Hey, guys.
I've hit a snag. I have no idea what paper size to use when writing my screenplays - I live in the UK, so I use A4, but it seems most (if not all) of North America uses US Letter (which is also apparently expected from screenplays). What do I do?
S. P.
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If script readers are looking for any excuse to toss a script and move on to the next one, then it seems that using A4 would be a convenient excuse. I'd go with letter size, just to be safe because why give them an excuse to pass without reading a word?
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If you're using a screenwriting software, it'll format your screenplay to fit within A4. Don't overthink it! Also, are you using a software? it'll format it for you. That's what I'm doing, anyway :)
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Do as I do. I first wrote a screenplay in my native language. Here we use A4. Then I translated into American English. So i simply went to the settings in the screenwriting software (Trelby freeware in my case). Took "one single second" to change the paper size. The length of the screenplay changed from 96 to 104 pages.
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I personally think using programs like Writer's Duet and Final Draft helps with all these issues.
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Get Final Draft Stefano Pavone. It'll solve this and a gazillion other issues.
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There's no right answer and it's not worth fretting about. No sane industry member is going to care as the difference is (excuse the pun) marginal. Both look near identical in pdf format and I think both even print on the alternate paper without issue too.
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Leonardo Ramirez I use Writer's Duet it seems to work well.
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Stefano Pavone I also use Final Draft and am happy with it. You needn't worry about paper size, margins, etc.
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I have heard that Writer's Duet does work well Shaun Kolich - I've just never used it myself. I've heard nothing but good things about it.
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Leonardo Ramirez seems to work well. You can download the final draft extension even with notes, which directors use, from my understanding. It's affordable, even with a free version. It was the first program I ran into when I started this journey. It has all the formatting and is easy to use. I'm a fan of it. If it's not broken, don't fix it.