Formatting Spec Scripts
Writing this short has thrown up a few questions about formatting which are probably worth mentioning here. Originally, I intended to write You’re Easy Wallace as a standard spec script, but some shooting script gremlins crept in through the back door.
I think the important thing to remember when writing a spec script is that the props buyer will not be reading it. And you can also forget about the director, the lighting guy, the PM and the Assistant to Mr Clooney. Just keep your story nice and simple.
But rules of thumb for spec scripts don’t always make sense. For example, this apparent rule that you shouldn’t include a draft number and/or date on your title page. I can kind of see that it’s academic how many drafts it took the writer to reach the script that eventually gets bought. So as soon as it’s bought, I suppose it effectively becomes a first draft again. But what about, say, in the UK, you receive development funding for your spec script from, say, a screen agency. Surely it makes sense for you to number and date each draft that you hand to them so that you all know what shape the script is in at any given time? What I’m saying is, there’s a hidden element of horses for courses to what initially appears to be an endless list of unbendable rules that tradition has imposed on us screenwriters.
And on that issue, it seems odd that, according to the film schools and screenwriting manuals, formatting is fixed and rigid, but on the other hand, it seems that an awful lot of successful screenwriters have scant regard for rules; they just do as they please. So what do you do as a budding writer? Well I suppose you keep your voice neutral and write by the book.
But what makes this tricky is that certain formatting practices designed for production actually make for a more vivid read - like the occasional camera direction (“ECU on a mint condition 1980s watch”), or the odd capitalized sound or special effect (“He watches the FLAMES as they continue to BURN.”). OK, maybe I have speed-read too many scripts over the years, but to me, a line like: “A MOTHER grabs her SON and drags him away, unable to stomach any more” reads better capitalized. In the context I wrote it, the mother and son were the important components, so it makes sense to capitalize these words. But then, shouldn’t I be capitalizing the names of all non-speaking characters, for consistency? That’s the problem; a spec script reads better, in my opinion, when you mix and match the rules of both formatting types, without sticking to any hard and fast rules. The downside of that though is that you end up somewhere in the heavy rough of the golf course we like to call screenwriting, and your script will look amateurish to some.
Ind the end I decided to be a good boy and uncapitalize my sound and specials effects, and keep my voice as neutral as possible. The formatting doesn’t draw any attention to istelf now, apart from one bit that, to be honest, I don’t know myself how to format. I’ve got a monologue (a reporter’s piece to camera) that’s designed to run partly concurrent with some action (preperation for a stunt) that’s noted in the scene description. Let me know if you have any ideas on how to lay this out! 