How to be the script department

Craig and John offer advice on handling revisions once your screenplay moves into production. Why do you lock pages? How do you add scenes once the script is locked? Why are some pages different colors? And what comes between page 15 and 15A? Get it right, and it should be smooth sailing. Get it wrong, and you have a frustrated crew and a lot of cleanup. Television series generate so many scripts that they generally have their own internal systems, with designated staffers to handle the process. But for small-to-medium-sized features, the screenwriter is the script department. The good news is that it’s usually pretty straightforward, especially if you follow some best practices to make life easier. Also discussed this week: science fair projects, historic atrocities, and the origin of “wackiness ensues.” Standing on the shoulders of giants in episode 30 of Scriptnotes. LINKS: Fark Arts and Letters Daily The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History’s 100 Worst Atrocities by Matthew White The Passage: A Novel by Justin Cronin Intro: 3-2-1 Contact opening Outro: Crazy in Love by the Puppini Sisters UPDATE 3-28-12: The transcript of this episode can be found here The post How to be the script department first appeared on John August.