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FRANK
In both the American and British styles, you use a Courier 12-point font. In the American style, however, the character name is centred and in capital letters above the line of dialogue. Dialogue is single- spaced and, unlike in screenwriting format, spans most of the page. Leave healthy margins though. Stage directions . . . (Hitting the Enter key, then tabbing a bunch of times, he demonstrates.) . . . are indented to the centre, single-spaced (Remembering.) If they're short, they can just be incorporated into the side of dialogue itself. (FRANK stares at the screen, sips his whiskey.) Character names are in caps in stage directions, too. But not, Dixie, when part of the dialogue itself.
DIXIE
FRANK
Or: FRANK:
There's the British style, also widely used in Canada,
FRANK:
(Smashing his whiskey glass against the wall.) How can
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| Of course, these days there's all sorts of scriptwriting software out
there that'll do this work for you.
Why does format matter? Well, besides the fact that your script is liable
to be taken a lot more seriously if it's prepared in a professional style,
these formats create a clear, workable document for actors, directors,
technicians, et al. to use in rehearsal. |