When I got my first batch of feedback on “Kim” there where complaints that I didn’t use secondary headings.
The reviewer exampled with a scene where I had used CONTINUOUS. The character moved from one room to another. He wanted the use of a secondary heading instead. He wanted to change this:
INT. APARTMENT – LIVING ROOM – DAY
The hero closes the door and browsers through the mail while she walks into the kitchen.
INT. APARTMENT – KITCHEN- CONTINUOUS
She leaves the mail on the table and…
To this:
INT. APARTMENT – LIVING ROOM – DAY
The hero closes the door and browsers through the mail while she walks into the:
KITCHEN
She leaves the mail on the table and…
Well, this is not what I have been taught, but gee, knowledge is perishable. Things do change over time.
I looked into this. And changed in the script.
I was so eager to please, so eager to make the right impression. The so important first impression that every unknown writer needs.
I looked through the script yesterday.
Yes, I know, I have sent it to a competition and it has left mama and all, but that is in the past now. No more worries. I actually browsed it through considering if I should send it so more than one contest.
Well, anyway, the script was crowded with those secondary headings. It felt awkward and strange. It felt like I hadn’t known what I was doing. I had no structure for where to use the secondary headlines and where not to.
So, I returned to use major headlines only.
Some may disagree, sure, but I must use what I feel comfortable with. And I don’t like to get stuck with formatting problems. That’s why I use Final Draft.
Some day I may learn where to use secondary headings properly, but not this time.
See also: Don't let anybody else do your killings
4 comments:
The last time I showed some of my movie scripts to a producer he told me my scripts were unreadable because of my formatting.
This was a lie of course but he needed to put me in my place to hide the fact he couldn't write his way out of a paper sack. He had never written a feature length script and his short script I read was Twilight Zone sad.
People that comment on formatting lack talent for the most part.
I read for the story.
Of course he could have read it if he wanted to, as you say.
But I think he presumed you could not write when you weren't following formatting standards. And then he thought that reading your script would have been a waste of his time.
Unfortunatly, if you want your script to be read it has to look in a certain way. Sometimes all you can do is to accept it. After all, it's just formatting, not content.
I left something out of that last comment. I told him that the script wasn't formatted in correct form because I wrote it as a shooting script for myself. A shooting script is a different animal.
Five other producers read and liked the script. My point is perfection in formatting is a lie. You can't make a perfect script in formatting or content.
I am rewriting that script now and the formatting will take me more time to get right than the content.
A script will never be more than a blueprint for a movie. But still, it is a bigger chance that people will understand the blueprint if it follows common ideas of how it is done.
I could recommend Final Draft if you don't want to worry too much about formatting. I went nuts when I used MS Word.
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