English vs American English

[The Road Warrior]

If you look on Amazon, or scout around the web generally, you can find information and "spoken dialect" CDs for various regions within those countries; but what I've also come across over the years is research/comments on how, say in the USA, because everybody moves now with their jobs -- the local dialects/accents are becoming diluted and losing some of their distinctiveness.

Which is unfortunate.

[The Road Warrior]

Oh, I also bought a CD produced by the Globe theatre research team in London, where they've recreated the original Elizabethan speech accents for circa 400 years ago, and it sounds like a combination of 3 or 4 regions, my ear heard the Devon accent but they noted how you tend to preference. It was very easy to understand and follow I found:-

http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-O...unciatio n+cd

This was the accent/dialect that was fabled to have travelled over to the Blue Ridge Mountains in the USA and to have been preserved within that region; if you listen to the locals up in the remote BR mountains -- you will hear old England, London, 400 years ago... this is a myth, but it's quite a nice one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ridge_Mountains

[SundownInRetreat]

Just a note to say the mutual exchange was an excellent idea. I got back far more than the handful of typos and alternate word choice suggestions I was expecting and jusding by the feedback on the pages I critiqued, the feeling was mutual. Eye opening and revealing. I highly recommend it.

[wks2001]

I too like this idea, I think it's something that will be of great help to writers on both sides of the pond. good idea, whoever thought of doing it at first.

[UglyShirts]

Originally Posted by SundownInRetreat

Just a note to say the mutual exchange was an excellent idea. I got back far more than the handful of typos and alternate word choice suggestions I was expecting and jusding by the feedback on the pages I critiqued, the feeling was mutual. Eye opening and revealing. I highly recommend it.

Very much agreed on all counts.

[nic.h]

Originally Posted by wks2001

I too like this idea, I think it's something that will be of great help to writers on both sides of the pond. good idea, whoever thought of doing it at first.

I'm pretty sure that was me. (I've done this on other sites and it's very effective. Plus I do it informally for all my American author friends who write Australian characters, or reference sports like cricket and rugby.)

[SundownInRetreat]

I just realised I don't think we ever got an answer about the OP - just a bunch of us assuming.

[nic.h]

Originally Posted by SundownInRetreat

I just realised I don't think we ever got an answer about the OP - just a bunch of us assuming.

OK. I've written for US readers and Australian ones. I've also submitted to the UK.

It's simple really. Submit a script reflecting the rules of the country you're submitting to:

For Hollywood projects, I use American spellings and expressions. (I'm married to a NJ native, plus I have an American reader who checks for those things specifically.)

For the UK - I use British English.

For Australian, same again. (Though I'll use local slang and short cuts because I know them and I'm confident using them .)

Most of my projects target a specific country so the language and spelling reflects that. However, I have some projects that I've submitted to multiple countries and I have different versions accordingly.

As in:

Brilliantscriptthatwillneversell US.pdf
Brilliantscriptthatwillneversell UK.pdf
Brilliantscriptthatwillneversell AUS.pdf

You want it bad enough, you do it right. It's just another kind of research.

[Lincoln Lass]

Originally Posted by nic.h

It's simple really. Submit a script reflecting the rules of the country you're submitting to

That's my attitude to it. I want to avoid anything that a reader might stumble over and hence cause them to get distracted from the story.

Even down to the paper size. In the UK, the standard is A4. In the US it's Letter, which is slightly shorter and broader than A4. Not hugely different, but it can make a difference to the page count. You get more lines vertically down the page in A4, but because the page isn't as wide, something that fits neatly into a single line in Letter can spill over into a second line in A4, which to my slightly obsessive eye looks untidy

I write to fit the page, to avoid widows/orphans and also to try to avoid situations where the impact of a big moment could be lost by it straddling two pages.

So for my US-set script, I made sure that Final Draft was using US Letter as the paper size. If, as now, I'm writing a British script, I use A4. The biggest faff used to be getting the pdf produced in the right size. I've recently started using PrimoPDF instead of the Final Draft pdf converter, which allows you to choose the paper size you want.

[ComicBent]

I've recently started using PrimoPDF instead of the Final Draft pdf converter....

Good move. It works great, and it is free. It also embeds whatever font you use. The file size is reasonable in size, not at all bloated.

The old URL (http://www.primopdf.com) still takes you to the home page, which is the nitro website. However, to get the free version you click on a CNET link, so you might as well go to CNET in the first place. The current URL for the program at CNET is:

primopdf

Have you guys noticed how almost all websites have now made it more and more difficult to find the FREE programs that they offer? I download a lot of free programs, since I am a software junkie, and I have noticed that the websites try to trick you into downloading trial versions of commercial software and programs that are junkware or at least something that you do not want.