I was taught never to do certain things when making a spec script, yet I go and begin reading these award winning script and...what the heck? There are 3 sizes you should write, 90 page, 110, and 120. I keep seeing scripts that are 117 pages and that last page is one sentence. I see tons of single word "orphans" on a line. They seem to have no concept of utilizing space. And half the scenes say stuff like "we see" and other things that amount to telling a camera where to go and how to transition to it, which is not the role of a spec script at all. How do they get away with that? I feel like I've been lied to here. EDIT: holy crap, this one has dialog and it isn't in teh dialog section, it's in the description. And this won an Oscar!
Maybe that's because of sense in that novels or scripts, something that is really important for that time, for that place, for that director or producer. They may seem really awful, but it's a script still. Yes, they may really look bad. But it means that the script you read is not so professional as you supposed. Maybe better to read other scripts if you can choose.
1. Many of the 'rules' for writing scripts are nonsense. 2. When you've already written a couple of Hollywood blockbuster movies no-one's going to reject your script because you include camera directions. They'll probably ignore them, but they'll still buy it and make the movie.
1. i doubt that what you're reading are actually 'spec scripts'... if they are, please give me links to them, since i've never found one yet, and would love to have some in the samples i keep for mentees and clients... 2. they are most likely not written by unknown newbies, but by writers already working in the industry and/or having good connections there... 3. 90/110/120 pages are not rigid rules set down in stone... while 110 is the 'preferred' max length [used to be 120] nowadays, for all but comedy [which is usually 10 or so pages shorter], that doesn't mean every script has to be exactly that number of pages... where did you get the idea that those three exact lengths were mandatory?... and for what kinds of scripts?... which screenplay are you referring to that won an oscar with dialog in the description element?
