Does Scrivener support that standard?
I guess that was the OP’s question all along…
Wow. This got intense. Yes, at the heart of my question, I guess, was, ‘Does Scrivener support standard screenplay formatting?’ The answer seems to be no unless I’ve missed something.
I was able to work around it faaaairly easily, but the fact that something that seems to be widely recognized as industry standard isn’t able to be done in a robust writing tool like Scrivener, which does have “screenplay” options is a bit of a bummer. Hopefully they’ll include a way to do this in the future.
Could you not:
- put the title page in the Front Matter
- tick the option to have Different header and footer on first pages (aka front matter)
- deselect the option Page numbers count first pages (so the title page will not count toward numbering)
- Tick the option to have Different header and footer on pages following page breaks (meaning deliberately inserted page breaks, which you’d have between the title page and the first page but, I am assuming for this format, nowhere else?—which would allow you to suppress the number on the first page by not including it in the header and begin with 2 on page 2 of the script, excluding the title page)
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Yep…Looks like that works. My problem was i didn’t tick that last option. I guess I just didn’t get what was going on with that one.
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Very good. This is why I’d never say “no” to the question.
I’d have to double-check, but I’m pretty sure our stock provided compile Formats that are geared toward screenplay output are already set up that way, and of course with FDX output too. Of course if you’re rolling your own from a Blank project starter you might have to do a little more setup than from the Screenplay template.
That, unfortunately, doesn’t work either ; as it then forbids to use the “page break” separator between scenes/chapters, leaving these subsequent chapters/scenes to either start mid-page, or have their first page unnumbered too.
(I suspect the OP will later confirm that, once he looked past the first scene of his manuscript.)
. . . . . . . . . .
I think the compile format’s page settings options tab is simply missing an option to “start page numbering on page x”.
For example, you’d have :
or
And then, just below, an option for : “no main body page numbering for the first x pages”.
Or a different header/footer set altogether for the first x pages of main body.
→ Or just for the first page of the main body, for all that it matters. (I can’t really think of a reason why someone would want this to go on for page 2 and on… (Past the first page of the main body, it just becomes illogical imo.))
Something to consider in all of this discussion is that screenplays are quite a bit less complex than a book in terms of what you need for page setup. A lot of the settings and such discussed above are not necessary, and probably muddying the waters a bit. The checklist @MimeticMouton gave is on point, and precisely all you’d need for a typical screenplay.
That, unfortunately, doesn’t work either ; as it then forbids to use the “page break” separator between scenes/chapters, leaving these subsequent chapters/scenes to either start mid-page, or have their first page unnumbered too.
For example, they don’t have chapters, and the title page aside, tend not to have page breaks anywhere either, as that would introduce variability that throws off the page count. You want that predictable number of lines on every page. If you only have one page break normally, you can safely use that setting to suppress page 1 from printing it.
I’ll have to look into why our defaults are different. We tend to copy how Final Draft works for most things, as that is what most will expect, but there may be some contingencies I’m not considering. For example, the name of the format is “Script or Screenplay”, not “Industry Standard Screenplay”. It’s designed to be, at the very least, a starting point for other kinds of scripts as well.
It’s fairly normal to leave the page number off on the first page of a chapter, I suppose because that page is busy with other things. If it’s a huge problem to do so in screenplays, how picky are they really?
I don’t know. I don’t write screenplays.
I suppose we’ll have to wait for a young scriptwriter to ask the question to the only people between him and his dream job instead of simply giving them the best he could formatted as they requested ?
I think they’re very picky. The point is that the format should be so constant that it ‘disappears’, leaving the resulting film free to be visualized.
Evidence for this: Screenwriting.io format description here, which looks pretty connected to John August, a screenwriter of accomplishment who also produces Highland, which competes with Final Draft.
I don’t write screenplays, but pay sometimes (too much) atttention to John & Craig’s famous podcast.
This blank-second-page-page-one is tricky – @AmberV 's advice above sounds good, at least to me…
I do write screenplays. Screenplay format is extremely rigid. Sometimes for practical reasons, and sometimes as a shibboleth to separate the insiders from the outsiders. Starting numbering on page 2 is one of those shibboleths.
It’s a pretty big headache to get Scrivener to output a completely proper screenplay. That’s why I recommended outputting the Scrivener pages to a dedicated screenplay app like Final Draft or WriterSolo to do the final delivery formatting.
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How do I keep the first page after the title page from having a page number? Most screenplays start the numbering on page 2 with “2.”
As I mentioned above, export your screenplay from Scrivener as an FDX, then open it in the screenwriting app of your choice, and it will automatically skip numbering page 1.
If you don’t have a screenplay app of choice, download WriterSolo for free and without limits.
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Where do I find these options? I’m using version 3.4.
After you open the compile pane, check that you’re set to PDF output at the top, and then double-click the format you’re using on the left to edit it. (You’ll be prompted to “Duplicate & Edit” if it’s a built-in format; you can also right-click and choose this rather than double-clicking if you want to work in a copy of your existing format, whether it’s one you’ve made or part of a project template.) Then select Page Settings and you’ll see there all the options mentioned.
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