Thursday, March 31, 2011

I like to put one blank line before a slugline. In general, I feel there should never be more than one blank line in a row in a screenplay. Waste of space, y'know.

However, Screenwriter comes with the default set to two blank lines before a slugline. So which is the industry standard.

If you have an opinion, please vote. If you have a strenuous opinion, please vote and comment. Thanks!

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UPDATE: So far, the pros overwhelmingly (eight to one) use a single blank line. Everyone else is split almost evenly, with slightly more using single spaces.

Labels: format

6:45 PM

4 Comments:

I put only one line above a slugline because it seems to be the most popular way to format a spec script these days - and, it doesn't hurt that it saves a bit of space.

But - it still looks wrong to me. I'm a designer, and by putting only one line above and one line below the slugline, it doesn't anchor the slugline to the action/description below it - it just makes the slugline look like its own entity, floating there.

Over time, my mind has started to read this as correct, but if the general screenwriting populace moved toward two lines above, I'd be happy to switch to that style.

By  PlasmicSteve, at 9:15 AM  

I use MM Screenwriter and it put only one blank line above the slug line. It's possible that I set the default template to something other than the original setting, though. I checked on a script I wrote on it a few years ago and it, too, had only one blank line.

By  Keith, at 10:52 AM  

What's Final Draft's default? Like a line and a 1/2?

By  James, at 7:39 PM  

I'm with PlasmicSteve on this - I use two lines because it makes the script easier to read.

Just the same as I use two spaces after a full stop in a script, because Courier is a monospace font.

By  Piers, at 4:43 AM  

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