'shortening' script with line spacing alteration

In final draft, you can alter your line spacing by choosing loose, normal, tight, very tight, etc. toeither add to or take from the length of your script.

I've picked very tight, which takes a good ten pages off my script. Is it really bad to do that, though?

Thanks

aj

do not do this. the reader can tell at a glance. it will get script tossed. leave it alone or pay the price


zilla

If your script is long the best way to shorten it is to rewrite and edit it to tighten and improve the story.

It won't get the script "tossed."

A reader generally has to read every script in its entirety. It's his job; he can't tell the person he's covering the script for "oh, the writer used very tight light spacing so I didn't bother reading it," right?

The reader can make a note in his coverage that the page count is probably way off because of the tight line spacing. But he's not going to toss it in the garbage. He can't. He's got to give his boss everything that's expected from coverage: a log line, a synopsis of the entire script, and his comments on whether or not the script works and is well written.

Now, if the reader is annoyed by the fact that the writer tried to fool him by fudging the line spacing, he may carry that annoyance into his comments on the script. And I guess it's possible that annoyance might turn a "recommend" into a "consider" or a "consider" into a "pass."

But the reader's not going to "toss" the script for it. He's going to do his job and cover the script, then pass the coverage on to his boss. And if the script is really, truly great, he's not going to say it's bad just because of the line spacing. If he does that and his boss later hears through the grapevine that the script is awesome, the reader's going to be in trouble.

The reason you shouldn't use "very tight" or even "tight" is that, if you have to do that to get your script under 120 pages or whatever limit you're working with, it's probably overwritten and needs a good rewrite. It's probably not the best you can do -- and why would you want to go out with a script that's not as good as you can make it? A reader is going to pick up on that whether he notices the line spacing or not.

Before you post a question, it's best to look through the forums and see if it's already been discussed.

This is a link to a thread just three down from this one.

b3.ezboard.com/fdonedealfrm23.showMessage?topicID=1831.topic

It may not answer your question to your satisfaction, but the topic is almost the same so it may help.

I was just talking to a friend of mine who's a reader at Dreamworks. Your mileage may vary, but he will hate you and your script. He can spot it instantly. His immediate reaction? "@#%$!" He wishes he had the time to go to the homes of writers who do this and slap them.

Other than that, knock yourself out.

kullervo

Be honest. If your script is 148 pages give me 148 pages. Don't try and shuck and jive me with a three hour picture that's only 119 pages.

You aren't gonna fool someone into buying your script.

What Deus said - it's best to put the nose to the grind stone and trim the script. Go through it WORD BY WORD and see what you can trim. The biggest problem I see with new scripts is that they didn't do the savage rewrite every script requires. (Many of *my* scripts still need a savage rewrite.)

It's too easy in this computer age to leave things as they are. I think it's Unca Leo who deletes his script and rewrites by retyping the script into the computer (the way we used to do it in the typewriter days). When you have to retype the whole danged thing, you find things that can be trimmed.

I've never read a script that couldn't still use some trimming. A few months after a savage rewrite, I can go back over a script and find a word here and there that can be cut, a sentence that can be reworded and shortened, and sometimes even scenes that can still be combined.

Rewrite.

- Bill

I don't delete a script but I do create a new file when I rewrite so I'm starting from scratch. The net result is the same. I forces me not to be lazy and stops me from falling in love with my own prose.

AJ:

Heed the words of Refried, Deus, Martell. They know of what they speak. Also what Deus said about ridding your script of material that you're proud to have written but which no longer (if ever did) serves the story. I can't tell you how hard it is to have labored over a scene for days and days, and perfected it to a high gloss, only to have the scene rendered obsolete by a story that has evolved beyond it. That really hurts. But you've got to do it -- in service of your script.