Chapter 18

Production Drafts

You've sold your script, and lo and behold, you're still the writer of the next phase! Time for Production drafts and revisions (a.k.a. Production Rewrite). All script formatting software available at The Writers Store are terrific at generating locked scripts (meaning the pages are finalized), A & B pages, numbered scenes and other specifics of the production draft.

One of the ways production drafts differ from spec scripts is NUMBERED SCENES. Your script-formatting program can do this automatically. It numbers the SCENE HEADINGS with numbers to the left and right of the scene heading. The purpose of scene numbers is to aid the work of the Assistant Director and Producer in their efforts of breaking down the scenes for scheduling, and budgeting the script for production.

        REVISED April 30, 2001 BLUE                                           1.

       FADE IN:

 1     EXT. KEY WEST MARINA - DAWN - ESTABLISHING                            1

Sailboats, yachts, and cabin cruisers all bob up and down in the warm blue
water.

 2     EXT. BEACH - DAY                                                      2

as hundreds of young, perfect bodies of college age kids enjoy spring break.

Top Continued and Bottom Continued

Software Tip:
Script formatting software can easily insert Top CONTINUED and Bottom CONTINUED into your script, IF YOU WANT THAT DONE. It depends on who you are submitting to and at what stage the project is in.

Writing Tip:
Top and Bottom CONTINUEDs were common practice in the past, a stodgy convention indicating that a scene continued beyond the page the reader just finished reading. Typically in spec scripts this is no longer done, and your benefit of that change are the extra four lines of text you have just gained to write a better script.