Featured Book of the Month
The Hollywood Standard 2
by Christopher Riley
The Complete & Authoritative Guide to Script Format and Style
Early last year, we reviewed The Hollywood Standard: The Complete
& Authoritative Guide to Script Format and Style, by Christopher
Riley -- glowingly.
At the risk of repeating ourselves, we're about to do it again --
glowingly.
The expanded 2nd Edition of this exhaustive reference is now
available. If you've been putting off buying a copy, now's the time to
take the plunge!
Good screenplay formatting is often treated as negotiable, variable,
even optional -- maybe so, for writers who are already famous.
But if you're a spec script writer trying to break into the business,
you want your pages as clean and well-formatted as possible. You don't
want to give those readers even the slightest excuse to pass it by!
Also, and perhaps equally important, knowing your formatting helps you
focus less on the technical and more on the creative. It gives you the
tools you need to communicate your vision clearly and sharply, to tell
the exact story you want to tell.
There are many formatting manuals out there, but only this one comes
from a veteran script proofreader for Warner Bros. In his 15 years
there, Riley learned formatting at the knee of his venerable
predecessors, and went through thousands of scripts. It's that
rock-solid cred that separates this book from the others.
The 2nd Edition has a few minor improvements here and there -- for
example, the section on Flashbacks has a new John August-approved
convention which, as the book notes, "passes the tests of clarity
and economy".
More significantly, in this edition you'll find formatting guidelines
for handling text messages, caller IDs and e-mail. What's more,
there's a new Quick Start guide and a section on common formatting
mistakes, to ease you into the reference, and get you off to a good
start.
Many sections also have new, chatty FAQs to discuss some of the ins
and outs of the formatting under discussion.
The first edition was more trade paperback size -- this one is a full
8 1/2 x 11, with a "lay flat" binding so that you can keep
it open on your desk for easy reference.
This book is the one screenplay format reference we use. As the final
arbiter and argument-settler, it's the only formatting guide you
really need.
Author Riley, though, never sets himself up as the final word on
anything, and is happy to incorporate new information, as noted above,
where it's warranted. What The Hollywood Standard offers is "a
set of time-honored guidelines" to produce scripts which are
"highly readable, clear, and professional."
That's what this book is -- and with its help, that's what your
scripts will be too! Get your hands on a copy of this excellent
reference...you'll be glad you did.
StoryPros Verdict: Recommended
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