Formatting

This isn't exactly what we discussed, but it is near as Hamish. And here's their explanations:
Formatting Rules


DO NOT use any font other than a medium-weight Courier, true monospaced, at 10 characters per inch (12 point). PERIOD! Need a GOOD font? Go to Downloads under the Main Menu at the left, then click on Download Fonts and download HP's Dark Courier font for FREE.

DO NOT center character names. They line up 3.5" from the left edge of the paper.

DO NOT hyphenate dialogue.

DO NOT use justification.

DO NOT put character names in scene sluglines if you can possibly help it.

Single-space within paragraphs of action descriptions, dialogue, and between the character's and dialogue ... and double-space between these same paragraphs.

Double-space between scenes unless you're trying to "squeeze" a little to reduce the page count. You CAN use single blank lines before inserting a slugline, but it looks a little better to have two blank lines.

Voice Over (V.O.) following the character name means someone NOT in the scene is speaking to the audience.

Off Screen (O.S.) following the character name means this character IS in the scene, but not visible to the audience.

CUT TO: transitions are seldom used any more in submission scripts as it just makes it harder to read. In other words, it's like a "speed bump" to the reader. Eliminate reader speed bumps!

Obstacles

Looking at the post below, the most obvious thing is that the 'story' is boring. Nothing seems to actually happen.
Yet a closer look reveals that several life changing events take place: leaving college; moving to a big city; courtship and marriage; becoming a parent; dying... so why do these human events lack impact?
It's because they are too easy.
The word 'drama' can mean simply 'a play' (for theater) or it can be used to suggest something more exciting and engaging 'dramatic'. Alfred Hitchcock once defined cinema (and drama) as 'life with the dull bits taken out'.
As a brainstorming exercise, as something to make a habit in all your story work, you can use the test of OBSTACLES.
Every time you have a simple (boring) solution to a story progression, ask yourself the question, "What could prevent this from happening?".
When faced with an obstacle, your character will be forced to ACT. That is, they will become active and will find a way - often surprisingly, to overcome the obstacle.
In the example below, our man does NOT get promotion, because a rival beats him to it. Now what? The lovely but rather dull office companion does not agree to marry him. As a matter of fact, not only is she in a relationship with someone else, but she can't stand our 'hero'.
At every twist and turn, each time we want to have our happy events and make life easy for our protagonists, we will put a spoke in their wheels and make them struggle.
Not only is this more 'dramatic', it's also much more true to real life, and thus has much more resonance for an audience.
After all, interesting stories are by definition unpredictable. Success is dull, because there's only really one way to succeed, yet there and many, many ways in which to fail.
Best of all is repeated failure followed by unexpected success.
Use this information to build dynamic stories.
And remember, Drama is just a small town in Greece.

The Most Boring Story In The World

Young Man graduates high school and wants to be successful.
Gets a job in a local real estate office.
Works hard and gets to be local manager.
Moves to big city and works harder.
Becomes Junior Partner.
Asks pretty secretary to marry: she accepts.
They buy their dream house and have many smart, loving, healthy kids.
Finally pass away in their 90s, happy Grandparents.
The End

Why is this story boring? What does it lack?
Use Obstacles and...
Fix it.

Square One

This interactive blog is an integral part of the Indie Filmmaking 101 course.
Use it to add comments, afterthoughts and play around with ideas as we create dozens of storylines and try out ways of making better, more exciting and more personal stories for the screen.

It all starts here.