And now…the MAIN EVENT!

Script writing! That’s right boys and gals we’ll be learning format.

WOOT ! WOOT!

I thought you’d be excited. So how do you write a script? well, the first thing I did was visit Dark Horse Comics and download and read the PDF detailing their particular format. Is it the best format? Well, really what works for you and your artist is the best format. however, if you’re going to submit a script to Dark Horse for consideration you’d better follow their format. It’s the first indicator to them that you care enough about being printed at Dark Horse to take the extra step of reformatting your script.

This PDF hits all the right notes and covers the big stuff.  I’ll try and make wha follows a complimentary document.

1) BE KIND TO YOUR LETTERER

We haven’t really discussed yet much about the letterer.  They’re the unsung heroes of comics. The writer and artist tend to get a majority of the glory, but the letterer has a profound effect on the end product as well.  For instance, he could cover up the art in sound effects and word balloons and there’s also the obvious contribution of providing all the dialogue to the book. Richard Starkings (owner of Comic craft and letterer extraorindaire) has provided a great list of resources about this particular topic. His book is in my opinion the deffinitive source on this particular phase of comic production.

Back to the script and how it effects letterers NEVER WRITE DIALOGUE IN ALL CAPS. This is because there are now letterers who use fonts which appear to be all caps, but capital letters are actually a little bit taller than their lower case counterparts.  If you type in all caps your letterer will have to manually adjust all the text so his work will look right. He will hate you for making him do this. If he’s one of the guys that really prefers to letter in truly all caps. He’ll have a font that automatically upscales all your lower case dialogue.  So, save everyone some time and never type in all caps.

but so and so said…

They’re wrong, save yourself the headache.

2) BE KIND TO YOUR ARTIST

This is another key to a healthy collaboration. DO NOT force them to create intensely detailed art in every panel if you want to get your art anywhere near the deadline. In your panel descriptions give them just enough to establish the mood you want and help them understand the location, but allow them the freedom to determine what level of detail the scene needs. Just as how last week we talked about how you need to be frugal with your text, the artist needs to also be frugal with his art. Empowering him to do that starts in your panel descriptions. A good rule of thumb is to only describe what’s important to the story. I also try to order my panel descriptions so that the order I describe things is the order I want the audience to notice them. Whether the artist consciously picks up on this or not I don’t know, but I have enjoyed the results I’ve gotten since I started using this trick.

This has been a short entry, but this is a very straight forward topic.  The script format is designed to keep things simple so you can keep focusing on what’s important- your story. So write out some pages. get a feel for your characters and come back next week as we continue to discuss some of the finer points.

See you in seven!