John August

QandA

Sending a script to an actor

Film Industry, QandA

As a writer without an agent or manager, would it be beneficial to me in any way to send a script to an actor via his/her agent? If I did send it, is there a possibility it may actually get to him?

–Chris Storer
Chicago

The odds are pretty slim, but there are a few cases where it might make sense:

1. For actors with very unique attributes.
Matthew McGrory, who plays Karl the Giant in BIG FISH, will be on the casting list for any movie involving a giant. So if you’ve written an acromegaly gangster drama called BIGFELLAS, it may make sense to send it to him. And, obviously, John Malkovich would be a prescient choice for BEING JOHN MALKOVICH.

2. For stars who can’t find roles.
Angela Bassett is a star, no question. But there aren’t a lot of great roles written for 46-year old African-American actresses. So if you’ve written one, it’s worth a shot.

3. For actors with a special affinity for the subject matter.
If you find out that Reese Witherspoon’s family is Armenian, and you’ve written the definitive wacky Armenian ethnic comedy, go for it. (By the way, I’m pretty certain Ms. Witherspoon is not of Armenian descent, but just by typing that last sentence, I suspect I’ll find “Reese Witherspoon Armenian” among the search engine phrases in the referrer log.)

In other words, Chris, if you’ve written a role that’s “perfect for Tom Cruise,” you have almost zero chance of getting it to him. But the more specialized the actor you’re targeting, the more reasonable it is to try.

Screenwriting software survey results are in

Formatting, News

survey_iconTwo weeks ago, I set up a survey to gauge how screenwriters felt about the screenwriting software they used. This morning, I closed the survey, which capped out at 130 responses — most of them coming the first week. My thanks to all the writers who participated.

Is 130 responses a statistically valid sample? Probably not, but we’re not electing a president here. The goal was just to get a better sense of how screenwriters felt, and on that level, I think the results are pretty clear.

As I talk through some of my observations, I’ll focus on three different groups. “All Writers” refers to anyone who responded to the survey. “Professional Writers” means respondents who identified themselves as earning their living as a screenwriter. Since I have no way of knowing whether these people really make their living off the screen trade, I’ll also single out “Verified Writers.” These are screenwriters who I personally emailed, so I know they do it for a living.

Over the next week or so, I’ll post some further thoughts and conclusions. But for now, I just wanted to present some general observations:

1. Most screenwriters use Final Draft.
In all, 75.2% of respondents used some version of Final Draft. For verified writers, that number rises to 100% (13 of 13). For all writers, the number two program was Movie Magic Screenwriter, followed by Microsoft Word and Sophocles.

2. Most screenwriters are happy with their current program.
A whopping 87% of respondents rate their program Good or Excellent, and 83% fall in the Satisfied camp. Those numbers drop to 77% and 78% for verified writers, but are still quite good.

3. Real writers use Macs.
Granted, that’s a biased bullet point. But it’s worth noting that among verified writers, Mac users outnumber Windows users by more than two-to-one (69.2% vs. 30.8%). In the less strict professional writers category, the numbers are roughly even (50% Mac vs. 47.1% Windows). Windows comes out on top for total respondents, 59% to 38.5%.

4. There are a lot of features no one uses.
Among these: index cards, collaboration, character name generator, computer voice reading, and email from within the program. Split screens could be added to this list, but since that’s a new feature for Final Draft v. 7, it’s understandable why most people don’t use it.

5. People want features they don’t use.
The great thing about surveys is that they can reveal logic inconsistencies. For instance, 51% of all writers never use script compare, yet 67% consider it Crucial or Important.

6. Price is an issue, but people will pay for quality.
For starters, 81.7% of respondents report using a legitimate copy of the program. We can’t know if that’s really accurate, but I’m inclined to believe it. While 58% of writers feel the software they are using costs too much, 47% said they’d be willing to pay $200 for their ideal screenwriting software, and another 39% said $100. To my eyes, that doesn’t seem to be a case of just wanting things cheaper, but wanting a better program for the money.

7. Most people found the survey through my site.
Which makes me feel all warm-and-fuzzy.

I conducted the survey using SurveyMonkey, which is cheap and brilliant. One of the very best things about the service is that by clicking on this link, you can see all of the results for yourself. While you’re there, definitely try the “Edit Filter…” feature in order to see more specific sets of information. (Hint: Check the “Total” versus “Visible” figures to make sure you’re really looking at the data you want.)

As always, please post your comments. I have my opinions, but I’m very curious to know your thoughts about What It Really Means.

Using a different font for the cover page on a script

Formatting, QandA

On your posted drafts of Go and Big Fish, you have a different font on the cover page for the title of the script. Since you have made it widely known that you use Final Draft, I assume that you used the “export to PDF” feature in Final Draft to do this. When I try to export using a font other than a standard font for the title (e.g. Courier, Courier New, Times New Roman, Arial, etc.), it saves that particular font as Arial or Times New Roman. How do you go about having those different fonts on the PDF versions of your scripts?

–John Herzog
Gotha, FL

The problem is specific to Final Draft for Windows. On Mac OS X, any program can export to .pdf from the Print dialog box, so What You See really is What You Get. It’s absurdly easy. All of the .pdf’s I make are done that way, rather than with Final Draft’s export command.

Obviously, I don’t know Windows as well as I know the Macintosh, but here are some possible solutions:

  1. Adobe Acrobat. Making .pdf’s is its job. But it’s not cheap.
  2. Find a third-party utility for making .pdf’s. Any good Windows shareware/demoware site should have something. Hopefully someone will suggest one in the comments.
  3. Find a (free?) utility for combining .pdf’s. On the Mac, a good free one is Preview; Window should have something like it. Generate a cover page in some other program that lets you save .pdfs, then use the combining utility to smack it onto the first page of your screenplay .pdf.

Of course, option four would be to get a Mac. But that’s probably overkill for this situation.

Discover the basics of title page formatting here!

Survey up for screenwriting software

Formatting, News

The ongoing conversation about screenwriting software, prompted by the release of Final Draft 7.0, has gotten a lot of readers wondering why a better program isn’t out there. After all, compared with the complexity of editing video or managing a website, simply formatting a script should be cake. It’s just words, after all. And there’s no shortage of good ideas for what the ideal screenwriting software should do.

What’s missing from the discussion is any sense of the real numbers. How many writers use which programs and how satisfied are they? What features matter, and which could you live without? And most importantly, is there really a market for an innovative competitor? The only way to find out is to ask, which is why I set up a brand-new survey. (**Update: Survey was completed in 2004, and no longer online.)

It’s short — it should take five minutes, tops. Once we hit a critical mass of responses, I’ll post the results here for everyone to mull over. In the mean time, do your part.