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FORMATTING CLEANED UP but unformatted scripts written with out-of-date word processing software is sometimes necessary in order to salvage good ideas. This template is will allow you to do this task. It is Freeware and is written with Microsoft Word in 12--point Courier. Feel free to give it to other filmmakers. Download template to reformat script written with out-of-date software
Paragraph & Format Symbols After you download this file, if you cannot see four paragraph symbols (¶) between this line and the title above, select "Show ¶" under the VIEW menu, and theyll pop into view. I strongly recommend that you activate this "Show ¶" mode when writing a script. With it activated you will have wealth of format information at your fingertips and will therefore know how to correct a format mistake (more on that, later). When you import an incorrectly formatted screenplay into Word, get rid of the bad formating by using the "Replace" selection under the EDIT menu (refer to the file named "Screenplay/Exercise/1"). For additional questions about this function select "Help" under the WINDOW menu. Your goal is to use "Replace" to take out extra spacing, tabs, etc., so that everything lines up at the left margin. The present exercise assumes you have done the above. The next step is:
Merging Script Template with Script 1. Duplicate the file named "Screenplay Script/Template". 2. Rename the copy with your old screenplay title. 3. Open it and browse through the screenplay sample to refamiliarize yourself. 4. select "Select All" under the EDIT menu. 5. Press "Delete".
Now return to the imported, cleaned up screenplay: 1. Select "Select All"under the EDIT menu. 2. Select "Copy" under the EDIT menu. 3. Close file. 4. Paste into the new script styles worksheet.
Converting Old Script to New Format Place your cursor at the left of every line and using your shortcut keys to access the style sheets, convert the old screenplay into correct Screenplay Format line by line. You do this by:
Accessing Script Styles Heres how to access Screenplay Styles to convert the following screenplay fragment line-by-line into correct format: 1. Place your cursor at the left of the first letter of the first line of the script. 2. Press Shift-Command + "S" (for "Styles"). The Page Number at the lower left of the document will now be darkened and changed to "Style". Youre now within the Style Sheet. 3. Now choose the format of the line. In this case, it is "New Scene". Notice that each format has an abbreviation-- one, two or three letters in either upper or lower case so you can access them whether you have "caps lock" on, or not. 4. Press Command+"AS" to select the "New Scene" format, then "Return"--and that line has now been reformatted into "New Scene" format. Youll get the hang of this procedure in two minutes. Honest. It speeds up writing immensely.
Common Mistake You might forget to press the Command key before hitting the format abbreviation. If so, the word "Style" in the lower left corner disappears and the letter(s) you hit will be written in its place. You are out of the Style Sheet. To get back in: 1. Click the cursor at the place on your script where you want to insert the format. 2. Press the Command-Shift +"S" (for "Styles"). 3. Now choose a format abreviation by pressing Command+(format abbreviation), then "Return". OK. Heres your practice exercise--a clean but unformatted excerpt from one of my scripts:
EXT. COCHISE - NIGHT - CHIEF'S DINER at the top of a small rise. It is a greasy spoon with an Indianhead sign proclaiming in huge hand-painted letters "CHIEFS--HEAP'IN GOOD FOOD!" We hear MEXICAN RADIO PROGRAM. We hear Pearl open the door and get out. PEARL (V.O.) Fake some sleep. B.J.(V.O.) (whispers) Yeaah. The door SLAMS shut. We hear the sound of Pearl's FOOTSTEPS on gravel, receeding . B.J. (V.O.): (continuing) We driving people that ain't ours on roads we ain't suppose to be onand we can't stop for gas 'cause we don't look right. (beat) So how we suppose to ask for help? INT. CHIEF'S DINER - PEARL stops at the entrance. REGULARS at the counter slowly turn to look. Pearl hesitates..... then walks across the diner to the counter, hesitates..... and sits down. WAITRESS, wizened and gum-chewing, approaches with coffee pot. WAITRESS: Are you a sight for sore eyes, honey! First person of the girl-type persuasion I seen all day. Pearl looks around her at the two other women in the diner. WAITRESS: (continues) Them? They live here. PEARL: Say, can anybody-- WAITRESS: (interrupts) You want coffee, honey? PEARL: (beat; nods) WAITRESS: Here or to go? PEARL: (beat) Go. Waitress pours a Dixie cup of black coffee. PEARL: Can anybody around here fix-- WAITRESS: (interrupts) How you take it, honey? PEARL: (beat) What? WAITRESS: Your coffee. How you take it. (beat) Cream, sugar, black? PEARL: Ahh. Black. WAITRESS: Black? PEARL:(nods) Waitress puts a lid on the Dixie cup. WAITRESS: I'll bet that's the way your boyfriend like it, don't he. PEARL: No! Waitress serves the coffee. WAITRESS: Your Pa? PEARL: (shakes head) WAITRESS: Your brother! Pearl looks up sharply. WAITRESS: Brother, huh? (beat) That's the way it is. Father, brother, boy friend. We take it the way they like it, honey. You want sugar? PEARL: Look, me and my friends got a car out in the lot and the engine's running kinda hot. You got anybody here know how to look under a hood? Waitress scans the diner and then calls to an old man, HECTOR, asleep at a table. WAITRESS: (shouts to HECTOR) Hey, Hector! Wake up! Get up! A FARMER shakes HECTOR awake. He wears an Army cap.90. HECTOR: (drunk; slowly) Huh? WAITRESS: Morning, General! Look! We got a lady here for you! HECTOR rises like an old unsteady dog to the scent. WAITRESS: (continuing) You going to put your greasy old hand into something useful for a change! LAUGHTER. HECTOR stops, confused, unsteady. SMASH CUT TO: EXT. COCHISE/HIGHWAY - NIGHT - CADILLAC drives out of the town of Cochise and into the desert. INT. CADILLAC DRIVING - NIGHT - PEARL, B.J. AND MINNIE B.J. and Minnie rise up from under a blanket in the back seat. Pearl takes off her wig. PEARL: (to B.J.) Okay. Haul them out. B.J. pulls the back seat forward. B.J.: Hey, guys, we're clear! Helmut and Heinz crawl out stiffly. HELMUT: We thought the old man would never finish! PEARL: One-thirty. We got at most an hour and a half before we got to drop you guys off and turn back. Give them the coffee. MINNIE: The engine's not so hot, now. So far, so good! B.J.: Wait before we clap, okay? EXT. SERIES OF LONG SHOTS - NIGHT - HIGHWAY - CADILLAC A Cadillac driving through desert. B) Cadillac driving into small town. C) Cadillac driving by closed gas station and Indian gift shop. D) Cadillac driving out of small town and into the desert. Thedust raised by the car swirls around CAMERA which pans upinto the sky. EXT. SERIES OF LONG SHOTS - NIGHT - SKY A) Stars and comets.Fade up on the sound of WIND. B) Sky framed by mountains at lower edge of frame.We hear the sound of the MOTOR passing by. C) Identical sky framed by identical mountains at lower edgeof frame. GLOW of sun rising behind the mountains. We hearthe sound of the MOTOR slowing. INT.CADILLAC - DAWN - PEARL, MINNIE, B.J., HELMUT, HEINZ The Cadillac parks on the bumpy shoulder of the highway. Pearl turns the MOTOR off. SILENCE. MINNIE: Well, this is it. We gone too far already. B.J. wraps a map, sandwiches and two dollars in a towel. B.J.: Here. Helmut takes packet, opens the door and pulls Heinz out with him. HELMUT: We go to Mexico now. AD LIB goodbye's. Pearl says nothing. The men slowly leave, walking backwards.
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