Don't Be Too Technical

High up on the list of things that annoy readers and clutter your script: being too technical. Please do not number your scenes. And avoid giving camera directions. I recently read a script that was covered in black - and it was all technical camera directions. The story was all but impossible to read through all the SMASH CUTS and MATCH CUTS and MOS's and CUT TO's.

Writers who are really interested in directing are greatly tempted to write and direct in their scripts. If your script is meant to be read by a mainstream production company or competition - skip it. The over-abundance of page directions and technical terms will take away from the story and irritate the person reading. Including too many technical details marks you not as an arteur but as an amateur.

It is not industry standard to submit a script with numbered scenes, for example. Perhaps writers get the idea that being very technical is okay because they've read a produced script - and it was a shooting script with numbered scenes. But a script in the formative process of being read and reviewed should keep the focus on the story.

Keep the technical terms to an absolute minimum, keep your pages as easy to read as possible; focus on the artistry of your words rather than on showing us that you know what MOS means or "sotto". It doesn't impress, it annoys.

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