The look of a script page
In comments on this post, Futurechamp1976 makes a point worth amplifying re the composition of a script page, specifically breaking up a lot of dialogue with SD. I recently did a Q&A; with a friend and former student who is a long-time script reader (over 10 years in Hwood). In asking her to describe her process, her first three steps when receiving a script for coverage are:
* Check out the title page and any accompanying reference material to see who the writer is, what agency represents the script, producers and talent attached, etc. This to determine how important the script is in terms of turnaround and start to establish her expectations re the upcoming read.
* Go the last page to see how long the script is. Not only to determine how much reading she’ll have to do, but to give her a second clue as to the professional quality of the script. For example, if it’s a drama and it’s 85 pages long, that suggests a thin story. On the other hand, if it’s a comedy and clocks in at 130 pages, that suggests the story is too much or wanders, basically needs some editing.
* The third thing is she flips through the script to get a sense of the balance of the pages, SD v. dialogue. If the pages tend to be filled with thick paragraphs of SD, this can not only mean a laborious read — and my guess is she would already be predisposed against the script — but also depending upon genre, it could signify a troubled script. An action script, lots of SD is okay. A comedy? Perhaps not so much.
So handling how much dialogue and how much SD, while a secondary concern, is an important one. In general, no SD paragraphs longer than 5 lines and even better 2–3. No page just with dialogue. And don’t forget that white space is also important, not only aesthetically, but also functionally to show that the story has a balance between action and words.