Scribe

The Scribe Scriptwriting Resource Page

The original purpose of this page was to support students of John van Zyl's basic scriptwriting course for film and television. John no longer teaches this class, but there's quite a bit of information which would be relevant to screenwriters, particularly South Africans.

One day, when I'm big, I plan to reformat these pages and move them to the SASWA web page. I can't say with any certainty when this will happen, as a parallel universe seems to be bleeding all my free time.

  • SASWA news can now be found on the SASWA web page.

    • South African Script Writers' Association

    If you're serious about your writing, maybe you'd like to join SASWA. If so, here are the contact details:
      SASWA National Co-ordinator
      Box 91937
      Auckland Park 2006
      Tel: (011) 838-8848
      Fax: (011) 838-8849
      
      2 President Street, Newtown Building, Newtown

    Dramatic Artistic & Literary Rights Organisation (Pty) Ltd (DALRO)

    If you're wondering what happened to the DALRO details, they've been removed because DALRO doesn't seem to be interested in registering screenplays, only stage scripts. They don't even seem interested in discussing the issue. SASWA has been investigating copyright issues, and we hope that we'll be able to report on more details soon.

    Knysna-based scriptwriters available

    Sue van Amstel and fellow scriptwriter Lynn Pretorius are both freelance writers looking for work. They can be contacted at
    Tel: (082) 927 9079
    Tel/Fax: (044) 382 2691
    E-mail: roaring40s AT telkoms DOT net

    South African Links

    Script Formatting Software

    There's a certain romantic appeal in the notion of slipping a virgin sheet of paper into a typewriter and banging out your masterpiece. The sad truth is that invariably you're going to have to edit the script, and suddenly all your careful formatting and, in particular, your pagination will be disrupted. Worse, reformatting to a particular producer's or studio's format becomes a major undertaking. Being a good writer doesn't necessarily render you immune to typographical errors and the odd spelling mistake either. These days, a computer is an indispensable tool in the writer's arsenal.

    Fine, so you have a computer and a word processor. Why the need for "script formatting software" then? The purpose of a properly formatted script is to indicate the performance's running time, as well as its resource requirements (actors, locations, props, music, sound, special effects etc, etc). As a result, producers are likely to be paricular about the "look and feel" of a script. It must obey certain rules so that they can measure its length against their standards. Producers (and their assistants) are busy people, so if you couldn't be bothered to ensure that your script conforms to their standards, they're unlikely to bother to read it. Besides, you want to be spending your energy on the script, not on the tedium of formatting. Hmm, looks like some specialist software might be very useful after all.

    Right, so we need script formatting software, but why can't we just use word processor templates and macros? After all, we already know how to use our favourite word processor, why do we need to learn (and buy) yet another program? Well, the short answer is that you probably can get away with macros and templates, and we've listed links to some below. But most of these packages have drawbacks:

    When selecting your software solution, by all means have a look at the many features which may be on offer, but bear the following in mind. Testimonials by famous writers, and lists of movies written with particular software are largely meaningless. Good movies are the products of good writers and directors, not good software. Chose the package which most appeals to you. Many packages offer features which are completely valueless, in an attempt to outdo the competition. A good example is the worthless code-bloat associated with text-to-speech. Systems offering text-to-speech are usually excellent packages, but features such as this should not influence your decision. Think of the formats and abilities you might need, and make sure that your chosen package supports them. Will you ever need production mode? Will you ever need dual-column A/V formatting capabilities? Will you ever need to write interactive multimedia movies with branching logic? How relevant are all those statistical reports? The key is to try as many demos as you can before making your decision. Even then, take note of which vendors offer a money-back guarantee.

    In the lists below, we supply approximate costs in rounded US Dollars. This is because the Rand / Dollar exchange rate fluctuates so much, and because the implication that we're stupid enough to believe that $199 sounds much less than $200 is offensive.

    Some word processor plug-ins: Purpose-built software:

    These are in our biased order of preference:

    Open-source solutions for the adventurous:

    There are very few offerings in the open source movement. We found two, one is a macro package for Applix Word, and the other is part of a larger project to make "open source movies". The latter has several tools under development, and the script formatting component consists of a feature enhancement to the standard Abi Word word processing program, and which is bundled together with Helix Gnome (I think). Rather than being a macro plug-in, it is actually an enhancement module. Alternatively, you may want to try playing with Wine. I had hoped to experiment with this, but this is an even lower priority than moving this web page to SASWA.

    Comparative Software Evaluations

    Story Forming Software

    Story forming software is all too often a solution looking for a problem to solve. A lot of this software relies on your subscribing to a particular story-telling theory or formula. While the theories behind story telling can be fascinating, we found story forming software to be restrictive and prescriptive. Worse, it is far too easy to get bogged down in mundane detail instead of getting on with the story. Most of the best story tellers learned their craft by listening, not by theorising. They have an innate understanding of the many different story structures without necessarily being aware of the seperate complex components of the story. (I recently read a book by a respected screenwriting teacher, which has some great ideas and suggestions, but the author spends so much time trying to derive formulas and rules based on successful films that it comes as little surprise that so many films are formulaic and unoriginal.) Even worse are the story templates and generators. We haven't even bothered to list any of those here. If you need a story generator (or a grammar checker), then script writing is probably not for you. A more interesting approach in story forming software is the facility to plot the progression of a story, so that you can ensure that your story has the requisite elements and pace of a good movie. Just beware of prescriptive software.

    Other Software Links

    Some of the software listed above is available at a discount from links below.

    Safe Computing

    Computers are wonderful tools. They help us to edit scripts with hitherto unimagined speed and efficiency. They check our spelling for us, and we can use them to connect to the internet for collaborative projects and research. It's so easy to download programs and send stuff via e-mail, that many people don't pay any attention to the big, bad, evil antagonists out there. It is vitally important to obey some basic safety rules when it comes to connected computing.

    Spend a little bit of money on a good anti-virus scanner. There are plenty about, and you can buy them from almost any local software vendor, and some can be downloaded from web sites. The major anti-virus software vendors' web pages can be found at:

    In most cases, if you buy from your local software supplier, the sales thing will recommend a product. But if you want a suggestion from us, try Sophos, NOD32, Symantec, Data Fellows (once again, just a biased opinion). Which ever vendor you go with, make sure that you keep up to date with the latest virus definitions. Be very aware that somebody has to "discover" a new virus before any vendors can create updates for them. Don't be the one to "discover" a new one! You can do this by following a few hard-and-fast rules. Unfortunately many of these are software- and version-specific, which makes it impossible to go into in much detail here.

    1. Don't allow Windows to "Hide" file extensions from you. Go to Windows Explorer, and select "Tools" then "Folder Options". Look for the "View" tab, and check anything that says it's going to show you something, and uncheck everything that promises to hide anything. The different versions of Windows have different options, but that rule should go a long way to helping you. Even then, Billy-Bob Gates's little system will still try to hide stuff from you.
    2. Disable your e-mailer's "Preview Pane". Before the advent of preview panes, it was possible to say that you can't catch a virus merely by opening your e-mail; you had to open an attachment to trigger it. Now, with preview panes, attachments are often triggered simply by opening your e-mail.
    3. Do not open e-mail attachments with the following extensions ever. (True, you may miss out on a cute Flash animation, but that animation could easliy have picked up a virus from other people in the delivery chain, including your very good friend Algernon.)
      .BAT .BAS .BIN .BLL .CAB .CHM .CMD .COM .CPL .DLL .DRV
      .EXE .EML .HTA .HTT .INF .INI .INS .JAR .JS .JSE .LNK
      .MHT .MHTML .MSI .MSP .NWS .OVL .PIF .REG .SCF .SCR .SHS
      .SWF .SYS .URL .VBA .VBE .VBS .VXD .WSC .WSF .WSH  
      Note that a file called "Miss April.gif.exe" is not a GIF picture, it is an executable program with an alluring name. The end extension is what counts. This does not pretend to be an exhaustive list, but it's a start, representing the most common problem files you're likely to encounter.
    4. Be wary of friends' e-mail with attachments in the above categories. Most modern worms use people's Outlook address books to spread.
    5. Be wary of unsolicited e-mail with attachments
    6. Set up your virus scanner to scan ALL files (not only programs).
    7. Set up your scanner to scan e-mail before you open it.
    8. If you can, disable Internet Explorer from running scripts. This will disable a lot of fancy animations and sexy menus from many sites, but the upside is that you will be much safer. This is also version dependant, but you should find most of what you need under the "Tools" menu, followed "Internet Options". Next, find the "Security" tab, and "Customise". Disable anything you can find which relates to "Active X", and anything else which refers to "scripting". This should be your default setting. You can also set up "trusted" sites which allow a certain level of scripting. A good idea is to set up http://www.microsoft.com" as such as site, so that you can keep your security patches up to date.
    9. If you're running a modern enough version of Internet Explorer or Netscape, there is an option to update over the Internet. In IE5, it is under "Tools", then "WIndows Update". If there are any "Critical Updates", make sure you download them, as they're security patches.
    10. Make sure you scan anything you download from an internet site.
    11. Ensure that you do not automatically run macros for your word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, or diagramming tool. The worst offenders in these categories are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power Point and Microsoft Visio.
    12. Try to use as few Microsoft products as you can (if you have a choice). The most dangerous e-mail clients by far are Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express. Most macro viruses are written for Microsoft Word, followed by Microsoft Excel.
    13. Don't download the versions of Adobe's PDF readers which are about to come out. Adobe has decided to go into the OLE object embedding netherworld, which will make newer versions feature-rich and virus-ridden.
    14. Take the time to read the CERT Home Network Security web page. You'll probably get a lot more detail on how to set up your web browser and email client here.

    On-line Scripts

    A great way to learn is by example:

    On-line Scriptwriting Magazines and Forums

    You can get lost for hours browsing these sites. Most have links to yet more interesting sites.

    Story Theories and Writing Guides

    These sites provide information and tips on the process of writing.

    Dictionaries, Thesauruses and Encyclopaedias

    Useful Search Engines

    There are a gazillion search engines available, so here are just two of our favourites, together with a portal:

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