SCRIPT FLOW AND PROPORTIONS
Recently, mentor JOHN AUGUST posted that the three stages of screenwriting should be referred to as a "draft, set, and polish". This is specifically in reference to contract deals. Your first draft, no matter how many times you rewrite and polish it, should always be referred to as the "first draft" if you are shopping it in the industry.
But that doesn't mean you should bang out a first draft and stop there. It will take several of your own rewrites in order to bring the script up to standards, and half of that just involves proportions.
Mentor TERRI ROSSIO points out that he will make an action line, when appropriate, end on the same line, not dropping the last word down to the next line. I would assume he does the same with dialogue, it only makes sense, creating a better flow to the script-- it's just plain easier and quicker to read.
If you are using "Final Draft", you can "bump out" the margins, as it is known in the industry, allowing more words on a line. But be aware, readers notice, and you can imagine they're not going to be happy with a bumped-out 120 pager with the line space setting on "very tight", that's an excruciatingly slow read.
My best advice is to play by the rules, don't cheat. Having standard proportions to your script will give you a certain level of unbiased respect among professionals and certainly won't work against you.
In a sentence of action or dialogue, the flow of words, as spoken, is as equally as important as the length of line. Mr. August, in his postings, mentions several times that he keeps rewriting a line several times until it flows well, even sounding it out. There are only a handful of words that are used in the industry, but several ways to rearrange them, and that takes time.
During all of this you will be adding or omitting words and lines. The result will usually shift your ACTs, maybe pushing the end of ACT I to the thirty-two page point when you wanted it to end at page thirty.
At that point, go back into ACT I and chop it down, there's no other choice. If a short scene, extra line, unneeded scene heading, or action line can be sliced off for the cause, do it, because your reader might be flipping to the ACT pages prior to the complete read, just to check your work (I do this when reading any script).
This process might be arduous, but it's going to take your script to the next level, making it an easier read...
and easy trumps complicated, any day!
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It took me 5 drafts until I could say "Yeah, I can live with that." Marilyn Horowitz says "Don't get it right - get it written!" It's a good way to work on the first draft. It's the shitty first draft... you develope / write your story in no time. Of course, it's a mess, but a very lovable one! ;)
ReplyDeleteI love the saying you quoted. Actually, I do my best first draft in Notepad, that keeps me from worrying about format and I just focus on the lines.
ReplyDeleteJust skip the word "best" before first draft... there's only ONE first draft it can neither be best nor worst ;) It's your idea. I used to write things on notepad and even develope my ideas in them, then I realized it didn't work out for me. So I write down a "few" notes, the mere progress on a 3-Act-Sheet, open Final Draft and "just write" as the scenes develope in my head. ;)
ReplyDeleteGood point Sarah. I've learned to do an outline first (described at the link), and I recently wrote a five page treatment for another script before doing any scripting. Both processes keep me on track.
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