Customer Reviews

The Complete Guide to Standard Script Formats, Part 1 (Pt.1)

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have a lot of books on scriptwriting. This one by far is the best reference book I've found. Before you can sell your script, you need an agent; before you can get an agent, you need a script written in the proper format (I can't emphasize this enough!); and this book tells you everything you need to create an industry-standard script. This book is a "MUST" for anyone writing or thinking about writing a script!

I run an annual screenplay competiton and read 100+ scripts a year - I recommend this book to ALL my writers. My copy is dog-eared, highlighted, and post-it flagged. THERE IS NO BETTER BOOK YOU CAN BUY!

While this book is very informative on all the different types of scripts you can write, it has two major counts against it. First, it was written in 1983 for people using typewriters. All the margin information is thus useless to most of us now using wordprocessors. The hastily written section on wordprocessing considerations, doesn't remedy the problem. Also, the brief introduction with a list of DO's and DON'T'S for new writers does not clarify the enourmous confusion I encoutered when trying to figure out which set of diretions I should follow for writing a reading script. But if you are in the business and need to know how to write shooting scripts for either feature length movies or T.V. shows, this is a great book.

This is the most valuable book anyone interested in writing a screenplay can own. It covers the history and reason behind the screenplay format better than any other book I've read on the subject. Although the format outline is primarily typewriter based, and the word processor settings actually differ slightly from the typewriter settings, anyone who really knows how to use their word processor will be able to create a template based on the format settings outlined in this book. There are even templates already available for download from the internet which have been designed based on the outline provided in this book, including one which I created. This book details virtually everything you'll ever need to know about writing either a reading or production script in the proper format, however, since this book is designed to teach script format, and not how to write, you'll have to look elsewhere for information on how to craft a good story. If you're serious about writing a screenplay in the accepted Hollywood format, then I highly recommend that you buy this book.

The first time I looked at a screenplay script format, I thought I'd never be able to understand what went where and why. After a few days with "The Complete Guide to Standard Script Formats," I felt like an expert. It should be understood that this book is an excellent resource for understanding the format component of writing a screenplay. It does not address the art writing or the literary aspects of how to construct a story suitable for making into a film. If you've already got the story down and learning the proper format for your first screenplay is your task at hand, this is the book for you.

This title seems to pop up in screenplay formatting circles more and more these days. Written by two folks who have been running their own script typing service for years, it's an exhaustive overview of how (and why) screenplays are formatted. I found it to be fascinating reading, but then, I was designing a script formatting program at the time... They receive credits in a lot of software, and they got another one in mine [Screenwright(R) - http://www.apc.net/ia/scr.htm]

This isn't a book that'll just sit idle on the shelf. It is a perfect reference book on script formats that I have used over and over. Everyone interested in screenwriting should use this book. This book separates the professional from the amatuer wannabees.

I've worked in the hour-long TV business as writer's assistant, then staff writer, then producer, for almost 15 years, and I recommend this book to everyone I work with and all my students. This book was written by professional studio typists, back before there were word processors, when every produced script was typed by people who did that as their full time job. It contains THE industry standard for how scripts should look -- which is sometimes not the default setting of those expensive script programs. This book is MUST HAVE for anyone who wants to be a professional script coordinator or staff writer, and for anyone who wants their scripts to look just like professional ones. It isn't really designed for, or necessary for, people who are just starting out, although I personally think it should be required reading for every aspiring writer, especially in TV, because understanding how a script is used as a blueprint for filming, such how the scene headers are used to create the shooting schedule, can really help new writers to understand how to create a script that is not only interesting but filmable. Combine this with Ralph Singleton's Film Scheduling/Film Budgeting Workbook. Script formatting and scheduling programs are great timesaving tools, but you should be telling the programs how to format your script, not the other way around.

After downloading a few scripts from drew's scriptoroama, Basic Instinct, Fargo, Blade Runeer (the original Hampton Fancher version ), etc., I thought it would be a good idea to get familiar with what is recommended practice., since scripts tend to look pretty similar but with inconsistencies in some of the details.

Cole and Haag give plenty of clear advice, coupled with why the block elements and the inner details of a script are formatted and timed as they are. The section dealing with the setting up of a word processor to make the work easier was somewhat garbled, but the part for typewriter set up looked to be okay.

This is a book well worth having, so that you can format and structure your script to be as effective as possible, and to take care of the parts that script formatting applications such as Final Draft 6.0 or Screenwriter 2000 don't attend to. A minor example would be capitalising text to highlight sounds in a direction section.

I've just finished my first script. I suppose it's okay, but not awesome. I've read a half dozen books on screenplays. Of those books, this one is likely one of the least helpful. It was writen in 1983!! and hasn't been updated. I suspect that much of the formatting advice this book offers is now out of date, old fashioned to what professional script writers are doing this days. Two newer books I would recommend instead would be CRAFTY SCREENWRITING by Alex Epstein (2002) and HOW NOT TO WRITE A SCREENPLAY by Denny Flinn (1999). You'll get modern formatting information from these books PLUS a lot more useful advice about how to write well.