@Dreamscale

The 30-lines thing was my fault.  I was using it as an example for my thesis... is that the word? As is the wrylies stuff.  You'd likely need roughly 65-80 action wrylies per script to get 3 pages off the total.  But one or two, maybe 10 or 15 per script won't do much, but still, it saves lines, and maybe pages if you use enough.  

@Dustin

It's more of a personal choice for me, mate.  I like it when my scripts come in at less than 100 pages.  In my opinion, whenever ANY of my scripts go over that line I see them as a potential problem.

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Anyway, guess this turned into more of a debate than anything.  Suppose we all have our own ways of doing things, otherwise it'd be boring, lol.  

Quoted from DustinBowcot What does that have to do with what I said? Page count does not matter if the substance of the story is exactly the same. I wasn't even talking about adding extra stuff.

-- you weren't talking about adding extra stuff, I was. That's the reality of the fact.

I don't get your logic totally, so you might have to explain further: Substance of the story is contained in 30pp. Subtance is exactly the same for 60pp. What are the extra pages for then?

Quoted from Forgive Substance of the story is contained in 30pp. Subtance is exactly the same for 60pp. What are the extra pages for then?

They're all wasted space, filled with unfilmables, orphans, repitition out the ass, over writing, unnecessary detail, unnecessary wrylies, and basically, writing like a beginner.  

-- but not Dustbin, surely he'd never do such a thing???????

Quoted from Forgive -- but not Dustbin, surely he'd never do such a thing???????

No...of course not.  Not old Dusty.

HaHa...

This is funny, you have to be a piss poor reader if you put a script down for its use of parentheticals -- considering the writer knows what they're doing.

I just want to chime in here and say that the average lines per page for a script isn't capped at 56. I'd argue around 50/60% or so scripts are written in Final Draft, and FD uses 58 lines -- so that's probably a better estimate. Even if the percentage is less than that, most of the newer programs follow the same protocol and go with 58. Heck, Trelby has 60 if you're counting.

From that logic, if you have 58 parentheticals in your script and you take them all out, then you'll lose a page. Not three.

This wasn't Dustin, guys, it was me.  I gave the pp thing.  Blame goes to me for being a "noob" at this.  Never listen to anything I say in regards to "answers" 'cause I'm awful at giving advice, hell, I barely understood what "PP" meant until I realized it meant "per page" about two seconds ago after I typed "the heck is PP?"

I'll be going now.

-Lee

Are you sure that's what 'pp' means?

Why then did my mother tell me to do that in the potty?

Erm, yes. I'll be off, then.

R

Quoted from Forgive -- you weren't talking about adding extra stuff, I was. That's the reality of the fact. I don't get your logic totally, so you might have to explain further: Substance of the story is contained in 30pp. Subtance is exactly the same for 60pp. What are the extra pages for then?

Now you're needlessly bringing specific figures into it. If you can't understand the explanation so far then I'm at a loss to simplify it further. You'll just have to remain in ignorance.

Quoted from rendevous Are you sure that's what 'pp' means? Why then did my mother tell me to do that in the potty? Erm, yes. I'll be off, then. R

I was always taught to use the toilet, but... you know, whatever suits.

-Lee

Quoted from nawazm11 This is funny, you have to be a piss poor reader if you put a script down for its use of parentheticals -- considering the writer knows what they're doing. I just want to chime in here and say that the average lines per page for a script isn't capped at 56. I'd argue around 50/60% or so scripts are written in Final Draft, and FD uses 58 lines -- so that's probably a better estimate. Even if the percentage is less than that, most of the newer programs follow the same protocol and go with 58. Heck, Trelby has 60 if you're counting. From that logic, if you have 58 parentheticals in your script and you take them all out, then you'll lose a page. Not three.

Mo, first of all, you missed the point of where this discussion went - action wrylies - using action wrylies to save lines over using regular action/description lines.

So, at what point, as in how many wrylies assaulting your sense would it take for you to think, "damn, that's way too many and I'm getting irritated"?  When would you become a piss poor reader?

Quoted from Forgive -- but not Dustbin, surely he'd never do such a thing???????

I do whatever I like.

                                          CLOROX
                                    (flips the bird)
                                    Here's your IQ

Clorox leaves.

..................................................

Clorox flips the bird and leaves.

                                        CLOROX
                                   Here's your IQ                                        

Quoted from Dreamscale Mo, first of all, you missed the point of where this discussion went - action wrylies - using action wrylies to save lines over using regular action/description lines. So, at what point, as in how many wrylies assaulting your sense would it take for you to think, "damn, that's way too many and I'm getting irritated"?  When would you become a piss poor reader?

I kind of skimmed over everything in the thread, but I was implying that if if you're cutting parentheticals to lose pages, you're doing it for the wrong reasons. 5-10 is an abysmally low number, unless of course, there's no need to use any more -- which in the end comes to what kind of writer you are.

Piss poor reader was a bit of an extreme but personally, if the writer is using them right, they can have as many as they want, but if it's the opposite/or it's plain obvious they're doing it to cut down on action, then you could say I'd be irritated. A lot of writers like to treat readers as five year olds waiting to have a hissy fit as they start reading a script. So nobody ever takes a chance and in the end, you're left with a polished turd with the inciting incident on page 12 and six wrylies used in intervals of 20 pages. Again, I'm not sure which side this agrees with since I lost track of who said what.

Jumping again to my previous post. I noticed in Celtx that PDF conversion was adding more pages to my script that there should be. I also noticed that there was an extra space, like a line and a half, above every new scene. I found an option to make it 1 line spaced out between scenes and I cut 3 pages that way. Is it standard to have that extra half line between scenes? Is it cheating to get rid of it? Would anybody notice?