logline/synopsis, if its in poor shape format or writing-wise, a good story might not be enough to save it...

i'd never let a new writer think it's ok to not bring his/her work up to as close to professional quality as possible... that's simply not good advice...

Re: it should have been clear...

I don't think DevoGrrl was suggesting that format doesn't matter; rather that obsessing over the minutae of it isn't something novice writers should be doing. Or experienced writers, for that matter.

The more important issues of formatting are the ones that really impact how you write the script (not using camera directions, for example). But the exact size of your margins and whether or not you capitalize sound effects--if those are the things that keep you from selling a script, then God is telling you to find another career.

Re: it should have been clear...

<<...to anyone reading my post, that i was NOT referring to scripts that had already made it into the hands of a producer, but only to those jillions of unsolicited scripts sent to agencies and prodcos...>>

Well, this is actually a very, VERY bad advice. Unsolicited screenplays go straight into trash regardless of format and any other merits they may have. Sending a script without it having been requested first is unprofessional and is considered bad tone.

<<i'd never let a new writer think it's ok to not bring his/her work up to as close to professional quality as possible... that's simply not good advice... >>

Sure. And it wasn't me who gave it. All I said, don't get hung up on it. Camera directions won't eliminate you from the race. Sloppy structure and poor story telling most certainly will.

Re: it should have been clear...

One of the problems I see with arbitrarily discarding the CUT TO: and DISSOLVE TO: and other traditional devices is that it actually can change the page count. Each CUT TO: takes up two lines of space.

Standardization would be a useful thing, IMO, so everyone is on the same page, so to speak.

Re: Couple of up to date sites on format

www.screenwriting.info/

www.scriptwritingsecrets.com/contents.htm

As for standards, you won't go wrong with the latest edition of Cole and Haag. Once you get beyond the basics of format, a lot will depend on your individual taste. Read a bunch of screenplays and see the different approaches, use those that you like. TV scripts for hour drama are written in film format, with some slight differences. The time and money pressures of episodic TV make standardization more important there than in feature film, so if you want a conservative approach to format, study TV scripts.

Re: Couple of up to date sites on format

OV,

Thanks for those very informative Web sites.