My wife got a me copy of the script for Ed Wood, 1994 for my birthday.  It looks like a shooting script, as it has numbers after scene headings, but on the cover it says "SCRIPTOR DRAFT", with "White" and a date underneath.  Is that the same as a first draft shooting script?  I've searched the web and can't find anything about it.

Hi Steven,

Yes is is a shooting script if it has scene numbers and traditionally colours are used to track amends to a locked shooting script as detailed here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_script#:~:text=The%20progression%20of%20colors%20varies,(%22double%20blue%22).

But no idea about SCRIPTOR DRAFT never heard of that one.

Quoted from AnthonyCawood Hi Steven, Yes is is a shooting script if it has scene numbers and traditionally colours are used to track amends to a locked shooting script as detailed here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_script#:~:text=The%20progression%20of%20colors%20varies,(%22double%20blue%22). But no idea about SCRIPTOR DRAFT never heard of that one.

Thanks, Anthony.  That's kind of what I'd figured.  I read that Wiki page and a few other pages about scripts and color designations.  I just couldn't find anywhere that actually mentioned the term SCRIPTOR DRAFT.  Sounds like they made it up for their project.  I'm written to Scriptfly to see if they know anything about it.

I think I may have solved the mystery.  This screenplay was written in 1993 using the first screenplay formatting software called, get this..."Scriptor!"  Not only does it say Scriptor Draft on the title page, it has Scriptor Master and the date at the top of each page.

Read this:

History

The first screenwriting software was a standalone script formatter, Scriptor, from Screenplay Systems. It took a text file generated by a word processor and inserted the proper page break tags. When used in conjunction with a TSR program such as SmartKey or ProKey keyboard utilities that assigned a sequence of commands to keystroke combinations, the "dot commands" that Scriptor required could be inserted semi-automatically. Additionally, keyboard macros could be programmed to properly indent and enter abbreviations, allowing a user to customize the working of the word processor.

SmartKey was popular with screenwriters from 1982 - 1987, after which word processing programs had their own macro features.

An update to Scriptor understood the style sheets used in Microsoft Word for DOS. And so the need for key macro programs was lessened. Scriptor's limitation was that once formatted it was difficult to re-import the resulting text back into a word processor for further editing.

[edit] - check this out:


SCRIPTOR Trademark

Trademark Overview

On Monday, July 19, 1993, a trademark application was filed for SCRIPTOR with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The USPTO has given the SCRIPTOR trademark a serial number of 74417602. The federal status of this trademark filing is ABANDONED - FAILURE TO RESPOND OR LATE RESPONSE as of Monday, July 10, 1995. This trademark is owned by Screenplay Systems, Inc.. The SCRIPTOR trademark is filed in the Computer & Software Products & Electrical & Scientific Products and Paper & Printed Material Products categories with the following description:

computer programs used in connection with the authoring and formatting of screenplays and scripts

Great detective work Steven, never heard of that software before!

Well, you learn something new every day.

Quoted from Storey_Matters Well, you learn something new every day.

You certainly do.