Jay Fingers, Screenwriter/Author: If you'll notice my slugs are bold and underlined
Film Courage: Can you explain why screenwriters should not use bold slug lines?
Jay: No, I think screenwriters should use bold slug lines.
Bold slugs is one of those things I know I've talked about formatting
bolt slugs is one of those formatting things that really really really rile people up especially on
social media especially like on twitter we get into these formatting wars what's acceptable
should you bold your slugs or should you underline them or should you I don't know
it's just all sorts of like craziness bold slugs I don't think are a big deal
I like to use them I just think that it makes the page look better separates clearly separates
different scenes aesthetically I just it's pleasing to me but if you choose not to bold
your slugs or underline them then then that's fine like that's not a big deal that's not a big deal
I think and this is to go back to something I said earlier I think a lot of the formatting
wars stem from people wanting to do their own thing instead of adhering to like an established
format people get the advice all the time don't make your descriptions your action lines
too long we don't want paragraphs and paragraphs of description that's not that's not how it's done
but someone will say pull a page from the chinatown script and say but look at this
this is chinatown oscar-winning script and classic film and there's paragraphs of of action in my
mind I'm like well number one it was written in the 70s I'm sure Robert Towne wrote that like
72-73 because the film came out in 74. number two it's Robert Towne, Robert Towne can do that
um and also times have changed whereas that was the norm and if you look at scripts from like
the 70s yeah you'll see that they're very like prose heavy and whatever but that's
that's what was done now white space is considered like that's the good thing they have like a
lot of white space on the page so keep your description short your paragraphs maybe two to
three lines like whatever I mean and these are all guidelines but but the thing is you can't hold up
an oscar-winning script from the 70s and say I want to do it this way because I saw this
now so I think a lot of like the formatting discussions stem from stuff like that
people see what established writers are doing and feel that they can do the same thing and everyone
everyone says because it's all about the story and that's very true story is the most important thing
but kind of goes back to what I said earlier if your work looks sloppy or if it if it doesn't
look like in my opinion if it doesn't look like it's adhering to proper format no one's going
to get to the story they're going to look at the script and say what is going on here this is not
a screenplay why do you think there's more white space on the page than nowadays I think
more white space just means less words people don't have the time to like really sit down and
read like they want to they want to get through a script as fast as possible and so if there's a lot
of white space I feel that that indicates that you're telling the story using economy of words
and and and they can get through the script even if 100 page script they can get through it in no
time like I think a great example is misha green she wrote a script called mother it's
an action script and like her action lines are very short like I mean some action lines like one
or two words and that's it and the dialogue is also short so there's lots of white space
when you flip through it I can imagine any like development exec or producer like getting that
script and flipping through it and being like oh yeah I can I can get through this and still
have enough time to make it to TGI Fridays for cocktails and potato skins so I think I think
really think that's why just people want to read and get through it as quickly as possible
so then when does the heavy dialogue come in or it doesn't we're using less dialogue now
I've heard from so many people you don't want to have a lot of dialogue you don't
want chunky blocks of dialogue you can get away with that if you're Tarantino but
most of us aren't Tarantino so they say it's best to keep your your dialogue short
so yeah I don't know so the prose heavy Woody Allen Diane Keaton conversations though those
as as wonderful as those are we're not having as much of those now right I don't think so I don't
think so and yeah like I love those movies and I love those type those sorts of exchanges in film
I think because I think I tend to write a lot of dialogue so what I do is I break the blocks up
using like parentheticals or using short action lines this way it doesn't look like a big massive
speech a big massive block of dialogue and giving white space separating these elements but
also giving white space so I'm hoping that it's it's it's pleasing to whomever whoever
reads it why do screenwriters argue over format because it's the one thing we can control in this
in this crazy industry is how our work looks how how it looks when we present it to someone
and I just think that everyone feels that the way they do things is perhaps the right way to do it
I'm an advocate of proper screenplay format follow like I use a program
it works well there's a book called at least called the Hollywood standard which also has
a lot of tips as far as formatting I think it's a great kind of formatting guide I follow that
as well if I'm unsure about something I always refer to the Hollywood standards just like oh
okay this is how I because I want any manager or producer or actor or anyone who picks up my script
to look at it and say yes just just by looking at it like yes this is this is professional work
and then they can read it and get into the story whatever we are in control of that after after we
write the script we send it out that's it it's out of our control and and so I think that's a major
reason is this is us this is what we can do you want to put that out there and also
you don't want to give anyone a reason to pass to reject your work and I think that
if you if you give them a screenplay that that isn't that doesn't look right I think that that
that will happen right I remember going to like this this ridiculous resume thing that
I was supposed to go to and the guy's like yeah you want to use these fun fonts and you want to
make your thing really stand out and I thought why because that's going to just confuse the reader
and it sounds like that's the same thing like I don't want to submit a script that has
a fourth of an inch margin all the way around and a cursive font that's a cool gaelic looking thing
right and that's the thing is that I'm with formatting I'm not talking about like there
are people who who argue over using a fun font on the title page I think that that's fine
I've done it that's cool but the title page it's supposed to look a certain way you have your title
you have your writer's name and then you've got the information in the bottom left corner
I think that a fun font for the title is fine but as you mentioned can't be that fun font throughout
the entire script like that's that's not going to work and so jay you've brought some examples
of your own work here a script can you talk us through how it should look I mean sure I mean
for instance talking about like a fun font on the title page like this is
this is my script potter's field oh nice and I use the font that is supposed to mimic
like dripping blood so it's it's a hard but it's a horror comedy so I wanted to get a little cheeky
so give you that horror vibe but also a little playful little fun vibe so that's why I did that
okay so you did use a cool font for the for the title page right right
and I think maybe
a page like this illustrates what I was talking about right white on the page right
short dialogue blocks the action lines aren't too long probably like the longest action line
like it hits like three lines here so I mean yeah and if you'll notice my slugs
are bold and underlined okay just because again I like the way that that looks and
breaks up the scene one thing I'm seeing jay is your script here is reading more like a book
and it's less so single page single page right I mean and this is just for me like I printed this
out like this for me effort to save paper and but no definitely like if I were to
print out a script and send it send it out to someone definitely it would just single side
printing gotcha okay well I'm all about saving paper laser printer all the toner things like
that okay great so that's an environmentally friendly script right there exactly yeah
and then are the pages numbered the pages are numbered okay where do you have the you don't
number the first page but you certainly begin with number two on the second page okay and you're
going to have it up there yeah yeah upper right corner and then toward the end at the at the end
of the script how does it end just kind of like fade out there's no I used fade to black fade to
black I use fade to black and then I hit him with an actual the end okay Stephen King once again the
sweetest phrase that that writers whatever type is like the end he says something like that
so I always do that and that's that is another thing though people people are really they feel
strongly about fade in fade out fade to black and I think that those are all stylistic touches I
like to fade to black so okay and the end is it written in all caps or that doesn't matter
I don't think that it matters but I in all caps and bold and underlined like the slugs.
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