I don't know of an agent or story department that will take a 2 column script. There isn't such a thing in the film industry unless you're using it like Jay said for documentary work or audio / visual production work (corporate / video)

You may find some commercial directors who prefer this format but as a feature film script, single column is it.

Scriptware, although I hate its interface, will actually allow you at the clilck of a button to format for TV, Film or A/V. Pretty nice feature if you're used to writing in one of those formats specifically and need to change it.

Mike

I read a few minutes after the first post that shooting scripts have scenes, I've got about 20 scripts in front me from in house projects, they are all for documentaries and are one column, they look pretty close to a 'standard' one column script, only each scene isn't a sequential number, right now we create 'segments' for potential TV or Cable broadcast, each segment is sequentially numbered but within that segment we have 'scenes' or 'story lines'

My first five films are finished and a few more are in various stages of production, but some of the scripts I was thinking of shopping around, so now I have to find a program to convert our Word Scripts into a format that people are used to seeing.

I don't think it will be a big deal, since what we've been using in house is pretty close to what I've seen as sample scripts

The only thing we'll really have add might be some jargon to give more direction for the visuals, right now the important part of our scripts are the narrative to tell the story, we do the narrative first and then drop visuals to fill out that segment

Anyway, there seems to be an abundance of sites offering info on script writing and one said experienced directors might prefer two column, I guess that is a wrong statement since all the scripts I've been looking over are one column. The only difference is scene numbering which is added to the shooting script as one site explained and someone here also added.

I guess Final Draft seems to be the top program right now and it has import features, so that is probably the way we'll go.

That way we can put some of our future projects into it and maybe shop it around.

Also, we have a couple of projects pre-script that will be more of a traditional 'movie' rather than a documentary/film like we've been doing, so we definitely want to have that in a format we can shop around when we do the script for it

Found the source for the two column question

From

http://www.video-business-school.com/script.htm
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" The Two-column Script

The two-column script can serve as both a shooting script and a post-production script, and is widely favored by more experienced producers and directors because the direction and live action are so easily distinguishable. As with all scripts, each scene is composed of a direction – such as a camera angle or distance – and an action, and can include narration. Each time you change the subject of your script, you enter a new scene.

The Single-column Script

This format is easy to read, flows smoothly, and is easy to understand for those who aren’t very experienced with reading scripts. The types of productions that you will be doing at first can be very easily done with a single-column script. We suggest that you use this kind of script for your productions to get started."

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So much for that 'expert' advice

The two-column script format sounds like such a fabulous idea.

Until you try it.

It is a pain to work with, and what you are trying to accomplish with the two separate columns can be done better and more flexibly (easier to change) in the single-column format, with just the notation that has been standardized on over more than 50 years.

Actually my search term was "sample film scripts" and they came up near the top of a search result, then I found a few sites with a huge database of film scripts, they were all 1 column scripts without scene numbers for the most part. Now that I've seen the format that is standard I know what I need to put some of our future projects into to maybe shop them around. Also, now I know what I need to have a few feature projects done in.

It's very interesting to see the original scripts from stuff by Cameron and Tarantino and scripts like The Matrix from those brothers. Very interesting to read the original visions.

The funny thing is it now appears to me that the directors have very little freedom if they follow the script. All the visuals are for the most part in the script, so it now appears to me all the hoopla over directors is over blown, the scripts pretty much give the visuals. But then again, I skimmed through scripts that were written for the most part by the people that ended up directing them.

We used one column for five doc/films so far and it worked so I guess there's no need for 2 column for us.

Final Draft has an import feature so we're probably gonna use that. Maybe I'll send around a few scripts of future projects to see if anyone wants to share in producing our next projects.

Anyway, 1 column it is from the real scripts I've seen for major projects.

When you buy scripts for famous feature films in bookstores, you get versions that are based on the final edit, not the original vision which was often quite different.

Still a very good learning tool.

I've been looking around at the PDF files of famous scripts at http://www.scriptcrawler.com/ they have first edits, original, shooting scripts, etc