Tuesday, January 17, 2006

What should your spec script title page look like? Should it say "spec script based on [name of show]"? Should it have all the producers and the "Property of ..." and all the stuff the script supervisor puts on it?

No, and no. It should look like a script from the show -- there shouldn't be a hint that this is not an actual spec of the show. So if the protocol for a Gray's Anatomy is title of show in caps, vertically centered, underlined, then name of episode in quotes, that's what you do:

GRAY'S ANATOMY

"Name of my episode"

by Your Name Here

If they don't underline the name of the show, don't underline it.

However, on the bottom of the page you put your contact info (or your agent puts her contact info). You don't need to put in all the stuff scripts wind up with once they leave the writer's room, e.g. the names of every producer attached to the show, the production number of the episode, the revisions or the disclaimer:

Blue Revisions 10 August 2006
Third Draft 07/28/06
Pink Draft 8/06/06

No portion of this script may be perpetrated, or reproduced by any means, or quotated, or published in any medium without prior written consent of HEAP BIG PRODUCERS INC. Copyright © 2006 - All rights reserved

Don't put that stuff. 'Cause it don't apply.

On feature spec scripts, by the way, I like to keep my title page simple. Everything's in courier 12. Just the name of the script, my name, and my contact info. I don't put the title in Morpheus or Visitation 18. No art. No quotes. Jess the fax.

UPDATE: DMc points out below that it's "Grey's Anatomy" not "Gray's." Don't mispell your show's name, eh? "Gray's Anatomy" is a movie starring Spalding Gray.

Technorati tags: screenwriting; TV

Labels: rights, spec scripts

6:53 PM

2 Comments:

Of course, in the case of the stated example, it probably shouldn't also read:

from the writer of Sienfeld, Chears, and The Bernie Mack Show.

Since the show starring the luscious Katherine Heigl and the beguiling Sandra Oh is, of course,

Grey's Anatomy.

By  DMc, at 9:32 PM  

Yes, yes. Someone needs a pat on his occiput.

By  Alex Epstein, at 10:18 PM  

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