not sure if this something we’re meant to be doing here, but i recently posted the following on a couple of facebook groups:
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PAGE ONE – a fun and informative way to start the day – Scott Myers daily “page one” series shows the first page of a produced screenplay with some commentary from Scott and (occasionally) a clip showing the same scene from the movie
a recent example is the first page of Sorkin’s “A Few Good Men” which, surprisingly (?), does not contain a single line of dialog
but it does have one of the best final lines of action/description i remember seeing at the base of a page:
and for a moment there’s nothing wrong--
https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/page-one-3cf76e2e3846
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i included a screengrab of the page and (if you look at the page) you can guess what happened next – some “helpful” person jumped on with a comment explaining some of the mistakes (i) made on the page
thankfully other readers pointed out that [1] i hadn’t requested a critique, [2] it’s Aaron-fecking-Sorkin, and [3] maybe read the post before rushing in to show off your “expertise”
so it goes ...
anyway, i think it’s well worth checking out – enjoy!
LOL! I love it.
One of my favourite games is to find a pedantic debate about formatting/rules and paste in a line from a highly regarded script. There's always someone who jumps in to tell me how I'll never work in the industry due to all the "mistakes" I'm making. That person usually spends their life doing just that too.
To quote what a director told me once "the only thing two writers can agree on is what the third writer did wrong".
Scott Myers is a bit too much of an academic for me usually but I'll take a closer look at this.
Some of the scripts on the first page site are from the time before the current software used. I did lots of "Continuous" slug lines, and had to re-do them to include the word "Day" or "Night" - and had to change my mini-slugs like "LIVING ROOM" 'KITCHEN" to include the entire "INT. EXT." format so they would show up on the software the production company used to create the shooting schedules. I still use the mini-slugs because the "read" flows better that way and I figure it's easy enough to change over if the script sells. A friend of mine is an Emmy Winner television writer/producer. I complained to him that the produced scripts I was reading didn't have to follow the spot-on formatting that gate-keepers want to see. He responded "Those writers are in 'F-you territory.' You are not." lol
I've always found the formatting obsession so backward. Formatting is so easily fixed and subjective to the director/producer. We're talking like an afternoon's work even if there's lots of issues. It just makes no sense to judge what matters (the story) by something so superficial. I only think it comes up a lot because people find it a very easy thing to criticize without having to go deeper into story issues and areas they don't really understand.
Some would say "just get the formatting right, it's not hard" but anyone with any professional experience will know there's a ton of grey areas.
I get it if you're entering a competition as they have rules the judges work to (although I'd question how well they all align) but, in a professional world, it just seems completely backwards.
And I want to know why Scott Myers is seen as some sort of guru within the screenwriting world. Guy has next to no working credits in a period of over 31 years. Surely that proves his entire mindset is doing him more harm than good?
totally agree with you on the formatting issue – a spec/selling script is a very different beast to a production script
not sure what Scott Myers has to do with it – the PAGE ONE series, amongst other things, is a clear demonstration of how fluid the screenwriting format is – there is not ONE CORRECT FORMAT
he may be seen as "some sort of guru" by some, but from what i've read over the years, it's not something he'd claim for himself – and yes, he does make a living from running courses etc – but he also provides tonnes of free advice and resources for people interested in screenwriting (including interviews with successful screenwriters) – most of which includes the caveat stating that there are no rules, only guidelines