John August

Formatting

Writing the script for a cooking show

Formatting, QandA

I am a culinary student with an idea for a cooking show. Every book I have read, and all the websites I have visited regarding script writing focus on television shows and film, but since my idea isn’t the typical script, how would you go about putting it on paper to pitch the idea?

Is there a standard formatting method for cooking shows? I have an outline with my concept and details for various segments, but I would like to give myself a chance and don’t want to embarrass myself by submitting something that isn’t formatted properly.

–Donald
Pennsauken, New Jersey

Non-fiction shows like the one you’re describing usually aren’t written in screenplay format. To the degree they’re scripted, the format is often done in two columns, with video on the left, and audio on the right. The product page for [Final Draft AV](http://www.finaldraft.com/products/av-features.php4) shows what a typical page looks like.

At this stage, I don’t think you need to worry about the script per se. Instead, I would concentrate on writing a proposal for the show, describing the goal, the host, the distinctive style, and how a typical episode would be structured — especially if there are multiple segments within an episode.

If you feel like writing the script for what the host would be talking about in the “pilot” episode, a two-column format would probably make the most sense. If any readers can point Donald to good examples of scripts from other cooking or home shows, please leave a comment.

‘A’ scenes and ‘B’ scenes

Formatting, QandA

What are “A Scenes and B Scenes”?

–Jim
Rancho Santa Fe, CA

In film production, A’s and B’s are used to squeeze extra scenes or pages between two pre-existing numbers. Otherwise, you would have to renumber and redistribute all of the relevant scenes or pages, which would be confusing for everyone, and mean a lot more photocopying.

If you need to insert a page between 95 and 96, the new page is labeled 95A. If you need to insert three pages, they would be labeled 95A, 95B and 95C. The tricky part comes when you need to insert a second round of new pages, for instance, two new pages between 95 and 95A. Technically, the new sequence would go 95, 95AA, 95AB, 95A, 95B. In practice, however, this gets too confusing for everyone. In my opinion, you’re better off just generating new pages to replace the current 95A and 95B, which means the sequence would run 95, 95A, 95B, 95C, 95D.

As a kindness to the production team, it’s a good idea to include a memo with any production revisions, listing which pages have changed, and clarifying page order in case there’s any possible confusion.

I learned to do scene numbers the same way as page numbers, so scene 47A would come between scenes 47 and 48. [Katterli Frauenfelder](http://imdb.com/name/nm0292390/), the 1st AD on Big Fish and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, prefers to do it differently: 47, A48, 48. I chafed at first, but it makes sense.

During production, each new camera setup is given a sequential letter. For instance, the master shot might be labeled Sc. 47, while the first closeup is labeled Sc. 47A. Subsequent angles become 47B, 47C, etc. If the scene itself were numbered 47A, this would obviously get confusing. But Sc. A47A is unambiguous.

In my experience, [Final Draft](http://www.finaldraft.com) does a pretty good job handling both scene and page revisions, but don’t let it make the decisions for you. By thinking ahead, you can almost always simplify the process and keep your screenplay more reader-friendly.

Screenwriting software survey results are in

Formatting, News

survey_iconTwo weeks ago, I [set up a survey](http://johnaugust.com/news/000085.html) to gauge how screenwriters felt about the screenwriting software they used. This morning, I closed the survey, which capped out at 130 responses — most of them coming the first week. My thanks to all the writers who participated.

Is 130 responses a statistically valid sample? Probably not, but we’re not electing a president here. The goal was just to get a better sense of how screenwriters felt, and on that level, I think the results are pretty clear.

As I talk through some of my observations, I’ll focus on three different groups. “All Writers” refers to anyone who responded to the survey. “Professional Writers” means respondents who identified themselves as earning their living as a screenwriter. Since I have no way of knowing whether these people *really* make their living off the screen trade, I’ll also single out “Verified Writers.” These are screenwriters who I personally emailed, so I know they do it for a living.

Over the next week or so, I’ll post some further thoughts and conclusions. But for now, I just wanted to present some general observations:

**1. Most screenwriters use Final Draft.**
In all, 75.2% of respondents used some version of Final Draft. For verified writers, that number rises to 100% (13 of 13). For all writers, the number two program was Movie Magic Screenwriter, followed by Microsoft Word and Sophocles.

**2. Most screenwriters are happy with their current program.**
A whopping 87% of respondents rate their program Good or Excellent, and 83% fall in the Satisfied camp. Those numbers drop to 77% and 78% for verified writers, but are still quite good.

**3. Real writers use Macs.**
Granted, that’s a biased bullet point. But it’s worth noting that among verified writers, Mac users outnumber Windows users by more than two-to-one (69.2% vs. 30.8%). In the less strict professional writers category, the numbers are roughly even (50% Mac vs. 47.1% Windows). Windows comes out on top for total respondents, 59% to 38.5%.

**4. There are a lot of features no one uses.**
Among these: index cards, collaboration, character name generator, computer voice reading, and email from within the program. Split screens could be added to this list, but since that’s a new feature for Final Draft v. 7, it’s understandable why most people don’t use it.

**5. People want features they don’t use.**
The great thing about surveys is that they can reveal logic inconsistencies. For instance, 51% of all writers never use script compare, yet 67% consider it Crucial or Important.

**6. Price is an issue, but people will pay for quality.**
For starters, 81.7% of respondents report using a legitimate copy of the program. We can’t know if that’s really accurate, but I’m inclined to believe it. While 58% of writers feel the software they are using costs too much, 47% said they’d be willing to pay $200 for their ideal screenwriting software, and another 39% said $100. To my eyes, that doesn’t seem to be a case of just wanting things cheaper, but wanting a better program for the money.

**7. Most people found the survey through my site.**
Which makes me feel all warm-and-fuzzy.

I conducted the survey using [SurveyMonkey](http://www.surveymonkey.com), which is cheap and brilliant. One of the very best things about the service is that by [clicking on this link](http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=46357727564), you can see all of the results for yourself. While you’re there, definitely try the “Edit Filter…” feature in order to see more specific sets of information. (Hint: Check the “Total” versus “Visible” figures to make sure you’re really looking at the data you want.)

As always, please post your comments. I have my opinions, but I’m very curious to know your thoughts about What It Really Means.

Using a different font for the cover page on a script

Formatting, QandA

On your posted drafts of [Go](http://johnaugust.com/library) and [Big Fish](http://johnaugust.com/library), you have a different font on the cover page for the title of the script. Since you have made it widely known that you use Final Draft, I assume that you used the “export to PDF” feature in Final Draft to do this. When I try to export using a font other than a standard font for the title (e.g. Courier, Courier New, Times New Roman, Arial, etc.), it saves that particular font as Arial or Times New Roman. How do you go about having those different fonts on the PDF versions of your scripts?

–John Herzog
Gotha, FL

The problem is specific to Final Draft for Windows. On Mac OS X, any program can export to .pdf from the Print dialog box, so What You See really is What You Get. It’s absurdly easy. All of the .pdf’s I make are done that way, rather than with Final Draft’s export command.

Obviously, I don’t know Windows as well as I know the Macintosh, but here are some possible solutions:

1. [Adobe Acrobat](http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/main.html). Making .pdf’s is its job. But it’s not cheap.
2. Find a third-party utility for making .pdf’s. Any good Windows shareware/demoware site should have something. Hopefully someone will suggest one in the comments.
3. Find a (free?) utility for combining .pdf’s. On the Mac, a good free one is [Combine PDFs](http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20286&vid=110325); Window should have something like it. Generate a cover page in some other program that lets you save .pdfs, then use the combining utility to smack it onto the first page of your screenplay .pdf.

Of course, option four would be to get a Mac. But that’s probably overkill for this situation.