The Unnecessary General
In Final Draft, what do you use the “General” element for? The manual describes its function negatively, saying only that it’s for whatever doesn’t fit into the other elements. Personally, I haven’t found a use for it yet and was wondering what the pros use it for.
– Richard Budd
As far as I know, nothin’. I bitch about Final Draft a lot, but one good thing it can do is create new styles (er, elements) for unanticipated needs. I created one called “singing” for dialogue that is part of a song (11pt Verdana italic). So why would I need to re-appropriate “General?”
Perhaps if I were writing a treatment, or some sort of other non-screenplay document, and didn’t feel like putting everything in “Action.” It’s conceivable, I guess. I recently had to write an extended outline for Shazam!, but I used Pages for its footnoting ability. The only advantage I could see to using Final Draft for an outline is its frustrating-but-consistent revision marks.
If any readers have a better explanation for the existence of “General,” I’d love to hear it.
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June 11th, 2007 at 7:19 am
Jane Espenson has a use for it…
http://www.janeespenson.com/archives/00000221.php
“Calling in the General”? Awesome.
June 11th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Personally, I think both the “General” and “Shot” elements are completely unnecessary because they are (formatting-wise) no different than other already-existing elements. And, like you said, new elements should be created as needed.
Maybe it has something to do with the reports function of Final Draft. Perhaps then a report is compiled it only scans action paragraphs or something.
June 11th, 2007 at 11:27 am
John, what’s your opinion concerning PCs versus Macs as far as screenwriting software goes?
I noticed you use an Apple, but is that because you genuinely prefer it or simply because you’re a filthy rich elitist? :-)))
(if any of you don’t get my joke, read this: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant )
June 11th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Hey John,
Are you in any way a font enthusiast? I have found that I am far more productive once I customized Final Draft to use a font called TypeWriter MT Std, which I purchased after identifying it (perhaps incorrectly, but close enough) as the font used in the David Benioff screenplay for Troy.
Point 11 of TypeWriter MT Std mimicks the spacing of 12 point Courier, yet it looks far more elegant on the printed page and I am far more productive as a writer with it because I like typing stuff with it.
Is this type of thing a factor in your writing at all? Or is it time for me to get an analyst?
June 11th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
off topic…
What’s an extended outline entail? Is it a paid step or are you writing it for yourself/execs/other creatives to get a feel for what you’re going to do?
Thanks…
June 11th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Actually I do use the SHOT tag quite often. It comes in handy when trying to keep segments of text from becoming orphans.
RANDY ——————————————–(Page Break) kisses a girl.
And unlike SCENE HEADING, it won’t tag a SHOT as a new scene in the production draft.
No clue what to use General for. Action has all the functionality and then some.
June 11th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Like Seth’s off topic question, John, what are you footnoting in the outline? Referencing the comics and the like, or just little asides?
June 11th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
When I use ‘General’, George C. Scott appears in a tin hat screaming at me to ADVANCE. It’s goddamn scary I tell you, but great when you have writers block
June 11th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
For the Shazam! outline, I used footnotes a lot like how I do in blog posts — little sidebars that aren’t important to the narrative but help provide useful background information. For instance, I might footnote that a certain character doesn’t play a major role in this movie, but is part of the overall Captain Marvel mythology, and could play a significant role down the line. (That’s one of the things I admire about the Spider-Man franchise.)
This outline was sort of a stand-in for a creative meeting, because there were a lot of people who needed to hear what I was doing.
June 11th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Ah, thanks for the explanation, John. I’m currently working with two producers bringing one’s pet project to life (including character illustrations - woo!), and I’m getting into the outline with them. Originally I was handed a stack of really rough notes that had those little asides (ie, “this character could be important in a sequel,” etc.). When I start writing the outline, I might want to take that route (as this is just for the benefit of us three), as it seems a good way to mention all those things without interrupting the overall narrative with overuse of parentheticals… uh… like this post.
June 12th, 2007 at 12:23 am
…The only decent use of the “General” function. Is when you whish to start off with a quote that sets the mood for your script. Like:
And after reading, the producers will go;
June 12th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Glad you found something to admire in the spidey franchise there, John. I think they lost it midway through Spidey 2 but hey, that’s another post topic
June 12th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
I’ve used General when writing stageplays in Final Draft. It’s the easiest way I found to format a sequence of poetic-style single-spaced line breaks. It’s a common form in certain kinds of contemporary plays, but isn’t used in traditional playwriting or screenwriting, and is thus (understandably) not a pre-set style in the FD templates.
(I actually created a new element at first, but couldn’t figure out how to stay in that same element mode by default when I hit “return” between lines. General worked fine for that purpose.)
No clue why you’d need it for a screenplay…