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My POV
by Brian A. Wilson
The Basics
TOP TIPS FOR READER-PLEASING WRITING
Here's the third installment of ways you can enhance your chances of advancing your script, as seen from the reader's perspective. Naturally, there are exceptions to every observation. Extract what you can from my experiences and use the information as you see fit.
*Skip the music cues. Every book on screenwriting advises this, and yet, SOMEBODY out there continues to include them. Don't! It only makes you look like a rube.
If music is vital to the plot or setting, just put "A sexy 70s pop tune moans out of the car radio." Is it essential to the making of the movie that it's Rod Stewart on the radio? If it is, you'd better have the music rights sewn up, and if you've got $50,000 to pay to use one Rod Stewart song, call me and we'll use the dough to make an entire feature film instead!
The other hazard with specifying a particular piece of music is that the reader will have no idea what the music is, and therefore no idea what mood or point you're trying to get across. My favorite music citation in a script called for Janacek's "The Barn Owl Has Not Flown Away." If only I had heard of either the composer or song, I am sure I would have been moved.
*Make it look like a professional script. There's controversy over three brads or two. Two seems to be favored. Use heavyweight brass brads, put washers on the back and hammer the brads flat against the washers. The brads won't stab anyone, your script will stay intact and it makes a nice, tight package.
Your title page needs this:
Title
Your name
One address
One phone
That's it. Not "An Original Screenplay Written By...." Not your mom's home address as an alternative contact. Not all the other stuff the software programs make it so easy to include. Your script needs to look tight, polished and slick; that starts with the title page. Lawyers will tell you to include a copyright notice. If you feel that's necessary, have at it.
Overall, on the title page, less is more. Don't put what draft it is, and certainly don't put a date on it. Hollywood likes new, and if your script floats around and shows up on somebody's desk saying 1996, it prejudices the reader to think it's old hat and must not be that good, or it wouldn't still be around three years later. Fair? Eh. Reasonable? Maybe, maybe not. But that's how it is.
*Use 12 point courier as your font. Not Helvetica because you like it better, not palatine because that's your computer default, not toothpick because your story is about a skinny guy. Courier. Two reasons for this: one, it's the industry standard; two, using anything else fudges the page count of your script. There may be exceptions to other rules about presentation, but font isn't one of them.
*Before you submit your script, leaf through every page to make sure all the pages are there, that there are no omitted pages or duplicate pages, and that there are no blank pages or illegible copies. I've seen scripts with all these problems, and it makes one think, "If the writer doesn't care any more about this script than to not realize three pages are missing, why am I even bothering to read it and try to figure out the story?" Check every page of every copy of every script you send out, not just your original. Be the Mulder of script copying: trust no one. Check it yourself.
IT'LL BE WORTH IT
I know everything I've covered in the last few weeks sounds like a lot of work. Guess what? It is! But that's why you're going to make the big bucks and have your art seen by millions: because you're willing to do what it takes, and the next person isn't.
Part of that process is being meticulous with your presentation and professional about your work. You've spent years learning to write, months or years creating your script. Take that little extra time to make it as good as it can be. Your work deserves it. Make it easy for the reader to like your work, and to then recommend it to his or her boss.
Making your script reader-ready is, ultimately, fun. Do it and you'll feel good about yourself, confident about your work, and you'll be taking an important step towards the big three: Prestige, Payday and Premiere (as in world).
Good luck, happy writing and may all this help YOU take home the Oscar one day.
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