Bluecat feedback?

[wenonah]

I got called on for not having double spaces after each sentence! (spacebar twice they said, it's "industry standard") Seriously? I use FD and it looks like there's plenty of room for me not to have to double space like I did learning on the typewriter in 8th grade. Does anyone have an opinion about this? I seriously don't think I can change the way I type now @ 85wpm. This was script #9 for me and I've NEVER double space bar-ed and nobody has ever said anything about it until now.

Other than that it was just a couple lines of OTN dialog and the fact that I didn't write "The End" after FADE OUT.

wenonah

[edamame]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

That is the most ridiculous note I ever heard.

[sppeterson]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

One producer asked me to double-space after periods so I've started doing that and do like it better.

But that's a pretty pedantic note -- and I worked with a number of producers previously who never even mentioned my crime of single spacing.

[Ralphy W]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

If you don't write "THE END" after "FADE OUT," a reader might continue reading down to the bottom of the page -- even though there are no more words -- and could potentially be confused when there's not another page after that one.

Don't take the chance, Wenonah! DON'T TAKE THE CHANCE!

[Harbinger]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

Readers like this are a waste of space. Truly, short of murder or any nasty stuff like that, they are the scum of the earth.

He/shes know that they're obligated to write feedback, but they think cause it's free that justifes lacklustre notes.

Get onto Hofman. Get your money back, cause if that's all the notes you recieved you're damn well entitled.

The moronic double spacing note, regardless of if it's true, doesn't belong in feedback which should concern aspects like character, dialogue, ticking-clock. Essentially those things that matter.

Good luck and go get 'em! I would.

PS. The scum of the earth was slightly over-the-top...... but they are (insert insult)s.

[BattleDolphinZero]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

I agree with everyone else. Started off as a single spacer, now I'm a double spacer and it doesn't matter.

[BIG Z]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

I double space after each sentence also. It is a habit now.

Did they say anything about how you forgot to write "The Beginning" before FADE IN?

[Sherlock III]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

They still haven't provided my feedback and aren't answering emails. But, geez, maybe I'm lucky they haven't.

[wenonah]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

Thanks guys The first half of the feedback "what they think worked" was good in the way that he/she liked the other aspects of my writing (story, character, etc.) so maybe the "what I think needs work" column was looking a little bare and needed some padding ... two spacebars worth.

The End.

[ScriptShadow]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

I remember that in school. Them telling me that I had to double space after each sentence. It was drilled into my head. Then a couple years back, I got a note that I SHOULDN'T double space. I freaked out. I wondered if I had been taught wrong and this whole time I was the only idiot on the planet who had been double-spacing. I thought back to all the people that read my scripts and was like, "They must have been laughing their asses off at my double spacing after sentences."

Then I learned it was just a preference thing. But yeah, that reader must have been 17 years old. Maybe 16.

[HLTassin]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

Wenonah,

I got something from Bluecat today asking for feedback on the Readers. I'm sure you'll get the same thing and that will give you an opportunity to express yourself.

I'm thinking we had different readers because I did not type The End or The Beginning, and my reader said nothing about it. Seriously, I didn't even know you were supposed to do this !!!! The main thing is did they like your story?? Your characters? The plot? Like Harbinger said, that's why you ask for feedback.

Oh, and my 8th grade typing teacher was the scariest lady in the whole school.....I guess I got in the habit of DS'ing after sentences early on.

Focus on the good things they said about your story!

[Anagram]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

If you don't write "THE END" after "FADE OUT," a reader might continue reading down to the bottom of the page -- even though there are no more words -- and could potentially be confused when there's not another page after that one.

Don't take the chance, Wenonah! DON'T TAKE THE CHANCE!

[Rathmon]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

To derail-

I always double space, and double bag, after a period.

Just how I was taught.

[joeld42]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

Screenwriter has an option to double space automatically for you after each period. Perhaps there is a similar feature in Final Draft.

But I'd call this a personal preference and not a "industry standard".

And i agree about the feedback... wtf? I got dinged in a different contest for bolded sluglines.. huh? I mean, who cares? Sometimes I want to submit a hand-illustrated, 240 page epic with each character's dialogue set in their own font just to fvck with the reader's heads and see what kind of feedback I'd get on that.

[Hamboogul]

Re: Bluecat feedback?

I'm pretty certain that a past winning script has not only single space after each period but a single space before each new slug.

And I think that the writer did both of those primarily to lower his page count and to minimize "widows."