STORYTELLING - Final Draft

Steve briefed us on moments to start with. He said to remember the first reaction to our moments. Remember what it did for us when we first wrote it and if we have a moment hold on to it. This outlined really how important it was to create moments in our screenplays for a successful film.

Today was I think our last proper session with Steve until out half hour tutorial with him and our scripts. We learnt about Final Draft, this is a software I had never heard of before. It seemed confusing at first, I would rather have used Word but Final Draft is the software the industry uses so I was pleased we were learning to use it.

We simply had to transfer a scrip on Word into Final Draft by using the 'Elements' button. This allowed us to put each line into a section, e.g. the scene heading, characters, dialogue and the action. After selecting each section it put it in the correct place of us on the page, such as, putting the dialogue and character's names in the middle of the page. The main things we have to remember are:
- Never change the font in Final Draft
- Script notes won't show up when printed
- Check spelling
- Scene numbers are useful, shows how many scenes you've done
- Most important button is the 'Elements' button

I have started my screenplay in Word but after today I will be able to transfer it into Final Draft so it looks like a professional piece.