Suggestion for Developers - Tracking Changes / Proper Scene Numbers / Page Numbers

[beanproduc...@gmail.com]

Coming from years of experience in studio and network prime-time television (and currently active in the industry), there are a couple features which seem to be lacking which seem simple, but would cause Trelby to become extremely powerful. 

I'll keep the suggestions quick, then explain why they are necessary and useful. All four of these are industry standard practices. 

1) Tracking Changes - The user should be able to "lock the script" (and also unlock it) or enable/disable a tracking changes setting. Once enabled/locked, any changes made should be tracked, and an asterisk should be placed in the right margin of every line which was changed since the last released draft. 

2) Proper Scene Numbers - While a script is locked (changes are being tracked), scene numbers are also locked. If a scene is deleted, that scene number should remain in the script with the word "OMITTED". If a scene is added, it should be numbered using a letter and the number of the next scene. For example, if a scene is added between Scene 6 and Scene 7, the new scene becomes Scene A7. It is important that the letter is placed BEFORE the number and not after, explained below. This is rather than re-numbered each scene after the scene that was added. If two scenes are added, they become A7 and B7. In the case that these new scenes are published in the next draft, then another scene being added between Scene 6 and A7 becomes AA7 (the additional letter to signify it's new and appending to the scene number of the following scene). 

3) Proper Page Numbers / Page Breaks - While a script is locked (changes being tracked), all page numbers must remain locked as well. If a scene is shortened, pulling the start of the next scene up by one page, then instead, the start of the next scene should stay on the same page, and there should be empty space at the end of the page that was shortened due to a shortened scene. If a scene is changed and becomes longer, requiring an additional page, then a new page is inserted and numbered much in the same way as scene numbers. For example, if Scene 12 becomes longer and it on page 14. Then page A15 is added between pages 14 and 15. 

4) Users should have the option to cause each new draft that is printed / published to increase their "script color". The new draft should contains the asterisks mentioned in #1, and once printed/published, the tracking of which lines that have changed can reset, so that the next draft will only show asterisks for lines which have changed SINCE the last draft, not over all time. Scripts are color coding to track which one is the newest. The header of the script should include the script's color, and the title page should include a list of all released script colors, in order of newest to oldest. The title page and the header should also include the date that script was published next to the script color. Although there can be other drafts before the "WHITE DRAFT", such as "Concept Draft", "Studio Draft", "Network Draft", etc. - The first Production Draft is the "White Draft". Some studios / organizations have different standards, but it's mostly industry accepted that the next is "Blue", then "Pink", then "Yellow", then Green" - from there it can get hairy, but the Writers Guild of America has published a standardized list of colors which would be good to stick to. 

Adding these four things would make Trelby extremely powerful and much more useful to many other writers. 

Explanation for these additions: 

1) This is an industry standard practice. When you have a 40 page script that multiple people who are responsible for multiple departments/aspects are reading through. If you make only a couple small changes, you're now asking all of these people to spend an hour re-reading the script and comparing it to their notes / breakdowns when they don't have to. They could quickly scan through it looking for stars (it's called a "starred script" by the way) and within a few minutes see what has changed and how it affects their jobs. 

2) Also an industry standard practice - If you have 30 scenes and you add a scene before scene 5, then without properly numbering the scenes, the next 25 scenes have a new scene number. If production has already created schedules, and departments have already created breakdowns and budgets, now there's a LOT of places where a lot of different people have to go and update scene numbers. This creates a lot of extra work for a lot of people and leads to a lot of confusion and a lot of mistakes. Locking the scene numbers and adding new numbers with letters makes the whole process much smoother. Also, the reason it's important to use A7 (a letter followed by the next scene number) rather than 6A (the previous scene number followed by the letter) is because once on set, the slate for the first shot of Scene 6 is marked as Scene 6. The second shot of Scene 6 is labeled as 6A, then 6B, so on. If you have a scene labeled 6A and your second shot of Scene 6 is labeled 6A, this creates confusion in post production as well as on set. 

3) The reason for the colors in #4 is so that you can print the next draft on that color's color of paper and only have to replace certain pages. If you have a 40 page white draft and there's changes in the blue draft on 4 pages. You can print 4 pages on blue paper to replace those 4 pages in your script binder, rather than printing all 40 pages. If the page numbers don't stay locked and things move around to other pages, then this becomes an impossible feat and the entire new script must be printed. 

4) Mostly explained in #3, but each new script is printed on a new color of paper. This also helps, at quick glance, to know which draft you're working off of. 

[Anil Gulecha]

HI,

Thank you for taking the time and writing this up -- we are aware of these conventions. Unfortunately, we do not have the time to build additional features on Trelby, so it does not look like we'll pick these up.

Regards

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[Richard Wilson]

Thanks Anil.  Whilst I was aware of the conventions, this is a good explanation.  I’m of a type which needs to know ‘why’ I’m doing things like this. 

Best