As I’ve written in various articles, rewriting your script is a large part of a screenwriter’s life.
No one in the film industry thinks of a script as a finished document, even during principal photography (and there might be reshoots that require another rewrite). It’s expected that you rewrite your script multiple times for different people at different stages (managers, producers, directors, etc). Because of this, you’ll likewise be emailing your script multiple times to different people. But what’s the best way to present a revised script to industry professionals? And what exactly is a “starred draft”, and how is it different from a “clean draft”?
Most likely, the first industry professional you’ll be working with will be a manager and rest assured: they will give you notes on your script and it’ll be expected that you revise your script accordingly. Though it’s very human to have a knee-jerk reaction to criticism (even if it’s constructive), receiving notes is a good thing: it means the person giving them sees potential in your script and thinks it’s worth their time to help you improve it.
Another thing your manager is likely to do is request a starred draft when you email them your revised script. This means they’d prefer to read a draft in which the revisions are highlighted by marks — the most commonly used mark being an asterisk (*) — so they don’t have to read the entire script again, but rather just the revised sections. Producers, studio execs and directors are likely to do the same. Most industry professionals are busy with various projects and they don’t have the time to thoroughly read every draft of your script (and keep in mind, there are often multiple rewrites).
Starring your revised drafts also makes the process faster for you as a writer: when people re-read something they often discover new elements and/or have new thoughts on what they’ve read. If a manager or producer kept re-reading your entire script again and again, you might find yourself in rewrite limbo because they’d constantly be rethinking everything they’ve read. By only starring certain sections, it keeps them focused solely on their initial notes.
The number of notes you address will determine how many asterisks will be required throughout your script: a more detailed rewrite will result in numerous asterisks.
But what’s the best way to create a starred draft?
Do you have to manually add an asterisk to every revised line?
In addition to industry standard formatting and other useful features, Final Draft has Revision Mode, which allows you to easily denote revisions made to your script.
Go to Production and select Revision Mode and anything you add or change in your script will be denoted with asterisks. This tells a manager or producer what sections of your script have been revised and what haven’t.
If you have a writing partner or you’re rewriting a script that had previous drafts from another writer, you might want to customize Revision Mode to your specific needs. To access the revisions window in Final Draft go to Production > Revisions. To activate Revision Mode check the box for Revision Mode on the upper left.
The revisions window gives you choices of different colors for different revision sets. To change the revised page or text color of your revision set, click on the Settings Gear Icon found on the right beneath the revision set table. The Edit Revision Set window will open. In addition to changing the revised page or text colors to each revision set, you can also change the date and font style. You can also customize the mark used to denote a revision, however, the default asterisks are recommended. Asterisks are what’s typically used and understood in the industry.
If you’re doing a minor tweak and only changing a couple lines, you can manually mark any changes you’ve made. Select the revised text, go to Production and select Mark Revised. Asterisks will appear adjacent to the selected text.
Every time you revise your script and a starred draft is requested, you’ll need to clear the asterisks from the previous pass. To do this uncheck Revision Mode and go to Edit > Select All (which will highlight all of your script’s text). Then go to Production and select Clear Revised. This will clear all the asterisks from the prior rewrite. Now you can start fresh and recheck Revision Mode and all of your latest revisions will once again be denoted with asterisks.
As stated, you’ll probably have to do multiple drafts for different people at different stages. Eventually, a manager or producer will ask for a polish, and this means you’re almost finished with this stage of rewriting. After the polish they might request a minor tweak in which you fix typos, or change a line here and there.
Once a manager or producer is satisfied with a draft and they’re ready to start circulating it to other industry professionals, they’ll ask you to email them a clean draft. This means a draft in which there are no asterisks or any other marks noting a rewrite. Two create a clean draft simply do as instructed above: go to Edit > Select All and then Production > Clear Revised.
All starred and clean drafts should be emailed as a PDF file. Not only does this discourage other parties from making changes to your script, but it’s also more practical: most people can open and view a PDF regardless of their device and the program or apps they have on it. Final Draft is designed to easily convert your screenplay document (a FDX file) into a PDF. Go to File > Save as PDF. A window will open, giving you the option to Include Title Page, which you should check (a script without a title page looks unprofessional).
Before emailing the clean draft, you should do a thorough proofread of the PDF file. I find when reading a script as a PDF, I always pick out certain mistakes or irregularities in the PDF that I missed when I was reading the FDX file. You should also keep your FDX file open as you read the PDF: whenever you spot a mistake in the PDF, revise the FDX file. When finished with your proofread, save it as a new PDF and make this one the file you email.
The above might sound like overkill, but keep in mind that the clean draft is the draft a manager, agent or producer is going out with (i.e., they’re giving it to other industry professionals to read). The more professional your script reads, the more seriously people will take it and will take you as a screenwriter.
So now your clean draft has been emailed and it’s going to soon be making the rounds!
Time to cross your fingers and start thinking about your next script…!!