Directing and Producing for Television, 4th Edition

appendix one

Script Formatting

The following examples of the Pencil Exercise were formatted using FinalDraft 8 and FinalDraft AV. Some of the lines have been increased in length to indicate how they would be handled in a variety of formats. The layout of each script—stage plays, screenplays, daytime dramas, sitcoms, and audiovisual—is formatted in a specific way. The correct formatting is designed to facilitate the specific needs of each kind of production. The format is particularly critical to television production; there is always a large margin on the right which allows material to be written in a way that makes cues immediately identifiable, specific, and universally accepted. The sense behind the formatting of stage screen is as important. ...