[spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] Formatting: Isolating Visual Moments of Action By Jacob Krueger [/spb_text_block] [divider type="thin" text="Go to top" full_width="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [blank_spacer height="30px" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block title="TRANSCRIPT" pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] Often times we think of formatting as the grammar of the screenwriting. We think of it as this very simple, basic, elemental set of rules that you go and look up in The Hollywood Standard in order to do it properly. But the truth of the matter is: formatting is like grammar. If you actually spoke proper grammar you’d most likely have no friends. “To whom should I direct this email?” You’d just sound too darn formal. And the same is true for “proper” formatting. It’s just not going to work for you. And, at the same time, we all know bad grammar when we hear it!  And just like bad grammar, when we see bad formatting in a screenplay, we make instant judgements that can really end up leaving your script at the bottom of the pile. So, today I want to talk about formatting. But I want to talk about formatting in a creative way. Because I feel like a lot of writers at all different levels are really stuck on this idea of formatting. And instead of looking at it as a creative tool of their craft they’re looking at it as something that gets in the way of their creativity. I want you to understand that formatting only exists for one purpose. The whole purpose of formatting is to isolate visual moments of action. When you learn to isolate the visual moments of action in your script, you start to do four very important things: 1) You're going to be writing even better than most professionals—allowing your work to get noticed and stand out from the crowd. 2) You're going to have a lot more fun writing, because writing is going to be more creative for you. 3) You're more likely to sell your script because the people reading it are going to be able to visualize each thing as if they were watching a movie in their heads. 4) You’re going to save tons of money when it comes to production. And be a lot more likely to actually like the movie that you end up with. So let's talk about what each of the those four words mean: "isolate," "visual," "moments," and "action…" ISOLATE Isolate means that we’re choosing the little turning points where your character makes big choices. So, when I say "isolate" we're never going to show "Jake is running." Because that's not isolated. That's a continuing state. Instead, we're going to show, "Jake hops over a large boulder, skins his knees across the pavement, slips on his own blood, and catches his balance against the flag pole." Do you see the difference between the state of "Jake is running" and the sequence of isolated moments that told the story? And do you see how much more interesting it was just to watch that sequence of isolated moments than it was to see Jake running? Jake running requires the audience or the reader to be creative. And guess what? They're not. Your ideal reader is a producer. And an ideal producer is a salesperson, not a creative writer. And although there are salespeople with creative proclivities, you can't depend on them in that way. You should depend on them to be able to cut a deal, to talk people into doing things that they don't want to do, to get more money than you'd ever expect, or to get more movie out of a little bit of money. But you shouldn't expect them to be able to read "Jake is running" and visualize something cool. That's your job. You need to understand coverage readers are even worse. Your coverage reader may be an aspiring writer but the chances are that they are a struggling writer. Otherwise, they would not be reading coverage for $50 per script. So,