Screenplay format how-to?

[Maelduin]

Where can I find the how-to for the screenplay format? I looked at the ‘Screenplay format’ document at the top of the Binder, but it just says things like set up the Metadata in the Compile (which I couldn’t find…)

I’m looking for basics - how do you shift the format from

FADE IN: INT. HELL
to the description:

CHARACTER lies in a jail cell, comfortably set out with family pictures. Mozart plays.

and then to

CHARACTER
Life is hell.

SATAN
You said it, babe.

All this… stuff should be x number of centimetres/inches from the margin and so on. How do I tell Scrivener whether I want a character name, dialogue or settings?

[brookter]

Full details are in the Manual (Chapter 21), but basically…

First of all, choose your type of screenplay / script from the Format > Screenwriting menu.

Then make sure the document you want to write is in Screenwriting Mode — toggle cmd-8 till it is. You can tell whether it’s in Standard Text mode or Screenwriting mode by the bar at the bottom. In Screenwriting mode, a drop down box appears in the right hand corner, saying something like ‘General Text’. The setting is per document in the Binder, not per Project, so you can mix and match.

Click on that box (or press cmd-shift-y) and you’ll see all the standard elements for that type of script, including Character, Dialogue, etc, with a short cut key.

So start off with Scene Heading by clicking on the drop down list and choosing Scene Heading (or cmd-shift-y s). Type your Scene Heading, but don’t press enter yet. You’ll see that the text is automatically formatted in Scene Heading format.

Look at the bottom of the screen and you’ll see some instructions have appeared:

[Tab] Action, [Enter] Action Scene Heading.

Press either Tab or Enter and you’ll see the next line has changed to the Action element as promised. Type something action-packed… and then press ether Tab or Enter again. The bottom of the screen has changed to:

[Tab] Character, [Enter] Action | Action

In other words, Scrivener knows that after an Action element, you’ll probably want either a Character or more Action. Press Tab and insert the Character name. You’ll see it’s centred and in capitals. Now the choice below is

[Tab] Parenthentical, [Enter] Dialogue | Character

And so on through the script.

In other words, most of the time, after you’ve started the scene off, Scrivener guesses what you’ll want next and you only have to press Tab or Enter to get the appropriately properly formatted elements.

If by any chance you’re not offered the element you want, just cmd-shift-y and choose the correct one.

If at any time you find that this isn’t working, it’s probably because you’ve come out of Screenwriting mode, so press cmd-8 to get back in it…

There’s other things Screenwriting mode can do (automatically complete character names for example) so do read the manual, but hopefully the above is enough to get you going.

[Maelduin]

You are a star! Thank you!

[Maelduin]

Compile problem. I’m playing with Compile; first I tried setting it for Word, and it produced the three scenes of my trial piece - but no title page.

I went back and tried selecting ‘Title Page’ and the three scenes and asking it to compile from the selection. Nope, same three scenes were compiled.

I can’t see anywhere in the Compile to fill in the metadata for the title page, by the way. Where does one do this, please?

[brookter]

In the compile dialog, there’s a drop down box on the right: Add Front Matter – use it to choose the Title Page or folder, then make sure you’ve given it the appropriate Section Layout.

You can set the Title and other relevant details (Author etc) in the same compilation dialogue but by choosing the second icon on the top at the right — looks like a tag.

(BTW, if the term Section Layout doesn’t mean anything at the moment, then you should have a look at the Interactive Tutorial from the Help menu. They’re an essential part of the Version 3 compilation process. It won’t take long to see how it’s supposed to work.)

HTH.

[Maelduin]

Ah, that worked with a bit of fiddling. However, while my name and the name of the ‘screenplay’ are there, my address is shown as:

Your Name
Your Address
Your phone number
Your e-mail address

[brookter]

What do you have in the Title Page document in the Binder?

Or you could look at the information in Preferences > General > Author Information — is that filled in?

One or both of those should work.

[Maelduin]

Thanks, br, I’ll look at both of those.