THE EVOLUTION OF A SCRIPT FROM FIRST DRAFT TO PRODUCTION DRAFT

The first draft of a script can look different from a production draft in two important ways: the absence or presence of scene numbers and the absence or presence of CONTINUEDs at the tops and bottoms of pages.

CONTINUEDs at the tops and bottoms of pages

When a scene continues from one page to the next, a production draft includes the word (CONTINUED) at the bottom of the first page and the word CONTINUED: at the top of the second page.

A page broken with CONTINUEDs looks like this:

EXT. BATTLEFIELD — DAWN

The sun rises crimson over the fallen soldiers. Ragged children move among the dead, searching for survivors. Or a serviceable pair of boots.

(CONTINUED)

21.

CONTINUED:

UNION CAPTAIN

You younguns, git!
      (turning to his
      men)
Ever’body knows his job.
Let’s
git to it!

The men start reluctantly across the field.

CUT TO:

Only use CONTINUEDs when a scene is broken between pages. When a scene ends at the bottom of a page and a new scene begins at the top of the following page, don’t add CONTINUEDs:

INT. CLOSET — DAY

Schmidt listens as the FOOTSTEPS RECEDE. He turns the handle and pushes open the closet door.

35.

INT. HALLWAY — DAY

Schmidt pokes his head into the hall and looks both ways. Sees the coast is clear. He steps into the hall.

A script may use CONTINUEDs at any stage, but standard format requires that they be used when scene numbers are added.

Adding CONTINUEDs at the tops and bottoms of pages takes away space that would otherwise be filled by script content. Consequently, the page count increases when CONTINUEDs are added, usually by about 11%.

Scene numbers

Only a script that has reached preproduction should have scene numbers. Prior to preproduction, a script should not have scene numbers.

When scene numbers are added to a script, scenes are numbered consecutively beginning at 1, and every shot heading receives a number. (An alternative but less common method numbers only the master scene headings, those that move the action to a new location or a new period of time.)

Scene numbers are typed on both the left and right sides of the shot heading, like this:

22

EXT. GRANT’S HEADQUARTERS — NIGHT

22

The left scene number begins 1.0″ from the left paper edge.

The right scene number begins 7.4″ from the left paper edge.

If a shot heading wraps onto a second line, the scene numbers remain on the first line:

9

EXT. NEW YORK CITY — CENTRAL PARK — WIDE ANGLE — BALL
FIELD — DAY

9

When a scene continues from one page to the next, the scene numbers are placed on the same line as the CONTINUED:

121

EXT. BATTLEFIELD — DAWN

The sun rises crimson over the fallen soldiers. Ragged children move among the dead, searching for survivors. Or a serviceable pair of boots.

121

(CONTINUED)

109.

121

CONTINUED:

121

UNION CAPTAIN

You younguns, git!

If the above scene which begins on page 108 and continues on page 109 is long enough to extend onto page 110, a (2) is placed inside parentheses beside the CONTINUED on page 110:

110.

121

CONTINUED: (2)

121

SERGEANT

Gather those guns right here.

Don’t be confused. Even though page 110 is the third page of the scene, it is the second CONTINUED page of the scene, and therefore gets a (2).

If the scene kept going, page 111 would get a CONTINUED: (3) and page 112 would get a CONTINUED: (4), and so on until there is a new scene with a new scene number.

When scene numbers are locked

As a script moves through preproduction it is eventually boarded, that is a production board is made up based on the scene numbers. Before a script is boarded, it is proper to renumber the scenes when changes are made that add or omit scenes. But after a script is boarded, the scene numbers are locked and shouldn’t be changed. Production personnel are working based on the scene numbers that existed at the time the script was boarded.

Omitted scenes

If a scene in a locked script is omitted, it should be indicated as follows:

121

OMITTED

121

122

INT. GRANT’S TENT — NIGHT
Officers have gathered to await word from the general.

122

In that way, all scene numbers are accounted for and there is no uncertainty about what became of scene 121.

If two scenes are omitted, indicate the omission like this:

120
&
121

OMITTED

120
&
121

122

INT. GRANT’S TENT — NIGHT
Officers have gathered to await word from the general.

122

If a group of more than two scenes is omitted, indicate the omission as follows:

118 thru 121

OMITTED

118 thru 121

122

INT. GRANT’S TENT — NIGHT
Officers have gathered to await word from the general.

122

Numbering “A” scenes

If a new scene is added in a locked script, it is given a new, unique number, in this case 121A:

121

OMITTED

121

121A

EXT. NIGHT SKY
Clouds cover the full moon.

121A

122

INT. GRANT’S TENT - NIGHTM
Officers have gathered to await word from Grant.

122

If two or more scenes had been added, they would be numbered 121 A, 121B, 121C, and so on. In rare instances more than 26 scenes are inserted and the whole alphabet is expended. When that happens, scene 121Z is followed by 121AA, 121BB, 121CC, and so on.

Add a hyphen to scenes lettered with an I or an O so that the letters aren’t confused with numbers:

121-I
thru
121-O

OMITTED

121-I
thru
121-O

If a new scene is added at some later date between scenes 121 and 121 A, it is numbered A121A:

121

OMITTED

121

A121A

ANGLE ON CAMPFIRE
Sparks fly up.

A121A

121A

EXT. NIGHT SKY
Clouds cover the full moon.

121A

122

INT. GRANT’S TENT — NIGHT
Officers have gathered to await word from the general.

122

If two or more scenes had been added, they would be numbered A121A, B121A, C121A, and so on. The principle is that scene A1 precedes scene 1 and scene 1A follows scene 1.

Colored paper

The first time a script receives wide distribution to production personnel, the pages are white. Subsequent versions of the script are distributed on colored paper to avoid the confusion of people working from different versions of the same script. The director can say, “Do you have the buff draft?” and the star can answer, “Buff? I’m still working from the green draft.”

In the United States, the standard progression of colors is:

After tan the cycle repeats, starting over with white. Overseas productions often include other paper colors.

Revision marks

Once a script has received wide distribution, subsequent versions of the script should contain revision marks to help production personnel quickly locate the changes. The revision marks go in the right margin beside each line that contains changes, 7.8″ from the left edge of the page. The most common revision mark is the asterisk:

121

OMITTED

121

121A

ANGLE ON CAMPFIRE

121A *

Sparks fly up.

*

121B

EXT. NIGHT SKY

121B *

Clouds cover the full moon.

*

122

INT. GRANT’S TENT — NIGHT
Officers have gathered to await word from the general.

122

If there are so many changes on a given page that more than ten asterisks would be required, a single asterisk goes at the top of the page, to the right of the page number:

110. *

121

CONTINUED: (2)

121

SERGEANT

Gather those guns right here.

Full drafts vs. revised pages

Many times, after a script has already received wide distribution to production personnel, extensive changes are made involving more than half the pages in the script and a whole new, full draft is issued. When this happens, the script is repaginated. That is, pages are renumbered with text moving up to fill in the space where omissions are made, and text moving down to make room for added material.

At other times, only a few pages are changed and only those revised pages (also called simply revisions) are issued. In this case, if a page has no changes, it isn’t reprinted. Production personnel replace just the changed pages in their existing scripts. Not only does this practice save paper and expense, it preserves much of the current script and all of the many handwritten notes that frequently cover the pages of a script in preproduction or production.

Say there’s a change on page 7 of a full draft of a script that was distributed on blue paper. The change is typed with revisions marks indicating the location of changes, the new page 7 is printed on the next color of paper, pink, and distributed. Recipients pull the old blue page 7 out of their scripts and put the new pink page 7 in its place.

In practice, of course, a set of revisions may involve 40 or 50 or even 60 revised pages. The principle, though, remains the same. The old pages are pulled out and the new pages are put in their place. The process of issuing revised pages frequently continues until the script contains every possible color of paper and is accurately described as a rainbow script.

Revision slugs

Every page of a set of revised pages bears a revision slug at the top of the page, on the same line as the page number, that includes the title (in all capital letters) and date of the revisions:

UNDER THE TABLE — Rev. 3/11/09

17.

For series television, include both the series title (all caps) and episode title (upper and lower case with quotation marks), plus the revision date:

ALIAS — “A Life Apart” — Rev. 2/21/04

59.

The revision slug begins 1.7″ from the left edge of the page.

Deleting material from revised pages

If material is deleted from a page, that page remains short. In the following example, scene 23 is being omitted from page 12 of a script titled Grant in a set of revisions dated 1/1/04:

Material from the following pages can’t be allowed to flow onto the revised page to fill the empty space, because if those pages have no changes, they aren’t going to be reprinted. They must remain unchanged. This forces page 12 to remain a short page. It then fits correctly into the existing script.

“A” pages

But what do you do if enough new material is added to a page that it forces the subsequent text off the bottom of the page? Let’s say that a couple of days have passed since the set of revisions described above. Today, a quarter-page scene needs to be added to page 13, but page 14 has no changes. The extra material from page 13 can’t be allowed to flow onto page 14, because page 14 isn’t going to be reprinted. Instead, page 13A is created to hold the overflow text and is printed along with the rest of the revised pages. Production personnel will pull the old page 13 out of their scripts and insert the new pages 13 and 13A in its place. The old page 14 will remain in the script unchanged and the new pages will fit correctly into the existing script:

If needed, a “B” page can follow an “A” page, followed by a “C” page, and so on.

Runs of revised pages

When two or more pages in a row contain changes, they constitute a run of revised pages. Runs of pages receive special treatment. Since every page in the run has changes and is going to be reprinted, material can flow from page to page within the run. Say there are changes on pages 90, 91 and 92, but page 93 has no changes. A scene is deleted from page 90, making room for material from page 91 to flow forward onto page 90 and fill the empty space. Material from page 92 then flows forward onto page 91. Page 92, the last page in the run, becomes the short page. Page 93 remains undisturbed and the new pages fit correctly into the existing script:

Conversely, say that a scene is added to page 90. The extra material can flow onto pages 91 and 92 so long as they also have changes, and if an “A” page must be created it will come at the end of the run:

Managing page numbers when a script is revised

As material is added and deleted over time, “A” pages are created, other pages are deleted entirely, and numbering the pages properly becomes essential to helping everyone keep their scripts in the correct order with the current version of each page.

The basic numbering scheme for pages is the same as it is for scenes:

The principle is that page A5 precedes page 5 and page 5A follows page 5.

If an entire page of text is deleted, it’s essential to account for the page number so that everyone knows what has become of the page. If half of page 5 and all of page 6 are deleted (and page 7 has no changes), we end up with a page numbered 5/6. Production personnel will then understand that they throw away old pages 5 and 6 and replace them with the new page 5/6.

If multiple pages are deleted, the entire range of deleted page numbers must still be accounted for. To that end, we can issue a page numbered 14-18. Production personnel will discard all of the pages in that range and replace them with the new page 14-18.

Title pages distributed with revisions

When revised pages are distributed, they always include a title page printed on the new color of paper and listing the date and color of the revision:

Rev. 03/09/09 (Pink)

UNDER THE TABLE

written by
Jose Patrick Sladkey

FINAL DRAFT

March 7, 2009

As the above example shows, the date and draft of the last full script remain listed in the lower right corner of the title page and the date and color of the revised pages appear in the upper right corner of the page.

The dates and colors of subsequent sets of revised pages get added to the list at the top right of the title page as they are issued, with the date in six-digit format to keep things lined up:

Rev. 03/09/09 (Blue)

Rev. 03/13/09 (Pink)

Rev. 03/20/09 (Yellow)

Rev. 03/20/09 PM (Green)

Rev. 03/21/09 (Gold)

This list of revised dates and colors remains on the title page until a new full draft of the script is issued, if ever.

Note in the example above that a second set of revisions issued in the course of a single day bears the notation “PM” to distinguish it from the first set.

For more on title pages, see the section on Special Pages.