About
the Book:
The key to getting a "green light" in Hollywood is a
polished screenplay, which means that your script needs to be
correctly formatted before it hits the agency or production company
story analyst's desk. The simple format rules found in The
Hollywood Standard – which you can learn in an hour –
come from Hollywood's top expert on script format and will guarantee
that your script makes a winning first impression.
Thousands of promising scripts never get a fair read from
Hollywood because their format is wrong. Does it really matter? Yes!
Professionals reading your scripts are looking for any reason to
throw it in the "no" pile. They simply can't afford to
spend much time on a script unless it catches their eye. The fastest
way to not even get a reader past the first page or two is to mess up
the formatting. Poor formatting is the mark of an amateur and in the
ultra-competitive world of screenwriting, the wrong first impression
can kill your dreams. Your scriptwriting software helps you format
your work for film, television, and more, and provides all these
little screenwriting tools depending on your specific project.
However, this text gives you what even the best script software
can't. A detailed study of proper professional screenplay formatting,
it goes beyond the software and tells you WHEN and WHY to use those
tools.
Intended to be kept at a screenwriters fingertips, this 3rd
edition of The Hollywood Standard has been expanded
and updated, and features easy-to-use, lay-flat binding. With clear,
concise instructions and hundreds of examples, this book takes the
guesswork out of a multitude of formatting questions that perplex
even seasoned screenwriters, waste their time, and steal their
confidence.
Subtitled The Complete and Authoritative Guide to Script Format
and Style, the contents of The Hollywood Standard
include:
• When a new scene heading is
appropriate and when it isn't;
• How to format shot headings,
dialogue, direction and transitions;
• How to control pace with
formatting;
• How to make a script page visually
inviting to the reader;
• What to to capitalize and why;
• How to get into and out of a POV
shot;
• What can and can't be included in
an establishing shot;
• How to format instant messages,
text messages, email exchanges, caller ID, and Zoom meetings
• How Hollywood's most innovative
screenwriters are pushing the boundaries of format
• How format for animation differs
from live action formats
• Recommended by the Writers Guild Initiative!
The author is uniquely qualified to write about standard script
format and style. For 14 years Christopher Riley worked in
Warner Bros. acclaimed script processing department, eventually
running the standard-setting operation. He wrote the studio's
screenwriting software and served as the ultimate arbiter of
screenplay format for Warner Bros. and dozens of outside clients that
included Amblin, Disney, Columbia, Universal and Independent
Productions.