IMPORTING WORD SCRIPTS

into Movie Magic's Scriptor formatting program has always been a sweat. I wrote this template to solve this task. It's Freeware. Feel free to pass it on to other filmmakers. The file is written in 12-point Courier in Microsoft Word. For Macs, option+click to download; for PC's, right click.

Download template to import Word scripts into Scriptor

This Script Template Will Allow You To Do Two Things:

1) It will let you format a script using the Microsoft Word application.

2) It will then let you import your finished script into Movie Magic's Scriptor application in order to add intelligent page breaks, MORE’s and (continued)’s, A pages, double scene numbering, etc.

Being able to create a filmscript in Word and then import it into Scriptor is already a plus--but it doesn’t stop there: your imported and newly formatted Scriptor file can then be further imported into the Screenplay Systems’ Scheduling & Breakdown application program. Along the way a Cast List and a Scenes List are generated, and the pages of your script are automatically broken down into eights of pages. Note: as of this writing, the Scriptor application program will not recognize and therefore not import, any script written with Microsoft Word 6.0. Any script written with Microsoft Word 5.1a or earlier versions will have no problem.

So, to sum up: this file is both a perfectly fine stand-alone script format template that can create and print out narrative filmscripts in Microsoft Word; and this file is also the link into further refinements using the Scriptor and Scheduling & Breakdown applications. Orca the Dog held my paw during the entire creation of this template, so you all owe her dog biscuits & assorted treats which can be placed in my mailbox in the Photography Department on the 12th floor.

Understanding & Using Script Styles

Here are the two things to know to understand pre-formatted styles:

1. Every paragraph remembers its own margin width, line width, tabulation, font, font size, capitalization versus non-capitalization, line-spacing requirements, etc.

2. You can instruct paragraphs with completely different attributes to follow each other.

These two capabilities are how we can pre-program script styles. These two capabilities are how any commercially available (and often very costly) scripting-dedicated program works.

Here are two things you need to know to use pre-formatted styles:

• Press "Return" before you choose a style.

This action ends one paragraph and allows you to manually choose another paragraph with a different style, or to let the pre-programmed paragraph linkage happen.

Why should you press "Return"? Because when you choose a style it will be applied to the paragraph you’re presently in. If you stay in the paragraph you just wrote and forget to press "Return", the new style will change the style of everything you wrote in that paragraph. Remember: press "Return" after writing the last and before choosing the next format style.

• Always work with "Show ¶" mode on.

If you cannot see the paragraph symbol (¶) between this line and the paragraph above, select "Show ¶" under the VIEW menu, and it’ll pop into view. I strongly recommend that you activate this "Show ¶" mode when writing a script. This mode allows you to see what is happening with your styles as you use them. The most common formatting mistakes involve the ¶ marker, and if you can’t see it, you can’t correct it. Writing with this mode activated will also allow you to correctly use the script style called "Personal Direction" (see "Screenplay Dialogue & Internal Personal Direction", below)

Accessing Script Styles

There are two ways to access the pre-programmed Screenplay formats in this template:

• The Slow Way:

1. On the left side of the Ruler Bar above this file, you will find a horizonal box, in which "Normal,N" is probably showing, with a downward-pointing arrow to its right. Place your cursor arrow on the ruler arrow, and press. You will see the menu to its left drop down showing the pre-formatted Screenplay format styles available to you in this template.

2. If you want a character to speak, for example, insert your cursor at the place, then select "Character,c,C"--the cursor on your worksheet will jump to the correct format alignment.

3. Type your character’s name. You’ll notice that the name is automatically capitalized for you. These kinds of issues are taken care of automatically within the each style.

4. Now press "Return". Your cursor within the file jumps automatically to "Dialogue,d,D" because after you identify a character, that character always says something (dialog). Hence, the "Dialogue,d,D" style is programmed to follow "Character,c,C" automatically.

5. When the characters have finished speaking and you have just written your last dialogue, hit "Return".

6. You’ll see that it automatically returns you to "Character" format. We now will break out of this cycle by returning to the Ruler Bar and to the downward-pointing arrow and selecting "Direction,dr,DR". Try it.

7. You are now ready to write screen direction. At the end of writing your screen direction, hit the "Return" key. It will go automatically to "Character,c,C".

In summary, the sequence is this:

1 After you write your character name, press "Return".

2. After you type your dialogue, press "Return".

3. After you type your character name, press "Return" for more dialogue. Type dialogue until you wish to write screen direction at which point hit "Return".

4. Select "Direction,dr,DR". "Direction" will automatically be followed by "Character".

5. Etc.

Now for the fast way to access Screenplay styles:

• The Fast Way:

1. Press both the Shift key and the Command key down while pressing "S" (for "Styles"). I’ll write this as Shift-Command + "S". Do this now.

2. The Page Number at the lower left of the document is now changed to "Style". This means you are within the heart of the Style Sheets. Now choose a format. Each format has an abbreviation--one, two or three letters that you can access in either upper or lower case. If you want to select the "Character" format, for example, press Command +"c" then press "Return"--and you’re there.

You’ll get the hang of this procedure in two minutes. 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. This means you are out of the Style Sheet. To get back in:

1. Click the cursor on your script at the point you want a format inserted.

2. Press the Command-Shift +"S" (for "Styles").

3. Choose a format abbreviation by pressing Command + (format abbreviation), then "Return".

Screenplay Dialogue & Internal Personal Direction

If you want "Parenthetical" to follow "Character", press Shift-Command + "S", then press "Z" + Return. No problem.

But what if you want to place personal direction within a dialogue? The above procedure will not work because if you press "Return" the Style Sheet has been pre-programmed to skip a line for the next character to speak.

B.J. (V.O.):

(continuing)

We driving people that ain't ours on roads we ain't supposed to be on and we can't stop for gas 'cause we don't look right.

(beat)
So how we supposed to ask for help?

That’s not what you want--there should not be a line between the word "right" and the personal direction "(beat)".

Here’s what you want:

B.J. (V.O.):

(continuing)

We driving people that ain't ours on roads we ain't supposed to be on and we can't stop for gas 'cause we don't look right.
(beat)
So how we supposed to ask for help?

Now here’s how to get what you want:

1. After writing the first part of your dialogue press Shift + Return. This gives you a "soft return"--that is, a leftwards pointing arrow that gets you onto a new line without actually ending the paragraph or ending its internal style.

2. Now press the Tab key.

3. Type a parenthesis, then write your personal direction followed by a closing parenthesis.

4. Press Shift + Return to return to the dialogue.

Scene Numbers

If you plan to import this script into Scriptor, do not take the following advice--only do the following if you will do everything in Microsoft Word:

Of course you plan on doing many drafts, so it makes no sense to number your scenes now. However, comes the time when you’ve completed your final draft and have budgeted your fim, you’ll need to add scene numbers. In anticipation of that bless`ed day, here’s a suggestion: include the number "1" followed by a single space as the first entry of every scene direction.

Why? Because using the number "1" + space will function as a place marker that later will allow you to easily add sequential numbers using a combination of two functions: "Replace" under the EDIT menu, and "Repaginate" under the TOOLS menu. When you have completed your final draft and budget and are ready to renumber, see the section called "Renumbering Scene Numbers" in the file inside this folder named "Screenplay Formatting/Advanced Topics".

If you elect not to add the number place marker as you write your script, you can still number your scenes later, but the procedure is more involved. For this procedure, see the section called "Adding Scene Numbers" in the file inside this folder named "Screenplay Formatting/Advanced Topics".

Preparing to Write

1. Read this model screenplay fragment to refresh yourself on the format requirements of this script.

2. Now, feeling reasonably Format-Refreshed, get rid of my directions along with the script fragment in order to have a clean digital slate upon which to write your own script.

3. Choose "Select All" under the EDIT menu. Everything in this file will then be selected and turn black.

4. Now press the "Delete" key at the upper right of your main keyboard.

This procedure is the way you’ll work with this template and every template in this folder. You now have a workspace cleared of my words, and ready for yours. The pre-programmed script styles, however, are still there and ready to be used.

Good writing!

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Excerpt from PEARL, MINNIE & B.J.

Copyright © 1993 Peter Hunt Thompson. Printed in U.S.A.
All rights reserved.

fade in:

int. women’s prison cell (1947) - day - med shot -- pearl

a Japanese-American woman, sits before a bare wall in a United States Federal Women’s Prison four years after the events in the remainder of the filmscript. PEARL is 40, and appears ten years older than she will appear in the rest of the script. She wears pearl earrings and a khaki workshirt with the stenciled name: P. SUBA (pronounced "ZOO-ba). She smokes, and writes a letter on a table we cannot see. She reads each word aloud as she writes it inside a vast, ECHOING institutional space.

ext. Hill and sky - night

Silent footage. Dark hill against MOONLIT sky

Suddenly, thirteen automobiles parked on the hill burst into FLAMES. We see MEN, BACKLIT by flames, running away.

Fade upon the sounds of FIRE.

FADE UP TO WHITE:

FADE TO:

WHITE SCREEN/BLACK TITLES

Fade out o n the sounds of FIRE. Fade up on the sound of AD LIB VOICES, and TYPEWRITER. Black letter by black letter, typed on white paper, this TITLE appears:

HELMUT UND HEINZ.

Sound of a DOOR opening

Sounds of the DOOR opening, PERSONS entering and the DOOR closing.

STOOL scrapes the floor. Separated by the sound of CARRIAGE returns, the typewriter TYPES the MAIN CREDITS:

main credits

Fade up on sounds of NEWSPAPER REPORTERS approaching the door and their AD LIB CLAMORING to be let in. The last of the MAIN CREDITS slide up and out of the frame, accompanied by the sound of paper being PULLED from the typewriter, leaving the screen black.

BLACK SCREEN

Fade up on sounds of NEWSPAPER REPORTERS approaching the door and their AD LIB CLAMORING to be let in.

INT. BLACK SCREEN BURSTS OPEN/SHERIFF’S OFFICE (1944) - day.

The BLACK SCREEN is the inner door to a Sheriff’s office. We see the heads and shoulders of NEWSPAPERMEN pushing the door ahead of the CAMERA. Inside the office, we see a standing FBI AGENT wearing a "Dick Tracy" hat and suit, and behind him, in uniform, a seated SHERIFF. Both men turn:

Sheriff advances to door with hands outstretched.

Sheriff looks uneasily to FBI Agent

4X5" press camera flashbulb BURSTS. Sheriff presses door on the reporter and it SLAMS shut. DARKNESS.

TITLE: uncle sam and the dove

Sounds of the retreating NEWSPAPERMEN.

INT. BACK TO SCENE - SHERIFF’S OFFICE - AFTERNOON

in Dogsoup, a small town in northern New Mexico. Fade out on sounds of RETREATING NEWSPAPERMEN. It is EARLY AFTERNOON, but the office is DARK. It is furnished with battered metal furniture and bare walls broken by occasional wanted notices, clipboards and a Betty Grable calendar. MATRON in uniform stands against a wall. SECRETARY records Pearl’s answers on a Gregg shorthand tablet.

Pearl sits

on a metal stool. She is 36, and looks ten years younger than she did in Shot 1. Pearl is BACKLIT by the intense afternoon light that falls upon her head from the window behind. This shaft of light shifts in the two interrogations to come and indicates the passage of time. SLOW DOLLY in on Pearl to EXTREME CLOSE SHOT OVER THE COURSE OF HER INTERROGATION -- so slow that we should not be consciously aware of this gradual intensification.

Pearl’s face falls.

FBI AGENT LOOKS SHARPLY AT PEARL

MATRON LOOKS SHARPLY AT FBI AGENT

SECRETARY LOOKS UP FROM HER SHORTHAND

FBI AGENT LOOKS ANGRILY AT PEARL

PEARL TURNS TOWARD MATRON

FBI AGENT NODS TO MATRON

MATRON

hesitates, takes a cigarette from her pack and walks slowly across the office to Pearl and holds out her pack. Pearl takes a cigarette.

Matron nods, reluctantly fishes in her pocket, finds matches and throws them in Pearl’s lap.

Matron reluctantly LIGHTS Pearl’s cigarette.

Pearl exhales smoke into Matron’s face.

matron’s face enveloped by smoke

Matron waves it away.

then backs out of frame, leaving it filled with smoke as we hear a LOUD KNOCK, then the door OPENING.

PEARL - LATER SAME AFTERNOON - CLOSE UP SOHT

A half hour has passed. Pearl sits on the low stool. Shaft of INTENSE AFTERNOON LIGHT has SHIFTED from her head and now BACKLIGHTS her.

fbi agent, sheriff and office

FBI Agent is now hatless with coat unbuttoned.

pearl - close up shot

We are now in EXTREME CLOSEUP on Pearl’s face.

fbi agent in profile

pearl in profile

SILENCE

FBI AGENT AND PEARL IN PROFILE

SECRETAry’s fingers

hurriedly through pages of shorthand tablet

agent

pearl

secretary

secretary’s p.0.v. - fbi agent

FBI Agent’s face suddenly registers shock.

MATRON ADVANCES A STEP, HESITATES, STOPS.

SECRETARY’S FINGERS STOP TAKING SHORTHAND.

and then hurriedly begin to write in a flowing shorthand which gives the impression of a Japanese calligraphy.

close up shot - pearl

has pushed her eyes upwards into a slant.

fbi agent raises his fist.

title: THE MEETING of the axis powers

The sound of WIND

ext. sky - noon - long shot - eagle circles

The sound of WIND continues. Typed DATE superimposed at the bottom of the frame:

october 5, 1943

DATE disappears from the screen as the sound of PAPER being pulled from a typewriter cross-fades into the sound of the gradually intensifying first chord of a DIRGE from a 17th century Japanese Gagaku orchestra. The DIRGE is perceived as a scream, either eagle or human. After circling with the eagle, we PAN DOWN to the............

desert

which is examined in a horizontal PAN, after which we see....

pearl rise up into the frame

wearing farm work clothes and a bandana. She has been bending over pumpkins, and straightens her back. She wipes the sweat from her face and looks into the distance. She holds a curved-beaked harvesting knife in her hand and shields her eyes with it.

After a while, she points to the horizon with the knife.

minnie and b.j. rise

into the frame in the middle distance wearing farm work clothes and bandanas. They straighten their backs and look in the direction pointed to by Pearl. Both are Pearl’s sisters, Minnie is 34 and B.J. is 33.

pearl, minnie and b.j. shield their eyes

from the brilliant MIDDAY SUN. They look into the distance at something we do not yet see. After a while.....

close shot - b.j. spits

Fade-out on DIRGE.

She turns and spits. Her white neck arches below her black hair.

ext. long shot - black truck travels

slowly along the horizon, from left to right, distorted by the heat waves of the desert. Fade up on the sound of WIND and a LOW FREQUENCY SYNTHESIZED TONE. As we PAN with the truck, the desert seems blank under a pitiless clear sky. The black truck leaves a trail of DUST rising behind it like a storm cloud.

ext. pearl, minnie and b.j. bend to the earth

and continue their work. WE FOLLOW them as their tan hands disentangle pumpkins from vines and cut stems with their harvesting knifes. Their trousers are rolled up around tanned calves. They wear work boots with lacings. They know what they are doing.

b.j. looks up

as she works. She points to the end of her row.

pearl looks up

as she works. She turns to Minnie.

minnie looks to pearl and b.j.

Minnie bends back to the earth. We FOLLOW the downwards movement of her face to her hands to the knife and then to the earth.