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Please excuse my english. I am from Denmark.

I am working on a script for a television series. Principal photography is scheduled to start in two weeks. The script is locked but I am still making changes.

When I move a scene to another place, it gets a new scene number (e.g. 21A) and leaves an omitted scene (e.g. 34 OMITTED). This is a problem for the production manager. She has to change the production plan everytime I do this.

Is there a way to move the scene so it keeps the same scene number?

Thank you.

It's a little tricky but it can be done. I'm going to use your example, moving scene 34 in front of scene 22:

• In your locked script, move scene 34 in front of scene 22. This will leave you, as you described, with a new scene 21A (the old 34), and an omitted scene 34.
• In Screenwriter 6, right click the scene heading of scene 21A and select 'Override Scene Number' (the bottom-most menu item), in MMS 4 double click the scene number.
• In the upcoming dialog box select 'User Defined' and enter the desired scene number (in this case, 34). Click OK.
• A dialog pops up, asking whether you want the subsequent scenes to be numbered sequentially after the overridden scene number. CLICK ON 'NO'. This is essential, otherwise Screenwriter will change your entire scene numbering.
• Go to the heading of omitted scene 34. Change the element type to ACTION (position the cursor in the scene heading and use the dropdown in the top menu bar). Now you can safely delete the 'omitted' text.

Hope this helps,
--Yannick

Hi Yannick,

Thank you very much for your help. It doesn't solve the problem though. Moving scene 34 in front of scene 22 and renaming it to scene 34 works fine. So far so good.

But as soon as I change scene heading "34 OMITTED" to an action line, the following scene 35 jumps back to 34 and thereby changing all the following scene numbers.

I hope you understand what I am trying to say.

-P

You're right, I forgot about that.

There is a way though: Instead of changing the element type to action, right click in the omitted scene heading again and select Override Scene Number (SW6) or double click the scene number (MMS4), then choose 'no numbering (shot)'. You will again be asked whether the subsequent scene numbers should be adjusted. Selecting NO will keep your numbering intact.

Hope it works this time!

--Yannick

Thank you very much

-P