Screenplay Presentability

SCREENPLAY BRADS

The overall look, manageability, ease of copying, and even safety of your script in the hands of Hollywood readers depends on proper brad selection and application.

TYPE

Acco®; Round-Head Solid Brass Fasteners, No. 5R, 1-1/4", make excellent brads to use for packaging your screenplay as they . .

  • are constructed of substantial brass so they . .
    • withstand the tapping or pressure required to set them properly
    • hold the script together properly under all manner of conditions and stresses
    • look seriously professional and do no degrade with use, as brads covered with a shiny plasticky layer designed to appear metallic do
  • have the proper thickness and length so they . .
    • provide the desired for stability--flimsier brads twist about
    • hold the pages together tightly--shorter brads do not, and tend to fall out
    • are not difficult to remove
    • don't catch on things, damage clothing and other objects, scratch or puncture skin

This line of brads comes in other sizes none of which should be used. They simply don't perform the function properly and are not constructed of the same quality brass. Only 1-1/4" from Acco®; will do.

WASHERS

The proper matching washers, sometimes called eyelets, are small disks, a bit wider than the head of the brads, with a slit for passing the two flanges of the brad through. They go on the bottom side of the back cover (as described below). Scripts without properly applied brads and washers fall apart and degrade more easily around the holes, and just don't look as professional.

NUMBER

Insert just two brass brads, one in the top hole, the other in the bottom. If the reviewing organization likes your material, and decides to copy it for all to read, better they should only have to remove and replace two brads rather than three.

Many reviewers like to hold the script in the middle of the "spine" when reading, and they find having a brad there bothersome. Some have even been known to employ staff to remove the extra, unnecessary, offending objects.

APPLICATION

For proper application of the brads and washers to your script . .

  1. Hold the script, front cover facing you.
  2. Place a single washer against the back side of the top hole of the script.
  3. Insert a brad through the top hole of the script and into the washer on the back cover side.
  4. Split the two flanges of the brads with your fingernails.
  5. Splay the flanges of the brad as much as possible with your fingers.
  6. Repeat for the bottom hole.
  7. Place the script on a hard surface, front cover up.
  8. Strike the brad heads with a rubber mallet until the splayed flanges on the underside press completely flat across the washers.

Or take an object, such as a large magic marker. Press the bottom of it against the head of the brad. Apply all of your weight to the top of the object until you've achieved the same result.

These techniques will likely collapse the head of brads constructed less sturdily than the Acco®; Round-Head Solid Brass Fasteners, No. 5R.


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