ATTN: JMS Another scripting question or so

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: ATTN: JMS Another scripting question or so
+  1: Oct  6, 1995: kennedy@   (John W Kennedy)
*  2: Oct  8, 1995: straczynski at genie.geis.com

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From: kennedy@   (John W Kennedy)
Lines: 33

I'm still fond of the treatment I put together for B5, but you'll never see
it, because the time for it was the 2nd season.  But my wife, inspired by my
example, has decided to try something for Voyager.  (Heck, the bar's a lot
lower there.)  We got the Complete Guide to Scriptwriting out of the library
again, but there are a few unanswered questions.  (It goes without saying that
it would be good to have them answered in the 2nd edition.)

I.  Act breaks.  How are they indicated?  Does each one have FADE IN and FADE
OUT, or only the entire script?  And do they start new pages in treatments and
scripts?

II.  Act names.  For example, does B5 have "Act 1" through "Act 6",
"Teaser", "Act 1" through "Act 4", and "Tag", or something else?

III.  "Scenes".  Are things like the three-second establishing shot of the
station that opens most B5 acts or the shot of the ship that traditionally
ends every ST episode numbered scenes?  Even in a treatment?

IV.  Credits.  Are the supers at the top and bottom of the episode in the
script?  (Obviously, "Directed by" and others would have be left blank; is
there a convention for that, such as "name", "A. B." or "______"?)

V.  In this age of word processors, it took me a long time to remember that
typewriters, unlike almost everything else in the mundane world, index
starting from zero.  In the next edition of the book, you might want to
go into this, to remove the ambiguity.  (As nearly as I can figure out,
your "Line 8", for example, is the ninth line on the paper, with the top of
the line 1 1/3" from the edge.  Or do I have it wrong?)

VI.  Set requirements.  Do "A bazaar" and "Another part of the bazaar" count
as two sets for scripting purposes when anyone with half a brain knows that in
production one set will be built and shot from different angles?


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From: straczynski at genie.geis.com
Lines: 10

     Act Breaks: FADE OUT, [End Act One]  - new page - [Act Two] FADE IN:
 
     B5 as teaser, acts 1-4, tag.
 
     Establishers aren't numbered in a treatment, or called out.
 
     Credits aren't listed in a script; and don't worry too much about
the margins being *exactly* right; they vary considerably.
 
                                                                      jms