Screenwriting Tips
Expert screenwriting tips by working screenwriters
If you have not already, please read the Nicholl Fellowship introductory article.
The How to Win a Nicholl Fellowship is a series of articles:
The team posted this tip on their Facebook page:
After judging that an entry is a screenplay, readers might next notice the format. As soon as a reader opens page one of a script, he has an instant indication of format. Does the submission appear to be a screenplay in format standard to the American film industry?
A glance is all it takes, and the overwhelming majority of entries pass the "glance" test. After that, nuances in format are a minor detail, and readers aren't taking points off because action description extended to five lines or slug lines are bold or "We see" was used or "Cut To:" or "Sunset" or "INT" rather than "INT." or page numbers typed as "87" or "- 87 -" or "87."
If a writer has followed any format guide or is using a dedicated screenplay program, the script will almost certainly be acceptable...
However, the Nicholl team also quote from a Scriptnotes Podcast by John August (JA) and Craig Mazin (CM) on the topic:
The Nicholl team also provided this useful piece of advice:
Advice articles in this topic written by Reel Authors include:
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