Using BOLD in spec scripts

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  • #46
    Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

    You can put me in the If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It camp here.

    I've never bolded anything in a script, and I've been fine.


    For me, the notion of highlighting slugs is going to pull your eye past the actual content.
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    • #47
      Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

      Or is that the If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It camp? Heh.

      I am essentially with Bart (ExtHollywoodDay) on this.

      Over the last 25 years I have worked a lot with templates and manuscript formats. I have experimented with all kinds of heads, subheads, sub-subheads, captions, text boxes, and on and on.

      My general conclusion is that we should follow the principle: Simple is better.

      That does not mean no bolding, no italics, no caps. But keep it simple and logical; otherwise, you end up with a mess. Trust me. I have been there.

      So I would say:

      1. Nothing is wrong.
      2. Use bold for Scene Headings if you want. Use it for special emphasis in the way that some people have described in posts above.
      3. But be careful not to overuse it. If you use it for Scene Headings, then other bold items become distracting.

      As you were, ladies and gentlemen. Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Er ... forget that last part.

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

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      • #48
        Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

        In trying to figure out how to label a couple scenes as memories and not necessarily "FLASHBACKS" I'm reading Sorkin's, Molly's Game.

        Normally I don't care either way about bolded slugs, but Molly's Game is 201 pages.

        I'm grateful he's bolded his slugs.

        So maybe it depends how verbose of a writer you are, as well. That extra bit is helpful to your eye when the writing is dense.

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        • #49
          Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

          Originally posted by TigerFang View Post
          Personally, I don't use them or even like to wade through them when reading a screenplay (to me, it's akin to the "shouting" implied by ALL CAPS in text messages and forum threads), but for any entity or anyone who wants to buy the screenplay that uses them and wants it changed, it's an easy "fix." The times, they are a-changin'. At day's end, I wouldn't let a script with bold Scene Headings affect my judgment of the main ingredient, which is Story.
          Originally posted by Centos View Post
          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.
          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.
          Originally posted by ExtHollywoodDay View Post
          You can put me in the If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It camp here. I've never bolded anything in a script, and I've been fine. For me, the notion of highlighting slugs is going to pull your eye past the actual content.
          My hardcopy of Casablanca, screenplay by Julius J. Epstein & Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, doesn't have any scene headings that are in bold type, and my hardcopy of Adaptation, screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman, doesn't have any scene headings in bold type.

          Those two movies are in my personal “classics” category and regardless of their box office statistics, for me, they're movies that stand the test of time and they can be viewed by any generation as satisfying cinematic storytelling.

          For the time being, I'll emulate the above examples of screenplays and forgo using bold type for scene headings.
          Last edited by Clint Hill; 08-04-2018, 06:20 AM.
          “Nothing is what rocks dream about” ― Aristotle

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          • #50
            Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

            Originally posted by ExtHollywoodDay View Post
            For me, the notion of highlighting slugs is going to pull your eye past the actual content.
            I agree. It's messing with priorities too much.

            If one were as 'short-sighted' as some of the graphic design clients I've had, one would eventually make everything bold, or italic, or bigger, or red, so that it all "stands out more".
            Know this: I'm a lazy amateur, so trust not a word what I write.
            "The ugly can be beautiful. The pretty, never." ~ Oscar Wilde

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            • #51
              Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

              Originally posted by figment View Post
              In trying to figure out how to label a couple scenes as memories and not necessarily "FLASHBACKS" I'm reading Sorkin's, Molly's Game.
              How does the Blade Runner script handle Deckard's unicorn reverie?
              Know this: I'm a lazy amateur, so trust not a word what I write.
              "The ugly can be beautiful. The pretty, never." ~ Oscar Wilde

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              • #52
                Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                Originally posted by figment View Post
                In trying to figure out how to label a couple scenes as memories and not necessarily "FLASHBACKS"...
                Can we agree that the formatting norm is (FLASHBACK) [at the end of the slug line, for a single past scene] or BEGIN FLASHBACK/END FLASHBACK [before and after the depiction of multiple scenes]

                What's the difference you're trying to make in the reader's mind, between a MEMORY and a FLASHBACK?

                When I read things like this, I like to wonder what's going on, so I'm guessing that a MEMORY would be the private visual depiction of a character's past event, whereas a FLASHBACK is a visual depiction that the writer wants the reader to know about, that other characters in the present scene may or should know about.

                I've had a few less-than-interesting-but necessary talking-heads scenes that I've spiced up with such a mechanism.

                But in either case, I'd just use FLASHBACK.

                Frankly, I think MEMORY belongs in a novel, but if you insist that it's useful somehow in a screenplay, I doubt a reader is going to have a brain infarc if they see something like:

                EXT. SPACESHIP ON MARS (MEMORY)

                bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh

                Except of course the reader will probably wonder why not a (FLASHBACK), resulting in a split-second hesitation or confusion that takes them out of the reading experience.

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                • #53
                  Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                  (sorry I went OT)

                  "...How does the Blade Runner script handle Deckard's unicorn reverie?"


                  No clue. Guessing Flashback?


                  Originally posted by catcon View Post
                  Can we agree that the formatting norm is (FLASHBACK) [at the end of the slug line, for a single past scene] or BEGIN FLASHBACK/END FLASHBACK [before and after the depiction of multiple scenes]

                  What's the difference you're trying to make in the reader's mind, between a MEMORY and a FLASHBACK?

                  When I read things like this, I like to wonder what's going on, so I'm guessing that a MEMORY would be the private visual depiction of a character's past event, whereas a FLASHBACK is a visual depiction that the writer wants the reader to know about, that other characters in the present scene may or should know about.

                  But in either case, I'd just use FLASHBACK.
                  Yeah, I understand what the norm is. I'm just seeing what Sorkin did as I think it's interesting.

                  I've read a script -- no idea which, now -- that used IN HIS MIND-- as in a fantasy in this character's mind, which isn't the same as FLASHBACK, because the fantasy in question didn't happen. That was an effective way to phrase it, I thought.

                  In my case I just wanted it to be fragments of this character's memories concerning another character, not outright scenes with a beginning/middle/and end. Just trying to see if there's a model for that. Anyway...

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                  • #54
                    Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                    Gotcha.

                    Funny, in 50 screenplays I've never needed or had the inclination to do what you're suggesting. I guess I've always figured little cutaway moments like that were the director's prerogative, or maybe that I'd already shown the scene earlier so that it's more a subtextual thing in the present situation - with a reminder achieved by some visual queue or bit of dialogue.

                    But if you really need to do it, I think what you've described is totally reasonable.

                    In screenwriting, where there's a will there's always a way.

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                    • #55
                      Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                      Originally posted by Crayon View Post
                      I agree. It's messing with priorities too much.

                      If one were as 'short-sighted' as some of the graphic design clients I've had, one would eventually make everything bold, or italic, or bigger, or red, so that it all "stands out more".
                      I started out not using bold at all. But have since switched to just using bold for scene headings. It's just my personal preference and I hope it isn't distracting. I usually use underlines in dialogue for emphasis (no bold) and I don't usually use italics at all.
                      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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                      • #56
                        Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                        James Cameron used bold - sparingly, and somewhat inconsistently - in his Avatar (2007) script. But that is THE James Cameron, and so he could use Papyrus 18pt ultra-obese oblique throughout, if he felt like it.
                        Know this: I'm a lazy amateur, so trust not a word what I write.
                        "The ugly can be beautiful. The pretty, never." ~ Oscar Wilde

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                        • #57
                          Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                          Originally posted by Crayon View Post
                          James Cameron used bold - sparingly, and somewhat inconsistently - in his Avatar (2007) script. But that is THE James Cameron, and so he could use Papyrus 18pt ultra-obese oblique throughout, if he felt like it.
                          The James Cameron?

                          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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                          • #58
                            Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                            Originally posted by UneducatedFan View Post
                            The James Cameron?
                            No, not The James Cameron -- THE James Cameron.
                            Know this: I'm a lazy amateur, so trust not a word what I write.
                            "The ugly can be beautiful. The pretty, never." ~ Oscar Wilde

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                            • #59
                              Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                              I can't believe people are still having these discussions.

                              Bolding is fine. Lots of people bold slug lines. It's possible that your readers will be using a PDF melter like Weekend Read and thus won't even see your bolding choices.

                              It's generally only a problem when people do something like this. It shows that they're not thinking like a reader; they're completely unaware of how this sort of thing reads and are only thinking as someone who already knows the content of the text.

                              Don't do that.

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                              • #60
                                Re: Using BOLD in spec scripts

                                Bolding Scene Headings is fine, but I wouldn't bold anything else.
                                http://www.screenreads.com/formatting - The free screenplay formatting guide.

                                My book on formatting, Your CUT TO: Is Showing!, is now available on Amazon.com.

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