Using BOLD in spec scripts

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  • #31
    Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

    I only use bold for...

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    • #32
      Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

      I use bold for scene headings now. I didn't use to bold anything but now I've begun to start putting Scene headings in bold.

      I don't know if that is a bad sign or whether it's gaining in acceptance but it seemed to break up the scenes a bit better on the pdf/printed page.
      You know Jill you remind me of my mother. She was the biggest whore in Alameda and the finest woman that ever lived. Whoever my father was, for an hour or for a month, he must have been a happy man.

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      • #33
        Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

        they only let us use crayons anymore
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        • #34
          Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

          Originally, I did not like the use of bold for Scene Headings. It is still not what I want to use, but I have become accustomed to it and can see that it has merit.

          "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

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          • #35
            Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

            Screenplay formatting is an example (of increasing few that remain) of long-standing traditions that are based on function.

            It didn't matter that the resulting document was ugly, because the function was as a universally-legible, one-page-per-minute guide for an exclusive audience. The ugly appearance was all that the typewriters of the day could produce anyway, even as technology advanced for every other element in publishing-related fields.

            First to come along were computer printers. They improved document design and typography vastly, even though, on-screen, it meant embedding all sorts of arcane codes into the text. Then WYSIWYG arrived on our graphical interfaces. Ever since, design and aesthetics have become integral for almost everything except screenplays.

            In addition to encroaching modernity, it's inevitable that some question tradition for their own reasons - including to seek an advantage, any advantage, in a business that's notoriously difficult to break into. And often it comes down to who initiates the change or challenge. If it's you or I, forget it. If it's a big-shot in the industry, "Hey, that's so cool!"

            The days when the technological level of the early days kept the cutesy stuff to the background and forced all sides of the business to concentrate on the priority - the function, and the story that was central in the document - are coming to an end.

            I am not an advocate for change just for the sake of change, but I do recognize that it's inevitable.

            Next up among the universal rules and traditions of the screenplay format world? How about those silly abbreviations, b.g., o.s., etc.?

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            • #36
              Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

              ... and use Arial instead of a fake typewriter font? Blow their frigging minds!
              I heard the starting gun


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              • #37
                Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                Originally posted by Southern_land View Post
                ... and use Arial instead of a fake typewriter font? Blow their frigging minds!
                I think the BBC does just that, Final Draft with Arial font is the in-house standard, I found it quite disturbing and hard to read when I submitted script samples (which weren't good enough) and wondered who the heck made that decision.

                ...he added, boringly.

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                • #38
                  Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                  Again, the courier font goes back to the old days when that was about all there was on that old Remington or Smith Corona over on the desk in the corner.

                  The other thing that "modern" in-home typography has incurred is full-justification, if we turn on that option: Margin-to-margin printing to make it look like it's typeset in a book or newspaper.

                  I mention this because I'd expect some of my readers think I might have turned full justification on in my scripts.

                  When I have a 3-line paragraph I work, work, work on it till it's 2 lines. It's like I have some phobia of widow orphans, not just on pages but on paragraphs. Same thing, of course, for 4-line description paragraphs, and those extremely rare 5-liners in my scripts.

                  Anyway, this exercise inevitably generates two fully-packed lines of text, margin-to-margin. Whether it looks better or not is irrelevant; I'm just trying to make the script shorter.

                  The thing is, I do this on EVERY paragraph of description and dialogue, so at a glance my whole script can look virtually full-justified! Ha!

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                  • #39
                    Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                    Originally posted by catcon View Post
                    When I have a 3-line paragraph I work, work, work on it till it's 2 lines. It's like I have some phobia of widow orphans, not just on pages but on paragraphs. Same thing, of course, for 4-line description paragraphs, and those extremely rare 5-liners in my scripts.
                    That seems like a lot of extra work. Don't most screenplay editing programs automatically take care of widows/orphans?
                    STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

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                    • #40
                      Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                      You're talking pagination that prevents a 4-line paragraph from being split after line 3 onto the next page.

                      I'm talking about a 3-line paragraph anywhere on the page, that has only a word or only a few words on the last line, that with some work can become a 2-line paragraph.

                      It sounds insignificant, but a half inch (3 lines) saved per page, in a one hundred page script, could mean 3 or 4 pages shorter overall script length.

                      No losing our precious dialogue, no precious scenes lost. Just a bit tougher on the wording, and voila - you get a shorter script.

                      But for better or worse, you get that funny side effect I mentioned - where at a glance it looks like you have full justification turned on (left to right margin).

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                      • #41
                        Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                        Part 2:

                        FYI, here's a print preview of one of my scripts, just to give the idea I'm getting at in my previous post. You can see that most paragraphs are edge-to-edge:

                        aggressive_widoworphan_editing.jpg

                        I think this script was 112 pages at first draft; now it's 104. That's after three major polishes that included adding a new scene at the beginning (+1 page), but then lots and lots of the edits I've described.

                        I am quite sure that in the case of this script edit, as with most of my edits, I did not delete a single scene or major dialogue or element. (There are always opps to edit stuff at the beginning and ends of scenes, but that's a different story: The old "Get in late, get out early" rule. Nobody's perfect in their first draft.)

                        But some of you may remember my other posts (?!) where I ramble on about outlining-outlining-outlining everything before I start the screenplay. That means that virtually everything is set when I write the script, and it's hard to re-arrange and re-prioritize and zap whole scenes at that point.

                        For me, it'd be like changing a house design after the blueprints have been done and foundation laid.

                        So if the draft comes out at anything over 110 pages (my gag limit used to be 120), I set to finding ways to shorten the thing that aren't tampering with the story, flow or structure.

                        Nobody should be handing out 120-page specs these days, but I know it's hard to strip stuff out of our beloved stories after all the creative effort we've put into it - not to mention the severe outlining. But you have to employ all the tricks available - short of fooling with line- or character-spacing - to make the thing shorter.

                        [This is merely one trick I use. It's not dependent upon any particular software you may be using, and I'm certainly not trying to implement some sort of new "rule" that has to be followed.]
                        Last edited by catcon; 03-29-2018, 01:00 PM. Reason: The script is actually 104 pages now, not 105!

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                        • #42
                          Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                          For what it's worth -- about zilch -- I never liked bold at all (even in the headings). But I do like the one suggestion of either using bold headings, or an extra space above the heading (presumably on whether you're running long or short in the script). As for showing signs and emphasizing noises, etc., I think CAPS should be enough.

                          Screenplain (the terminal application that converts fountain formatted text files into PDF format) has a "strong" option that defaults to both bold AND underlined headers. To me that's definitely too much. Fortunately I found that I can change that by monkeying around with the pdf.py file and changed it to bold only.
                          Last edited by Centos; 03-30-2018, 11:31 PM.
                          STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

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                          • #43
                            Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                            I've never used bold in my scripts. In school, I was taught not to. Plus, I've never felt the need to.

                            But I do use caps. I was taught to make sounds in CAPS but I was told that I was doing it excessively. Things like GROANS & CHUCKLES apparently don't need to be in caps.

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                            • #44
                              Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                              Originally posted by Terri View Post
                              I've never used bold in my scripts. In school, I was taught not to. Plus, I've never felt the need to.
                              you were taught wrong. whether you feel you need to is another question but you can definitely use bold in specs (i do it for things like super/chyrons when i want to call out text that will actually appear onscreen)

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                              • #45
                                Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                                Originally posted by Terri View Post
                                I've never used bold in my scripts. In school, I was taught not to. Plus, I've never felt the need to.

                                But I do use caps. I was taught to make sounds in CAPS but I was told that I was doing it excessively. Things like GROANS & CHUCKLES apparently don't need to be in caps.
                                (where's the darn "thumb's up" smilie...?!)

                                I used to use caps for noises, but now I don't. Some action scripts look ridiculous for all their use.

                                Same for bold and the other visual text enhancements.

                                My only personal exception is underlining for emphasis to ensure the correct interpretation. Think "The Conversation" (1974) where Gene Hackman's recording of "He'd kill us if he had the chance" became "He'd kill us if he had the chance".

                                For a spec script, just get the story on the page, with the proper formatting and structure etc., and don't worry about anything else.

                                Want fancy fonts and stuff? Publish your screenplays as Kindles on Amazon.com.

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