We work the same way. I’m working off an eight year old template, and I hate it, but it is what it is. I’m not sure any software solution could make an AV script more palatable for me. As for my workflow:
I tend to work entirely off the right side (audio) of the script, as if I’m listening to the spot in another room, without a TV in front of me. I’ve been on the job long enough that I can break the script into master shots in my head,* making new audio cells where I think the cuts should occur. Then I go back and fill in the visuals.
I’ve been doing some advertising for the TV networks for the last 4 years or so, and they have abandoned the side-by-side thing. Their scripts are simple Word docs, with the action in italics and the dialogue boldfaced, with the character names to the left and the dialogue in its own tabbed margin. Easy to read, easy to write, although I still tend to do everything in one lump format, relying on the copy/paste format tool after the fact. I wish ad agencies could learn to work like this, but they don’t really cotton to new ideas. They like to do things the way Bill Bernbach did them in 1961 – which is why I tend to have a three-martini lunch before I do any agency work.
Best,
S
*And let’s face it, that’s all an AV script is: a glorified shot list.
I don’t think there is an elegant solution, and please, Keith, don’t try to find one. It’s not a job for Scrivener. I think you’d have to write yourself a new text engine.
Like you, my workflow is never the same, but it’s generally something like -
treatment/outline whatever to agree the gist with client
slap this plus any other bits of email, info, etc. I need into an AV script template I’ve had for years, which has the cell splitting options, styles, etc set up how I want them.
expand the treatment into script. I’m not particularly rigorous about audio first, pics second. I go more with the flow to tell the story best… this inevitably means a hurried scraping around at the end to think of cutaways if I don’t trust the director to do enough pickups without being told…
Save the first draft as an rtf or doc and bang it off to the client, asking that they use highlight not track changes as I don’t want to know when they’ve inserted a dodgy apostrophe.
Recieve draft with Track Changes from client. These come in one of two forms:
‘Great, just a couple of minor changes’. These turn out to involve three more actors, another location, and two more days shooting, and worst of all, completely rethinking the script.
‘I think we really need to have a long look at this script, it’s not what I was thinking of.’ This means they don’t like where I’ve put a couple of commas. They’re wrong, but they’re paying, so they have final say over commas.
Take out hit contract on client.
Cancel hit contract on client. Take out hit contract on Gates for his sodding Track Changes not understanding that adding commas isn’t the same importance as changing ‘Slough’ to ‘Mauritius’.
Someone I’ve never heard of at the client sends over a new version into which he’s cut and pasted the mission statement straight off the website, and added three pages of diversity policy completely with nested bulleted points.
reinstitute client hit
when the script’s agreed, send it to the Director so he can ignore it with complete authority.
invoice client before it all goes tits up
receive desperate phone call from director on the shoot asking stupid questions. Point out where the answers are spelled out in the script. He can’t find them as he’s rewritten it to add helicopter shots because there are none on his showreel so far.
Receive desperate phone call from the editor asking where the helicopter shot of dwarves rappelling down The Gherkin is meant to go. I have no idea. My script was about training tyre fitters to fill in forms.
Final cut delivered to the client. The original commissioner has now been moved sideways to Special Projects and nobody cares anymore. Video goes live on company intranet where nobody watches it.
Director snaffles tapes from the editor to recut the helicopter shots into his showreel.
“Someone I’ve never heard of at the client sends over a new version into which he’s cut and pasted the mission statement straight off the website, and added three pages of diversity policy completely with nested bulleted points.”
…and…
“Final cut delivered to the client. The original commissioner has now been moved sideways to Special Projects and nobody cares anymore. Video goes live on company intranet where nobody watches it.”
All that you wrote pretty much hits the nail on the head. It seems the client is always his own worst enemy.
So from where did you guys procure the templates you use for your scripts? I found one after a long and laborious Google search but it wasn’t quite what I needed.
I despise Final Draft but have only worked in versions 5 through 7. A friend told me about a software called Celtx – which is free for anyone who wants to download it. I wonder if others have had similar feelings about Final Draft, if anyone has tried Celtx (in conjunction with Scrivener or not), and, lastly, if Final Draft 8 is really such an improvement that I should go for an upgrade.
If anything, using Scrivener has made the pathetic qualities of Final Draft all the more apparent.
I just had a very positive experience with Final Draft 8. Developed the script first in Scrivener, used it to export to FD, no problems at all. Revised six drafts with collaborator, used the Navigator, Scene Properties, and Format Assistant to clean up our mistakes, then printed a PDF version to go to the agent. Elapsed time was ten days.
My only complaint is the copy-protection policy; would have been better if our license would support copies on two machines, so we could pass .fdx files back and forth. It would also be great if there were a true Track Changes capability; ScriptCompare is a bust.
Here’s the company policy for FD 7; most likely the same for FD 8:
“The standard retail Final Draft 7 and AV2.5 licenses allow for two (2) computers, owned and operated by the sole licensed user and no one else, to be activated. This means your home and office computers, your desktop and your laptop, etc. It does not mean your computer and your writing partner’s computer.”
Just wanted to add how you do that, because it works great, but this post is one of the first things that come up when you look for “dual dialogue”. It tells you how in the manual, but I know most people are going to google it.
All you have to do is highlight the character and dialogue that you want side by side. Then when it is highlighted you go to Format–>Formatting–>Preserve Formatting
It will make a blue box around the dialogue and when you export to FDX it will be perfect dual dialogue. It works very very nicely. No more having to make a note to add the dual dialogue later in Final Draft. When you export it is done-zo-relli.