Cole Hillis R - The complete guide to standard script formats

This book made available by the Internet Archive. Dear Reader, Our years in the script business conjure up an assortment of remembrances. CMC provided script service for the original "Laugh In" show... sometimes as many as 150 pages of one-liners and gags that carried us far into the night in our rush to get the scripts back for the next day's early morning taping. We were called Chuck's Mimeograph Company then, and shared in the excitement of many promising new shows including "The Smothers Brothers" and Tandem Production's "Sanford and Son". We also remember the very beginnings of Komack Production's "Chico and the Man" and it's meteoric rise and then fall subsequent to the tragic death of Freddie Prinze.

At times we become "insiders" privy to the future goings-on of popular shows of the moment. Our invitations to parties substantially escalated when "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" was taping its season, for we knew six weeks in advance her tumultuous life's fate... everything from her problems with yellow waxy build-up to her clandestine affair with a policeman. The last shows for "Let's Make a Deal" were especially exciting since we knew what was behind all the doors. (Possibly before Monty Hall did!) Our business ethics prevented us from hopping the first plane to Las Vegas to cash in on that elusive dream. We have also watched many careers develop and unfold.

By the time the first scripts for the ill-fated television series "Fay" came through, we had already marveled on previous occasions at the talents of writer Susan Harris, then working with Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas at Danny Thomas Productions. "300 Park Avenue, West" was a memorable and fine show she created that was never picked up. When another pilot idea of hers came to us... so zany, hilarious, frequently bizarre, and sometimes poignant, we felt it couldn't miss this time. "Soap" became one of the most popular prime time shows on the air. And still we marvel at her ability to constantly turn out excellent scripts week after week.

As script format specialists we sometimes get caught up in the games of Hollywood which necessitates that we bend the rules to fit the production company's needs. When Dino DeLaurentiis Productions first sent "King Kong" to us, the script typed out in standard format to around 140 pages much too long as you will find out later in this book. They called back to say, "Nice job. Can you do it again only make it much shorter?" Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/completeguidetosOOcole Through the questionable art of condensing, we re-typed the entire script with each original word intact and eliminated twenty pages from the script. (How much easier and faster this task if we'd had a word processor!) By the time "King Kong" was finally filmed, the script along with a constant flow of revision pages had come through perhaps a dozen times. Thinking we were finally finished since the filming was completed, the script came back again like a friendly ghost.

The entire script was once again typed sans camera angles along with other miscellaneous changes. This undoubtedly was the "as filmed" version incorporating all the on-the-scene ad lib material and last minute director changes that took place. This served as the legal version of the script. While our work is mainly considered "behind the scenes" we do sometimes meet a famous well-known personality in the business. We were happy to accommodate the American Film Institute's request to use our electrical outlets for their camera cables one Sunday. A film starring Dom DeLuise, directed by Anne Bancroft, was being shot outside our offices on Sunset Boulevard.

It was a surprise and a delight when Miss Bancroft wandered in searching for a place to "sit a spell" and prop her feet up. Many scripts came through our service with neither a bang nor a whimper but some became special and even looked-forward to. "Little House On the Prairie" with its sensitive and often humorous writing, especially those episodes written by Michael Landon, were enjoyed by all of us. (Even the shooting schedules written mainly by Kent McCray frequently provided a refreshing chuckle.) And certainly it would be difficult not to get hooked into "Days of Our Lives" with its tangle of relationships and daily life's drama. Every job has its moments. We feel that ours have been very special and we are pleased to have been able to share a few of them with you.

Hil Cole Judy Haag BIOGRAPHIES James F. Boyle B.S. Degree in Military Engineering, United States Military Academy, West Point (1962) M.A. Degree in Cinema, University of Southern California Ph.D. in Cinema-Communications, School of Cinema-TV, University of Southern California (1983) Trained by the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a Motion Picture Officer Member of DGA, graduate of the Assistant Director's Training Program ..

Member of lATSE Local 854 (Story Analyst Union) Instructor, University of Southern California Soon to be published: SCREENPLAYS AND SCREENWRITING : ' The Text and the Process Hillis R. Cole, Jr. " ; B.S. Degree, English, University of Illinois M.A. Degree, Teaching, University of Illinois Business Master, University of New Mexico Teacher, Special Education, Centralia, Illinois State Director, Teachers Union, New Mexico Judith H. Haag B.S.

Degree, Communications, Southern Illinois University Teacher, high school English and speech Writing Consultant, Educational Film Strip Series for BFA Supervisor, Barbara's Place Script Service, West Hollywood, California WITH GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO... Lyle Law whose script format knowledge and expertise made this manual possible. Lyle has been lending credibility to movie and television scripts for fifteen years. As a Format Specialist he has served in the positions of head script typist at CMC Script Service and as Supervisor of the Script Department at CBS. Currently living in San Francisco, Lyle is slaving over his own screenplay. ...and special thanks to Bert Guillen and John Cole who lent their valuable experience, criticisms, and format expertise which aided greatly in honing the fine details so necessary in a book such as this! FOREWORD A few important concepts about creative screenwriting which should be considered before using this important book.

FOREWORD Good form is more than just the correct tab settings. It is the appropriate placement of the words on the script page so the content is successfully highlighted. Just as a newspaper editor lays out the front page, so a screenplay page can be designed to be eye catching. This book contains some of the most important keys to the success of a screenplay: form and design of the page. Having a good idea is not enough. Structuring the idea into the proper narrative, developing fine characterization and creating dialogue which serves the scene are some of the tricks in writing a screenplay.

Form and design of the actual script page are often overlooked, yet they are equally important. They are unique to script writing art and not to be found in play writing or novel writing. This book is not a typing manual, it is a look at the fine line between content and form on the script page. IN DEFENSE OF A SCR EENPLAY AS AN INTERME DIATE ART FORM Many people scoff at the idea of defending the screenplay as a form of literature. Yet it has a sense of poetry about it. Perhaps the problem is that most people have not read enough screenplays to get a sense of the beauty of them.