I don’t know why, but I am always surprised when I see a movie script or a manuscript typed out in double spacing. It is even more surprising when you see some storyboards for multimedia presented in the same fashion.
Come on, people … WordPerfect went out in the 80s!
Well ok, I can admit that there is something cute and retro about the use of the courier font, but it seems to me that there are a whole heap of writers out there who go OUT OF THEIR WAY to layout the pages of their writing as if the Olivetti was the latest technological innovation seen.
These are the same guys who are writing eBooks, sending out podcasts and blogging in the name of science. They even write while listening to iPods.
So what is it that is going on here? A strange love affair with Courier?
No … these guys are in it for the business of writing. They know what their audience expects … and their audience is not you and I, it is the exec or publisher who needs to see clearly and without fuss what the story is about. It is worth remembering that a good story will sell itself … it does not need to be pretty. It just needs to be compelling.
Now, all I need to do is change this site’s design from black to something a little funkier. Damn typepad has got me in handcuffs!
S.
One reason why the courier/double spacing thing has endured (for movie scripts, at least) is that it is the standard means of guestimating the onscreen length of a screenplay: one page of script = one minute of screen time.
Once you start monkeying with the font/format, no-one knows how long the finished article will be.
BTW thanks for the trackback!