I've noticed how perticuarly old or famous writers tend to stray from the rules of formatting in there script and how amatuer writers like us have to abide compeltely. Not that I'm complaining, but I read this line from from Quentin Tarintino's Kill Bill script. This is an actual description, not dialogue

" Bride, runs into the kitchen, opens a drawer and
comes out with a HUGE MOTHERFUCKIN BUTCHER KNIFE."

Funny.

Quoted from -Ben- I've noticed how perticuarly old or famous writers tend to stray from the rules of formatting in there script and how amatuer writers like us have to abide compeltely. Not that I'm complaining, but I read this line from from Quentin Tarintino's Kill Bill script. This is an actual description, not dialogue " Bride, runs into the kitchen, opens a drawer and comes out with a HUGE MOTHERFUCKIN BUTCHER KNIFE." Funny.

Yes, there is a double standard, one for us and another for established screenwriters.

As Dogglebe says "Do you think anyone would care if Tarantino didn't follow format?"

Fact is, Dogglebe is right,  no one would care -- Never mind that Tarantino, himself, before he was established, didn't care about rules. He wrote what he wanted to write.

Tarantino isn't where he is today because he followed the rules, but because broke 'em -- damn near every one.

That said, be wary of of those who claim to know what is "right."

While you need to pay heed to the "rules," you do not have to be a slave to 'em.

Seth

I don't understand why this topic keeps coming up.  If you're writing a screenplay and the most important thing that is going through your mind is format, that's prettty bad.  A screenplay is about story.  And characters.  Format can always be tweaked.  Get your story right first.  You can always post it here or send excerpts and ask what needs to be changed.  But you can't change the story too often if it sucks.  There are several people here that will read a not properly formatted script.  As long as it's readable and somewhat the standard, not an essay or a play for example, I will read it and give you pointers.  There are people here that won't read it if it's not exactly spec qualified so you might have to ask around.

The established writers seem to write their "spec" scripts as their pitch as well.  That's why they have the color commentary intertwined with their description and dialogue.  They are trying to get the production company to feel excited about the story.  And he needed it with Kill Bill because the story was basic as hell and was a rip off the 1972 classic Lady Snowblood.  So he needed people to feel amped about buying the rights.  Plus he was the director too so he could have written it in shorthand and code for all that matters.  He would be the only one reading it and adapting it to the screen.

I'm sorry I hate Tarrentino with a passion, so I may not be his biggerst praiser.  I think he is a weak ass writer that just steals Japanese and Spagetti western stories from the 70's and claims them as his own.  And gets credited as a genius as well.

Bottom line is formatting is not a big deal.  Esepcially for writers writing on some website.  You aren't selling anything to Hollywood yet.  So get your stories right first.  Format can be learned from a book if you really needed to learn in a hurry.  And I fuind it funny that in all the scriptwriting books I've read the formatting chapter is like second to the end and is the shortest.  Go figure.      

It is true. I second what Guy says completely.

1. When Tarantino wrote Kill Bill, it was going to be made into a film. There was no pitch, no prayer, nothing that we little peopel go through. He was going to direct it, and so he wrote it so he could remember what the hell he was thinking when he wrote it.

2. Format is important once you're done, but the least important when you start. Write a first draft in whatever way make you comfortable. I recall fixing the format of an older script I wrote once that had a decent story but horrible format. It took me a couple hours. That's it. It's takes foever to write out a full script, but only a couple hours to fix bad format to good. Which do you think is more important?

You can, if you so desire, have several versions of you own script when it comes to format. If you think there's a chance in hell of you directing it, keep the draft that has all your camera directions, but make a different version to sho off that has the spec format in it. That's what you should post here, since that's what we critique to and look at all the time when it comes to format. Some on here will look at badly formatted scripts (myself being one of them) but a lot of people won't because it looks like you don't care about following the rules to get yourself in the door, and if you don't care, why should we?