Filmmaking Basics/Formatting the Script/Learn Final Draft

This school is:: Wikiversity Film School - Narrative film production
This course is:: The basics of narrative filmmaking
This lesson is:: Formatting the script

Pages of this lesson:

Page 1 - Lesson summary & the story

Page 2 - Analyze the story

Page 3 - Learn Final Draft

Page 4 - Type the script

The completed assignments (Scripts formatted by students)

Conclusion - Is it perfect?

Final Draft

To type and format the movie script for Seduced by the Dark Side, we will use a computer program called "Final Draft". This program has a FREE demo version.

To help learn the program, it comes with a tutorial. The tutorial is designed for advanced users so, for now, only glance at it.

Also, there are dozens of sample templates included within the program, including standard screenplay formatting, stage play formatting and the formats of many of today’s most popular television shows, all of which will speed up the learning process.

This is a fully professional program yet it is easy to use. You are working with the real thing. Enjoy!

Just like a word processor

Final Draft is a word processor designed for writing movies, television and stage plays. It combines word processing with screenplay formatting, allowing a writer to focus on what is being written instead of how it appears on the page.

If you have ever used a standard word processor, most of the editing functions, from selecting text to changing fonts and text alignment, will be familiar to you.

Screenplay format

Be sure to use the screenplay format so that you follow all the rules of a screenplay and not a television script, etc.

Final Draft is recommended by the following people:
J.J. Abrams Milo Addica Tim Allen Robert Altman Darren Aronofsky Paul Attanasio John August John Badham Alan Ball Fred Barron Michael Bay Stuart Beattie Harold Becker Steven Bochco James L. Brooks William Broyles, Jr. James Cameron Stephen J. Cannell Rob Cohen	Sofia Coppola John Cusack Pen Densham Steven E. deSouza Andy Dick Richard Donner Lauren Donner John Fasano Jon Favreau Bruce Feirstein Chris Gerolmo Terry Gilliam David Goyer Tom Hanks Amy Heckerling Todd Holland Peter Iliff Terry Jones	Lawrence Kasdan James Keach Simon Kinberg Brian Koppelman Tim Kring Steph Lady Jon Lovitz James Mangold Paul Mazursky Christopher McQuarrie Nancy Meyers Anthony Minghella Matthew Modine Dan Myrick Mace Neufeld George Nolfi Marc Norman	Edward Norton Sydney Pollack Mark Romanek Jan Sardi Alan Shapiro Ben Stiller Oliver Stone Julie Taymor Jay Tobias Bonnie Turner Jim Uhls Gore Verbinski Randall Wallace Audrey Wells David Williamson Kevin Williamson John Woo J.D. Zeik

Getting started with Final Draft

Therefore, it is a good idea for you to become familiar with this product… specially since they have a free demo version which can be used with this lesson to format the movie script for Seduced by the Dark Side.

Your assignment for this lesson

Step 1: 1. Download the Final Draft Demo. This is free and is available in either the Macintosh or Windows format. Final Draft comes with the Final Draft 7 Users Guide in the program's folder.

If your computer cannot run Final Draft, you might try CeltX but this is only a beta version which is limited.

Step 2: 2. Learn to use Final Draft.

Once you begin typing a script, you will see how the program works. At first, remembering the differences between TAB and RETURN is difficult. Learning to navigate just takes practice. When you make an error, simply undo. It is that easy!

Try either "Tab" or "Return"

Look at page 39 of the Final Draft 7 Users Guide to see the different elements of Final Draft.

In Final Draft, try hitting TAB and RETURN to see where you go.
If you do not go where you want, select Change Element To... under the Format menu.

Basically, that is all there is to the program. Obviously, there are many other useful features in Final Draft but they are not necessary for this lesson.

When you are ready to learn more, go through the Final Draft 7 Users Guide to see all the other features of the program.