John August

Formatting

The Kindle is not good for screenplays

Follow Up, Formatting, Geek Alert, News

Many friends and readers have written to ask, so I thought I’d bump this note out of the comment thread. The new Kindle is terrific for books. But it doesn’t yet handle formatted text like screenplays well at all.

This is a sample of Go, converted from pdf:

kindle screen

(I’ve gotten roughly the same results when sending it in Word format.)

Are you an unemployed coder? A wanna-be web entrepreneur? Are you Nima?

Consider this a call to adventure. I’m envisioning a web service to which you could submit (or email) a screenplay pdf (or text file) and have it sent to your Kindle, nicely formatted. Charge a nickel for it, or just do it for free until Amazon buys you out.

Can I go beyond DAY and NIGHT?

Formatting, QandA, Words on the page

questionmarkIs there a hard and fast rule for first time screenwriters correctly writing their slug lines? I understand that it is for the production people to know WHERE and WHEN to shoot the scene. But I’ve also been told on the boards of quite a few screenwriting forums by supposed professionals, that it is NOT part of your story and so you only ever write DAY or NIGHT.

I’m told that if you want readers to know it’s foggy or stormy you tell them as “part of the story” in the action lines below. Yet in many of the spec scripts I’ve seen online, writers use CONTINUOUS, SAME, LATER etc in their slugs. Is it only solicited writers who’ve already been green lighted for production that have the privilege of writing beyond the binary of DAY or NIGHT? I find that hard to believe this when software like Final Draft allows you to be more expressive in your slugs, and still, I’m continually told otherwise.

It would be much appreciated if you could clear up this issue that has confused, infuriated and made me less confident in my writing now for far too long. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

— Tim
Ischia, Italy

Sluglines are there to help production, but they also help readers. If venturing slightly beyond the confines of DAY or NIGHT makes the read easier, do it.

All of the following are legit:

INT. HOUSE – DAY

INT. CABIN – NIGHT

EXT. FOREST – DAWN

EXT. SPACE

EXT. PARKING LOT – NIGHT [RAINING]

INT. BOWLING ALLEY – NIGHT [FLASHBACK]

The first two are obvious and standard.

DAWN is okay, as long as there really is a reason the scene needs to be taking place close to sunrise, rather than just general DAY. For example, if you were following characters through a string of harrowing night scenes, and they bunkered down in an abandoned railway car, it might be important to really note when it’s dawn again. Same case for DUSK or SUNSET. In a vampire movie, that could be crucial.

Space has no day or night. Generally in science fiction there is a sense of what “day” and “night” feel like, however. So feel free to use it on a spaceship, for example, to indicate the daily routines.

I use brackets at the end of a slugline to highlight special conditions. Rain is a big deal, both for story and production purposes. And flagging a scene as a flashback helps both readers and assistant directors.

Comic book grammar

Comics, Formatting

comic bookNate Piekos has a [great piece at Blambot](http://www.blambot.com/grammar.shtml) explaining the grammar and tradition of comic book lettering. It’s worth a look for any screenwriter considering writing for the paneled medium.

> Comic book lettering has some grammatical and aesthetic traditions that are quite unique. What follows is a list that every letterer eventually commits to his/her own mental reference file. The majority of these points are established tradition, sprinkled with modern trends and a bit of my own opinion having lettered professionally for a few years now. The majority of these ideas have been established by Marvel and DC, but opinions vary from editor to editor, even within the same company.

Many of the examples, such as when to use ellipses verus dashes, have parallels in modern screenwriting. But as a former font nerd, I was surprised I never noticed the rule about crossbar I, or the existence of breath marks. They were always there, but when used properly, completely disappear.

(Thanks to [Daring Fireball](http://daringfireball.net) for the link.)

How do I show simultaneity?

Formatting, QandA

questionmarkMy script involves a “spirit” or “ghost” character. He can appear to people on a whim, and he says typical meta-clever, wise stuff. The thing is, he’s beyond all time and space, so, for example, he can be in two places at once.

I want to create a scene where this spirit character is talking to two different characters at the same time, but in different places. In other words, the spirit is talking to both Alan in Cleveland and Betsy in Los Angeles, but it occurs at 2:00PM at the same time (ignoring the time zone changes). What would be the most effective way to do that?

— Kevin
Neptune, NJ

You’re confusing what happens inside the world of the movie with what the audience experiences. When we’re watching a movie, or reading a script, we don’t know or care what the clock says — unless you tell us that it is important.

If for story purposes two scenes need to be happening simultaneously, you’ll generally be cutting between them. Max runs up the stairs while Lisa sits down at her desk. Max reaches the fourth floor while Lisa wakes her computer. Max reaches Lisa’s door just as she’s about to open the email message. That’s six short scenes which play together as a sequence.

Alternately, you might sync up time after the fact by replaying a moment or giving some other signal to the audience about a shift in time. GO does this twice, repeating the scene in the break room to let the story fork in different directions. ((Go also features two sides of a phone conversation separated by half a movie, but it’s not crucial to line up those moments.))

Split-screen is another possibility, though on the page you’d almost certainly write it as typical cross-cutting.