First of all, whenever you write an interior scene, you're supposed to write INT-SCENE. If they're in an exterior scene, it's EXT-SCENE. You never write the full words, just the abbreviations.
Extremely unnecessary sperging because I guess he doesn’t understand abbreviations.
As someone reading the screenplay, whether the characters are inside or outside is largely useless, dead information. If the actors are sitting at a table at a restaurant, for example, whether something is inside or outside doesn't matter, they'd have the same tone.
100% false. Interior and exterior have extremely different tones. Different elements can effect them, and the characters may act differently outside as opposed to inside. You also left out that you need to specify time of day, which also amplified the need for interior and exterior. Outside at night is far different from outside during the day or inside at night. If you have a show where characters can change clothes, weather is important as well. Maybe your characters wear jackets outside. Specifying interior and exterior also tells the background artists what to draw. The patio of a restaurant looks significantly different than the inside of the restaurant and may require extra time to draw.
It also doesn't help to read the script as just a script. Let me give the example with the place - HOUSE. Being at someone's house can be interior or exterior, so you could argue that there'd be some use in distinguishing the two of them. However, in that particular case "HOUSE" is too vague to be useful. Being at the house exterior can put you in the front yard, or the backyard, or hell even on the roof - all requiring a different set. Being in the house could refer to any room. If the stage direction was [Cut to JAKE'S LIVING ROOM], there's no sense in also telling that that's an interior. On the off chance that Jake is some kind of weirdo that has a living room outdoors, the stage direction EXT is probably not the best place to describe it.
And course, there's there's always the grey areas that make declaring something interior and exterior a little bit nebulous. A ruined building without any roof and part of the walls blasted outside may be described as interior, although acoustics, lighting, and set design would be more synonymous with exterior. If a character gets shrunken to the size of a doll, and they go inside a doll's house inside a bigger room, and they leave the doll house into a miniature replica of the outer world, is that an interior set or an exterior set? And these aren't far-fetched examples in terms of speculative media.
The problem here is that Enter doesn’t know how to properly utilize the initial action of a scene. When you introduce a location for the first time, you need to use the action to briefly paint a mental picture of what it looks like. If his ruined house is missing a roof or walls, write a sentence or two that describes what the house looks like and then continue the story. Scene and character introductions are a huge part of the art that is script writing.
Chances are you won’t begin the scene in the ruined house, therefore it would be EXT. RUINED HOUSE and then the characters walk in. If they are inside the ruined house at the start of the scene, then you do INT. RUINED HOUSE.
The doll house example is also a fallacy. Just explain in the action where the dollhouse is. Then do INT. DOLLHOUSE and INT. MAIN HOUSE of whatever the building is. The exterior of a doll house is not the exterior of the real world unless the dollhouse is in a backyard or something. That’s just common sense.
In traditional script writing, a character's name will be placed center aligned and then their text would be right underneath it.
Let's start with the annoyance in terms of writing. With traditional screenplay format, the scene information is not center aligned; while the character dialogue is. It continually breaks the flow of thought to have to pause and go back and forth between two different alignments. When you write, say a novel, everything is left-aligned. 99.9% of the time you never have to change it in mid-scene. The only time that I use center-align when it comes to prose, is something as rare as the title or chapter notifiers. Needing to stop mid tempo can break flow and lead to losing your train of thought. Not to mention, the keyboard shortcuts to change between them are three buttons, which means you may as well just use the damn mouse (Ctrl+shift+l for left align; and ctrl+shift+e for center align, if you're wondering. I don't know why e for center, if this had to be more complicated). And not to mention, some stage directions are also supposed to be left aligned. Yes, you could just write like I do and then edit later, but this isn't the kind of "polish" people should really be wasting their time with in editing, unlike spellchecking. Where the words are on the page do not affect the final product. The audience is never going to see this unless they specifically look into it.
Where does one even being with this stupidity.
So he mentions that most things in a novel are left aligned save for special cases, what would be a special case in a document intended to give directions? Different types directions!
This is how you know Enter doesn’t actually understand script format, because every section of a script has its very specific element.
The scene is always in all caps and to the left.
“EXT. ENTER’S BEDROOM - DAY”
the there is the action, which is directly under it, but written regularly.
“A messy room filled painted a disgusting shade of green. Crudely drawn images are on the wall, making the room give off a feeling of dread and despair to all who inhabit it.”
Then you have the dialog, which has is centered. The character name is in all caps, but what they are saying is not. This is so you can quickly identify the character and their dialog.
“ENTER”
“I have no talent and my life is a lie.”
Then to the right you have the transitions.
Enter believes that this breaks the flow, but this actually moves the flow along st a faster pace because you can instantly tell what something depending on its placement. It allows you to scan through a document extremely quickly. I have also found that it greatly speeds up the writing process. Page numbers matter heavily in screenwriting, and you can fill a single page in this format much faster than in Enter’s amateur play format.
This passage also reveals that he does not have a scriptwriting software. There are plenty of options, some free and some not, but they will perfectly align everything for you while using the proper font and spacing. If he really can’t afford final draft, which changed between all of these with a single press of the tab button, he has no business trying to make a professional product.
And finally, yes, the placement of the words does effect the final product. Unless he plans to perform every job on the production himself, he needs to have things written in a format that any potential crew member will understand. Most voice actors only read their lines and the segments leading up to it, background artists only read what their set is etc. they need to be able to find this stuff quickly and efficiently, otherwise you have hours(and thousands to tens of thousands of dollars) wasted just trying to make sense of the script.
Then of course, there's the reading. And if you're trained to read this way, then obviously it's easier. But in the English speaking and English reading world, we read left to right. When you read a page, your eyes naturally start on the left side of the page.
I’ve already said that this makes reading faster, but it also isn’t confusing to the average person. I have shown scripts to a lot of people who have never read one before and they understand them just fine. The only adjustment period is when they don’t know why it’s written in present tense. Trying to say “in the English world it’s like this, therefore I am validated” also does not work because this system was developed entirely in English by English writers. What Enter is failing to realize is that a script is not a novel. The intent is not to read it for pure amusement. You’re supposed to read it to get an idea of a production so that you can make it as it is written. I can’t think of anyone who would actually look at a screenplay and assumed it’s a book. In fact, most screenplays are never published for Publix consumption, there isn’t a need for that. Why read it when you can watch it play out 100% as it was written in the intended format?
There’s also another little tidbit he’s failing to realize. People look at an entire page top to bottom. They will often read the first thing vertically on a page regardless of where it is aligned. What does every script begin with? FADE IN aligned to the right. The next section, the scene header, is to the left. It flows perfectly and it feels natural even to a first timer. Enter is just stupid.
To differentiate between the stage directions and the character name, I put the character names in bold (it doesn't often show on DA because just copying a bold word doesn't make it bold in a literature post); and I put stage directions in [brackets]. Why? Because I want to make reading the script as easy as possible on everyone who has to use it, and everyone who has to write it. Not to mention, that when printed:
Sally: (Sarcastically) Says this - only takes one line.
Sally
(Sarcastically)
Says this.
Takes three and wastes paper and printer ink. And once again, putting them all on the same line combines the thought in the reader. It's three separate thoughts for Sally/says sarcastically/says this. As opposed to Sally says this sarcastically. You only need to glance at my format, while you need to stare at the traditional format to get it embedded, especially because naturally the eye sees more horizontal information than vertical.
So. Fucking. Stupid.
First of all, never put anything in bold or italics in a script. That’s the fastest way to betray that you’re an amateur. The only special exception is that when a brand new character is introduced, some people like to use all caps, but only for their initial introduction, and that is not common practice anymore.
Second, stage direction doesn’t belong in a script. The script explains how the scene plays out, and them the director, actors, the cinematographer, and the animators decide the directions. You should never write (Sarcastically) in brackets before dialog. The actress should be able to tell that the line is sarcastic based on the tone of the script and the actual words that are being said. Is for some reason she does not catch on, their is a director sitting in on the recording session ready to correct her and ask for another take. That’s how voice acting works.
And third, while I’m ignoring the part about the eyes naturally seeing one way instead of the other(that’s false) I should point out that you used the direction format incorrectly.
In an instance where direction is needed for dialog(whisper, voice over, subtitle) you put it in parentheses directly next to the character name. Like this:
SALLY (WHISPER)
SALLY (V.A.)
The only thing that should go directly under the character name is the she would be saying. And once again, these aren’t meant to convey attitude. There are vital moments in script format when a whisper or a VA is necessary for the story. Being sarcastic isn’t one of them, neither is delivery speed. That is the actor and the director’s job to decide. Just describe what they character is doing. Saying they have a smug smile will imply sarcasm better.
When a character takes up as many lines as possible because they're very wordy or they talk a lot, or they talk fast and say a lot of words at once because that is an integral part of their character, their lines tend to start looking like the scene descriptions and may end up being ignored, even when they're center aligned like this. Sure, this can be avoided by not having a character like this, but this situation absolutely never comes up in my formatting. Technically you're supposed to shrink the margins for characters like this, but it just amplifies the alignment switching problem, since it takes more time than it should to fix this and will break train of thought
No, you do not shrink the margins. You break it up with action describing what is going on. You should never have a scene stop so a character can ramble on, that isn’t animation writing, that’s just lazy. You break it up and then put
CHARACTER NAME (CONT’D) this implies that little or no time has passed since the last spoken line and the actor knows to keep reading. They usually won’t read the action anyway. That’s the proper way to do it and it blows your “style” out of the water.
And again, you keep bringing up train of thought like scripts are intended for mass consumption. The only people who would be/should be reading it are the people will an interest in the production in some way. People who’s “train of thought” doesn’t get thrown off by different alignment.
Sally
(Panting)
When a character is--
(stop to take a breath)
Out of breath
(takes a breath)
Or has some other affect
(takes a breath)
To their speech
(takes a breath)
Everything can run together, especially if the stage directions and lines are of similar size
(takes a breath)
Or some of the stage directions sandwiched between longer strings of text take extra effort for the reader to draw their eyes to, and can have them lose their train of thought, which is the last thing you want an actor to do.
Once again, stage direction is unnecessary and doesn’t fit in a script. If Sally did an action that would make her out of breath, the director would ask her actress to read it like she was out of breath. Then each breath take would be improvised and sound natural. GASP! That also saves more space and precious printer ink!
Trying to read something in that format makes my brain hurt. Remember how we're trained to read left-to-right? That's going to apply, even if another word is lower. So, the immediate information someone gets is "this is said"/by this person. Which is backwards when you want to make this easier on the reader.
... You do realize that it is still written and therefor still read left to right, right? You’re making it sound like you’re trying to read a manga or something.
Also you don’t have to move your eyes as much when it is vertical, making it a faster and less straining read, but whatever.
I also have an issue with scene transitions. Although that comes more from me thinking about my scripts as animation. I don't think I have this issue when I do this with other mediums. That's because, in animation, what constitutes as a "scene" is a little bit more nebulous than any other medium. A scene ends when the place or the time changes, that's the traditional definition.
Let's start with... something relatively obvious. Cutaway gags or Gilligan cuts/crash cuts.
INT. SCENE A
Character 1:
Sets up a cutaway
CUT TO
EXT. SCENE B
Character 2:
Does the cutaway gag
BACK TO
INT. SCENE A
Character 1
Makes a punchline
END SCENE
Not only loses some of the humor in the script, but it also takes over a minute to write approximately two dozen words for someone who has a typing speed of over 100 wpm. This looks and reads much, much neater:
[Cut to Scene A]
Character 1: Sets up the cutaway
[Crash cut to Scene B]
Character 2: Does the the cutaway gag.
[Cut back to Scene A]
Character 1: Makes a punchline.
Again, you’re too stupid to realize that the humor is still there, you just don’t have the imagination or attention span. The goal of a script is not to entertain you as if it were a novel. The goal is let you visualize what will be put on the screen. If you, as a writer, don’t think a scene is funny when written in the proper format, that means it probably wasn’t funny. You also never write “crash cut” that’s a director’s job to decide, not the writer’s. Further, animation scripts are fundamentally the same as a live action script, the different lies in what you do with the medium. In animation, you can literally do anything. Having a character sit around and talk like an episode of Seinfeld wouldn’t work in animation because nothing would be happening.
In terms of animation, say you want to script someone singing from morning to night, again and again and again as a part of a joke. Well... changing time or changing place changes the scene. Except, this is all a part of the same true scene and the same conflict, one character annoying the other in this specific place. I could go on about how nebulous scene changes are. But there is a reason novels don't have like an asterik or another marker every time the scene transitions.
There’s this little thing, maybe I’ve mentioned it once or twice, it’s called THE ACTION. You use that to describe a dramatic time shift like that. You write out the song and then out in the action
“as she sings, the sun sets and the moon rises.” That’s not ending the scene. You only use a “cut to” when a scene is over.
I do know that it's so the people behind the movie or television show know what set they need to build, or act on. What props should be out, etc. However, that doesn't really apply to animation. You can change up the background at will, and... well, that scene that takes place in the woods now takes place on the moon. The "props" and "sets" are at the disposal of the animator at all times.
Just what are you smoking? While it’s true that the sky is the limit, you still have real world limitations. Each set is a different background that will take several hours to draw. Background are reused as much as possible to save time for this very reason having a character go from the woods to the moon in one scene would take a tremendous amount of time and money. You still need to think realistically based on budget and manpower.
the purpose of language and writing is to transfer the most meaning with the least amount of effort. And sticking to this format goes directly against that. No written work should ever force you to align-right. Or change the margin in mid production.
Once again, a script is not a book. Novelists don’t always make the best script writers and vice versa. They are very different art firms. A script is essentially an instruction manual with a narrative.
I've started from writing prose, so maybe it's just me. When you write a novel, it's left-aligned forever and ever and ever (except titles and chapter breaks, which I don't really count). Where formatting - things like paragraph indents - were made to make reading easier and not just clutter up the page. Speaking of which, there is way too much white space on traditionally formatted scripts. Seriously, printer ink is expensive.
Case in point. You believe that because of your “writing prose” you believe that a script in incorrect, rather than just a different type of writing. Your worldview is simply too small to consider that maybe, just maybe, the rules of novels don’t apply to the entire writing field.
As for that last bit, it’s almost like the white space was used to save on ink or something. Who would have guessed?
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