Members SOAPSFOREVER Posted December 10, 2009 Members Share Posted December 10, 2009 The same is true for Sarah Bibel. I see her name suggested as a possible head writer, when her only real experience in soaps is on Y&R as a breakdown and scriptwriter. Just because a former soap writer creates a blog and shares an opinion, doesn't mean they're the second coming of Doug Marland or Irna Phillips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bellcurve Posted December 10, 2009 Members Share Posted December 10, 2009 I think Sara Bibel is aye okay with her new gigs: trading trips for blog pimps and bashing on her old stomping ground. All the while getting paid for it. Nice work if you can get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members R Sinclair Posted December 11, 2009 Members Share Posted December 11, 2009 Hi five! I include her! Absolutely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted December 13, 2009 Members Share Posted December 13, 2009 Did Michele Val Jean say she writes in MS Word? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bellcurve Posted December 13, 2009 Members Share Posted December 13, 2009 Where did she say this? What's possible is that the scriptwriter may type a form of the script in Microsoft Word(unedited) to hand to each member of the production team so they can have it for the weekly meeting and make any minor/major changes. Then, the script coordinator or the writer's assistant types up or imports the scripts' text from MS Word into Final Draft, making the minor changes that were given in production meetings and has the script copied and ready to be pastel-paged to death by the producers, writers, and the network. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members brimike Posted December 13, 2009 Members Share Posted December 13, 2009 About half the soaps use MS Word. The other half use Movie Magic or Final Draft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted December 13, 2009 Members Share Posted December 13, 2009 I don't really know what people in daytime use... Sinclair, don't obsess. The program you use has nothing lacking. It's a matter of personal preference. Tim Kring, Paul Haggis, Nancy Meyers, Jon Cassar, Rina Mimoun, Tom Fontana... use MMS. Most of The Wire, if not all, was in MMS. JJ Abrams, Maggie Friedman, Michael Patrick King, Melissa Rosenberg, Alan Ball, Dustin Lance Black, Paul Attanasio, Sofia Coppola, Aaron Sorkin, David Milch... use Final Draft. Yes, I've heard MMS is used by many. But really - no FD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted December 13, 2009 Members Share Posted December 13, 2009 Oh, I didn't see the ETA! How could you forget FD?!?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bellcurve Posted December 13, 2009 Members Share Posted December 13, 2009 Wait! For unedited script or for the finished product? Really? Damnit, just seems so labor-intensive. I assume they have everything pre-set(Margins, etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted December 13, 2009 Members Share Posted December 13, 2009 I absolutely hate soap scripts. The ugliest format I've ever seen. Ever. Some British soaps come close, especially when they use Arial or Times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bellcurve Posted December 13, 2009 Members Share Posted December 13, 2009 Times New Roman. YUCK. C'mon Sylph. You know you like when...(EVERY SINGLE ACTION IS IN PARENTHETHICALS AND CAPPED AND BOLDED AS WE...) FADE TO BLACK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted December 13, 2009 Members Share Posted December 13, 2009 Not in GH scripts. Action is all in caps, but not bolded and not in brackets. Parentheticals are capped, are in brackets and are placed on the same line as dialogue. Transitions are underlined (FADE IN, FADE OUT, DISSOLVE TO...). Dialogue double-spaced! Ugh! Like in sitcoms... Sluglines basically don't exist: [A] BEDROOM: NEW DAY. AM TO AFTERNOON. Awful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted December 13, 2009 Members Share Posted December 13, 2009 BTW, old news probably, but JaneAusten just mentioned Army Wives and Diane Messina Stanley (ex-Y&R) is writing for the show now. It went well for her. No wonder, knowing who represents her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members R Sinclair Posted December 13, 2009 Members Share Posted December 13, 2009 I wasn't obsessed... but thank you! I was sent .pdf files of actual Alcazar and Georgie audition sides back in 2002. It was the first time I had ever seen a GH script. I seriously thought they were non-formatted rough drafts. The double spacing didn't faze me because it's multiple camera, and soaps generally use the "Tape Live" format -- however it's usually a little cleaner than GH scripts. The double spacing allows more room on the page for the director to make notes on camera shots/descriptions. But the action, parentheticals and dialog all seemed squished together! It looked incredibly tacky! Sluglines basically don't exist: [A] BEDROOM: NEW DAY. AM TO AFTERNOON. I change that up, slightly. Putting that act number as well as the scene in the bracket [1-A], and using the traditional INT. BEDROOM - NEW DAY. Anyway, it took me close to two years to use my screen writing software because I, too, was a slave to my word processor. After writing every scene, I'd go back and set the margins. Having, since, moved on to using my software with all the presets, it definitely does seem labor intensive to go back to that. But if that's the only way you work, you don't even think about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted December 13, 2009 Members Share Posted December 13, 2009 There is also this, completely free, but it has its problems like, for example, being completely useless for writing for existing TV shows. Many swear by it, for movies it's very good and obviously if you're writing your own TV show... As for all those soap scripts, just terrible! Ew! Everyone of them! I mean, I understand the whole thing about camera angles (British are even worse, they completely mess up the margins so that the right half of the page is for dialogue, action... and left completely blank for directors notes etc.), but those all caps lines, and not only caps, but bolded and underlined?! MMS has also Y&R and DOOL templates, those aren't much better either. P. S. To make it easier for the correct script formatting to appear on blogs and message boards, there's a thing called Scrippets. It wouldn't be bad if SON had it installed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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