The Scriptwriters Toolkit

These older version are available without any prior administration fee, but are no longer supported.

These older version are available without any prior administration fee, but are no longer supported.

Formerly known as BillWill's Scripting Templates, "The Scriptwriters Toolkit" versions 3 or 4 are sets of  MS Word templates for writing Screenplays, Stageplays and Radio Plays. In the past the main outlet for such scripts was submission to BBC & TV companies and to Film Producers, nowadays however these templates are ideal for amateur films producers too.

Versions are available for Word for Windows: Version 2, Version 6 or Version 7 [Office 95], Word 8 [Office 97]. Enhanced versions for Word 2000 and Word XP are available above. The six script formats preferred by the BBC are not in these older versions, they are only in the new Version 5 .

This is released as SUCCESS-WARE, you don't have to pay until you have success in selling your first significant script, or make a significant profit from your own production(s).

These Script Templates have been in use for around 10 to 12 years and have been used for Birds-of-a-Feather, Goodnight SweetHeart, Love Hurts, Unfinished Business, Mosley and other successful productions.

Brief Descriptions

FILM4

The film4 template produces scripts in courier font and conforming to 1995 information of the fashion in film scripts, however two different places for the page number seemed to have equal fashion at that time. I  chose to put it top right corner with the Screenplay title in the top left corner both in smaller letters than the main script.

Hollywood's style in film scripts migrates slowly from year to year, probably to distinguish the in-crowd from the newcomers. This version 4 is now a bit out of date, the Hollywood5 template in the new version 5 above matches the format recommended by Bill Craig on his website ("The dreaded screenplay format").

[Example 1] [Example 2]

STUDIO4

Studio4 produces a UK SitCom type script, with the character names in bold capitals on a line alone, followed by dialogue on the right half of the page, double spaced. Stage directions are in Capitals in the right half, but both left & right justified. Scene headings are bold full width.

[Example 3]

 

RADIO4

Radio4 produces a sound script, which matches the original specification issued by BBC Radio 4. (A useful format, but no longer in use by the BBC; replacment BBC formats are available in version 5 above). Character names are bold upper+lower case in the left quarter of the page, dialogue in courier font occupies three quarters of the page width, and sound effects are bold small caps and underlined, occupying the right half of the page. Radio plays don’t have scenes, so there is just a bold START and END heading for the whole play. The template includes an automatic cast list and a place for typing your synopsis.

[Example 4]

 

STAGE4A

There appears to be no definitive standards for stage scripts, whatever looks nice seems to be suitable, so I have supplied 3 variations. All of the stage templates include an automatic cast of characters page. This template (Stage4a) produces a stage script roughly like the compact scripts used to publish books like "The Complete Works of Shakespeare". Scene headings and stage directions are centred and dialogue is against the left margin, with Character Names in bold Upper+Lower case.

[Example 5]

 

STAGE4B

A second style for stage scripts, with the dialogue indented by roughly a third of the page width, and the Character Names left justified with just a small indent. Act headings are centred, Scene headings left justified. Stage directions are italic and full page width. A second style for stage directions is right justified for Exits & Entries.

STAGE4C

This is similar to stage4b except that the character names are right justified within the left third of the page, to make them match more easily to the first line of dialogue. Scene Headings are centred and Stage directions in italic fill only the right two thirds of the page.

[Example 6]

Produced by:

Tel: 020-8444-6706
Fax: 020-8444-7968
eMail: toolkit @ datahighways.co.uk

Please visit the Script Writers Toolkit section of my Support Site, before eMailing or phoning, the answer to your problem may be already listed.

This page last updated: 27 March 2004  .