Hi everyone I would like to ask, when you accept scripts to read, how important is the 'Continued' instruction within scenes to you? Is it necessary to put 'continued', each time a character speaks again within a scene, or is it okay if it's left out? Unless of course it really is unclear that a conversation is continued. Thank you.
Screenwriting : The use of the word 'continued' within a screenplay. by Rosalind Winton
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It's all about making it clear to the reader, Ros. Final Draft will auto fill (continued) whenever there is a break in the dialogue due to any character or scene description line. Moved this to Screenwriting by the way since it's a craft question! Get some more eyes on it!
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I have been told by readers not to use mores or continueds. I have my FD set to only use continued when a characters dialogue carries to the next page.
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Either way, Rosalind. ;) Although, I prefer to omit (CONTINUED), (CONT'D) and (MORE) as I find them unnecessary and a bit cluttered for a spec script—you can change the settings in Final Draft to do so. The only time I leave (CONT'D) in is if a character's dialogue breaks onto the following page. As RB said, it's all about clarity. So personally, I tend to only use them when reader confusion could be an issue.
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Thank you everyone, that's great advice and I'll take it all on board. I'm adapting a book for someone, so just wanted to know what the consensus is. I've got Final Draft on trial for the moment and I'm just finding my way around it, I like to work in Word most of the time, so I'll see how it goes. It's a very challenging process, but I'm loving it too :)
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Seasoned Pro Readers skip and skim. Format style comes up when the story fails. Readers look for excuses to stop reading , skip to the last page and write a PASS review.
I think "CONT'D" should be used if one character's dialogue is continuing from one page to another. Otherwise, readers are well aware that they need to turn the page to keep going :)
Thank you Dan, Shawn and Erik, that's great :)
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Why do so many screenwriters here think this is important? I got news for you it's not. Nobody making movies gives a rat's rectum if someone uses "cont'd" or not.
This is just a style choice for me. But I just up what is happening and then run the dialogue out. I can't remember using cont... Perhaps over a page break.
Thank you, Dan. For the visual as well...
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No. Most scripts today don't use (CONT'D) after the character slug - it's easy to disable that in FD or MM. Also, CONTINUED at the end of a page is usually no longer done. The best thing to do is read a huge stack of recent screenplays so that you "think in screenplay".
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I agree with William. However year they seem to change and stop doing certain things and eventually there will be no more screenplay formatting to worry about. lol!
Oh god, Dan G - thank you for vocalizing everything I've been thinking. I know I've asked some specific formatting questions myself but some questions are so knit-picky I can't believe the higher ups really focus on them
Last night I re-read the Walter Hill screenplay for THE DRIVER (1978) - no INT or EXT on the sluglines, no NIGHT or DAY! Of course, Hill was directing, and this was done at a time when scheduling was done by hand rather than just feeding the screenplay into a program that automatically gos through and finds INT or EXT and DAY or NIGHT, so it didn't matter as much.
My view: not when its obvious with no confusion possible. IOW, allow the SP reader's understanding to prevail; avoid excess clutter; conserve page & word count. The same would apply to EXT/INT, even "IN FLASHBACK" when no confusion is otherwise possible. After all, this is not a shooting script. Be un-bound, there is respect for deftness :)
It's not just a writer's viewpoint you have to look at when it comes to the 'continued' flag in a script. As an actor, sometimes you like having those signposts so you know that there are no lines between yours, but just things happening, so seeing 'continued' after your character's name reminds you of that. Just a thought.
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I never use the mofo's I also hate over complicated, long ass scene headings. Keep those simple too.
Thank you so much everyone, wow, lots of different opinions... I think going by what you guys all say, I'll need to use my discretion, not use too much of the word cont., but make it clear if there's a gap in dialogue. I really appreciate all your responses and would be interested to hear more if anyone has anything to add :)