Default Screenplay Format Settings for Final Draft & Movie Magic
Mark Main
latest versions of Final Draft and Movie Magic and found that Final Draft
has narrowed their text toward center a bit more. Listed below are the
comparisons (MM stands for Movie Magic, otherwise it shows the common
settings for both). The biggest surprise for me was that the Scene (Int.,
Ext.) and Shot text (e.g. P.O.V, ANGLE ON, etc.), were different for the
two packages, where Movie Magic tightened the script up with 1 line used
before the text rather than Final Draft's 2 lines.
Scene Headings
Left aligned, Left 15 pica, Right 75 pica, 2 lines before, and 1 line after.
Action
Left aligned, Left 15 pica, Right 75 pica, 1 lines before, and 1 line after.
Characters
Left aligned, Left 35 pica (MM is 37), Right 72 pica (MM is 75), 1 line
before, and 1 line after.
Parenthetical
Left aligned, Left 30 pica, Right 55 pica (MM is 50), 0 lines before, and 1
line after.
Dialog
Left aligned, Left 25 pica (MM is 24), Right 60 pica (MM is 61), 0 line
before, and 1 line after.
Transition
Right aligned, Left 55 pica (MM is 65), Right 71 pica (MM is 75), 1 line
before, and 1 line after.
Shot
Left aligned, Left 15 pica, Right 75 pica, 2 lines (MM is 1 line) before,
and 1 line after.
General
Left aligned, Left 15 pica, Right 75 pica, 0 lines before and 1 line after.
RonB
> The biggest surprise for me was that the Scene (Int.,
> Ext.) and Shot text (e.g. P.O.V, ANGLE ON, etc.), were different for
> the two packages, where Movie Magic tightened the script up with 1
> line used before the text rather than Final Draft's 2 lines.
Yeah, I've noticed that. I like that extra line above the the scene
heading, so I always change it to '2' in the Edit Format section in Movie
Magic Screenwriter.
--
RonB
"there's a story there...somewhere"
nmstevens
What I've found puzzling is that more recent versions of FD format
differently from earlier versions. I use FD4 and any script written in
that generation and either brought up on subsequent versions or on the
current reader, page out around two to three percent shorter than it
is in the original -- and I have yet to be able to figure out what,
precisely is different, because all the various defaults seem to be
identical. Clearly, there's some modification in the pagination rules
that's been changed -- and it's an incredible pain in the ass, because
I don't want to switch to a new version (having been burned by FD5)
and if I e-mail a script to somebody, then inevitably download it with
a later version that yields a different page count and there is no way
that I've yet found that allows you to preserve the FD4 page count.
NMS
Dena Jo
> I use FD4 and any script written in
> that generation and either brought up on subsequent versions or on the
> current reader, page out around two to three percent shorter than it
> is in the original -- and I have yet to be able to figure out what,
> precisely is different, because all the various defaults seem to be
> identical.
They changed the pitch.
--
Dena Jo
Dr. Jai Maharaj
"Mark Main" <mark...@direcway.com> posted:
Generally speaking, I like more white space on the page
and find it to be a popular opinion.
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Barry Brough
get it as the 'professional standard' is clearly around 3 inch/30
characters. How many of you reset this? ~J
Jeff Newman
>get it as the 'professional standard' is clearly around 3 inch/30
>characters. How many of you reset this? ~J
You must be misinterpreting something -- perhaps they are giving a right-hand
dialogue margin as measured from the left of the page, and you're considering
it as though from the right, or vice versa.
At any rate, the industry standard for maximum dialogue width is flexible:
anywhere from 3 to 4 inches, but 3 inches is very rarely seen these days.
Usually 3.2 or 3.3 is about the skinniest you'll see, and most often it's 3.5
or 3.7 (35-37 characters at 10 dpi).
And both of those programs are right within that range -- about 3.5" for one as
I recall, and 3.6 or 3.7 for the other.
Jeff Newman
~J
guidelines. I just wanted to check this was right, as both MM2000 and FD5
had dialgoue defaulted in the 5 inch region. Thanks for the clarification.
(didn't mean to post to your email, Jeff, sorry.)
Jeff Newman
>anywhere from 3 to 4 inches, but 3 inches is very rarely seen these days.
>Usually 3.2 or 3.3 is about the skinniest you'll see, and most often it's 3.5
>or 3.7 (35-37 characters at 10 dpi).
>
Of course, I meant cpi (characters per inch).
Jeff
Otto Mation (Caroline Freisen)
I do... Among other other defaults. I think there are four or so
things i modified in MMS. But mine is a very old version. There may
be more in the newer versions.
Otto Mation (Caroline Freisen)
<Chez....@btopenworld.com> wrote:
For what it's worth, anyone who wants to set the original Cole/Haag
margins on their computer, here is a method for translating them to a
computer from the typewriter settings given in the book. I worked it
out years ago when I was still teaching screenwriting and students had
standard word processors. Chances are it will look a little strange
to you, but it is does result in margin accuracy according to the
standards that were used during the years when the page per screen
minute tradition was developed by the studios.
1. Set your word processor for Courier 12 pitch. Since there are a
whole lot of Courier fonts available, just make sure that it emulates
a typewriter by using fixed spaces for all letters. In other words,
make sure the ledtter line up vertically as well as across the page.
2. Type the alphabet or sequential numbers across one entire line
with no space.
3. Print that page. Fold it in half left to right to get a vertical
line down the center of the page. Use this for setting the following
margins:
CHARACTER CUE: The first letter of the character cue should fall on
the center line. Don't worry about setting a right margin on this one
because variances in name length as well as (O.S.) or (V.O.) will
determine when you hit return.
PARENTHETICALS:
Left Margin: Seven spaces left of the left margin of the character
cue.
RIGHT MARGIN: 16 spaces from the left margin.
DIALOGUE:
Left Margin: Seven spaces left of the left margin for
parentheticals.
Right Margin: 35 spaces to the right of above.
SLUG LINES AND ACTION:
Left Margin: 8 spaces left of the left dialogue margin.
Right margin: 55 characters to the right of above.
TRANSITIONS:
Flush with right margin of slugs/action.
The problem with standard word processors such as MS word, etc., is
that while they *do* allow you to set proper margins, none of them (in
my experience) allow you to set the proper number of possible lines
per page (around 60, as I recall) that are available on a typewriter.
And that is one of the advantages to dedicated formatting software.
They do! I have *never* imported a script into MMS from MSWord and
come up with the same page count. It's always greatly reduced once
it's imported. So if you're clinging to an MSWord template, you are
really restricting your "word budget" when you write a 120 script. On
average (again in my experience) you're loosing from 20 to 30 pages.
And no... You can't compensate by printing out a 140 page script and
attaching a note that it's "really" a 120 page script if they import
it into a script format program... '-(
Caroline
Jeff Newman
Courier 12 point.
Thus, on an 8.5 x 11" paper ... 11 times 6 = 66 lines per page, with no margin.
But with a top and bottom margin of 1 inch, that leaves 9 inches for text.
Which means there should be 54 lines (lines and blank lines) per page (6 x 9 =
54).
"Word" should do that if you set the paragraph/line spacing to "exact" as
opposed to single space, which fluctuates.
Jeff Newman