Scott, Andy and you talk about his particular formatting; he mentions he doesn't "use conventional sluglines". Could we see an example of that? Even just a screenshot, or a phone camera pic? I personally hate the rigidity of some approaches to screenwriting, it can be so mechanistic sometimes. There needs to be a rigour and a discipline, absolutely, but not a straitjacket. Personally, my formatting aims for three things: 1) readability 2) correct grammar/spelling 3) consistency I had one script reviewer lose his nut because I use only one hyphen between the set and day/night (ie. INT. DINER - NIGHT, instead of INT. DINER -- NIGHT.) I found this facetious and irrelevant ("Screw the hyphen, what did you think of the goddamn knife fight!??"). Now, I don't want to start a pointless flame war between format Nazis and free style hippies (I'm personally in the middle), but considering Mr. Friedhof won the frickin' Nicholl then I'd be very interested to see his unconventional approach to sluglines...

Conor, concur. Script format and style is in a constant state of evolution. For the last two decades or so, moving away from 'scripty' lingo toward a more 'literary' style (I'm talking about selling / spec scripts, not shooting scripts / production drafts). So we're seeing scripts now WITHOUT traditional scene headings / primary slug lines. That's what Andy does with Great Falls. Go here to see a screenshot of first page. Andy simply uses shots and bolds them to indicate location and/or point of focus. AS LONG AS IT'S READABLE AND CLEAR, YOU CAN DO WHAT YOU WANT. Despite what 'scripturalists' (script-literalists) say.

The first page flows, your eye moves right along. Questions: Why does Andy use italics for dialogue? And did he catch any flack on it?

He just uses it for the voice-overs. Regular dialogue is non-italicized.

Ah, great idea. I like it even better.