Production

A script that has been greenlit is read by many people at once: the director, the crew, the actors. They all need to point at the same page and the same scene. Production is how Drafter keeps that true while you keep rewriting. It is free, and it is for working professionals; if you are still writing your first draft, you can ignore all of it.

Open the Production tab in the Inspector (under More for a script). Its commands are also in the command palette (⌘K, Ctrl+K elsewhere): Lock pages and scene numbers, Start the next revision, Write new scene numbers, Omit scene, Clear marks…, and Unlock…. The tab’s Export section has the three reports below: revised pages, a breakdown, and sides.

Locking

Locking freezes two things at once: the number of every scene and the number of every page. After that, an edit never changes a number someone has already printed. Locking also records the script as it stands as the White draft, in Drafts, and opens the first revision, Blue.

• Scene numbers are written into your text, as Fountain does it: INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT #12#. They are real text, so any Fountain app keeps them. One undo takes the lock back.
• Page numbers are remembered where each page starts. Add a page of dialogue on page 12 and the pages after it do not move: page 13 is still page 13.

A locked script shows a Blue rev. chip (or the name of whatever revision is open) in the status bar. Selecting it opens the Production tab.

Revisions and their colors

A revision is one round of changes that goes out to the crew on pages of a new color, so everyone can tell the newest pages at a glance. The locked script is White; locking opens the first revision, Blue. Start the next revision closes it and opens the next color. The colors come in this order:

White, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Green, Goldenrod, Buff, Salmon, Cherry, and then Double: Double White, Double Blue, and so on round again.

While a revision is open, Drafter marks what changed. A mark is an asterisk (*) in the right margin of a changed line. Only the words that changed are marked: change one sentence in a long speech and the speech carries a mark only where that sentence sits. Edit a line back to the way it was and its mark goes away.

A-pages and folded ranges

Pages that spill past a locked page, such as page 12, are numbered 12A, 12B, and so on. These are the A-pages. Page 13 stays page 13. New pages at the very start of the script, before page 1, become page 1 and its A-pages, 1A, 1B: page 1 always starts at the top.

The other way round, when a cut leaves a locked page with no text, it is folded into the page before it and the two share a label: 13-14 is one page that stands for both. A folded range stays folded through later revisions, and a page number is never reused.

A-scenes

A scene you add after locking cannot take the next number, because that number is taken. It usually takes the number of the scene before it plus a letter: between scene 5 and scene 6 comes 5A, then 5B after that. A few places need a letter in front instead, such as A5A between 5 and 5A, or A1 before scene 1; the table shows each case. Until you write the number, the new heading shows the number it will have, dimmer, in the Source pane. Drafter writes the numbers into the text when you start the next revision, lock again, or choose Write new scene numbers; never while you type.

Numbers sort like a dictionary: 5, then 5A, 5AA, 5AB, 5B, and on to 5Z, 5ZA, then 6. A letter in front, as in A5A, puts a scene just ahead of 5A. A number is never reused: if scene 5A is cut, the next new scene there is not 5A again.

Omit scene

When a locked scene is cut, you cannot simply delete it, because the crew’s scripts would then skip a number with no explanation. Omit scene (in the Outline’s and Cards’ scene menus, and in the palette) replaces the scene with one line:

.OMITTED #12#

The number stays, the page keeps its place, and the scene’s text is cut from the script. Drafter first takes a snapshot, so the scene is kept in History and in your cuts.

Warnings in the Problems pane

Locked scripts get three extra checks:

• A scene number is out of order, so the numbers no longer follow the script.
• A scene number is on more than one scene.
• A locked scene number is gone, usually because a numbered scene was deleted by hand. Its quick fix is Put back as OMITTED, which writes the .OMITTED #12# line in its place.

Stage plays

A stage play has revisions and locked pages, with the same colors and marks, but no locked scene numbers: a play’s scenes are not numbered on the page the way a film’s are.

The long line at the end of the file

Drafter keeps its settings in a block of lines at the end of the file, hidden in the editor (see What Drafter saves). When a revision is open, the block also holds one long line of squashed text. That is the script as it stood when the revision began, compressed. Drafter compares your words with it to draw the marks. It is in the file, not just on your computer, so the marks look the same on any computer that opens the script, and after the file travels by email. Other apps skip the block. Please leave it alone.

Unlocking and clearing marks

Clear marks… removes every revision’s asterisks and starts again from the script as it is now: a fresh White draft and a new Blue revision. The marks go; the lock, the scene numbers, and the page numbers stay. Unlock… goes further: the scene numbers and page numbers are released, and the script is free again. Unlock leaves your text as it is, so the scene numbers written into it (#12#) and any .OMITTED headings stay; delete them yourself if you no longer want them. Both ask first, and both take a snapshot before they act, so what you had is in History.

Revised pages

Revised pages are only the pages that changed, printed to hand to a crew that already has the last version, so they can swap them in. They are for a locked script: choose Export → Revised pages (PDF)…, or use the button in the Production tab.

• By default you get the pages marked in the open revision. The box can instead take every revision, or a range of pages.
• Each page keeps its locked label (12A) and its asterisks, and carries a header such as “Blue Revision — 12 November 2026”. You can write your own header; Drafter keeps it in the script.
• By default only the open revision’s asterisks print; you can print every revision’s. A tint of the revision’s paper color on the page is an option, off by default, for productions that print on white paper. White revisions get no tint.

The full PDF of a locked script also prints the locked page labels and the open revision’s asterisks, with its name and date in the header. Plain text prints the locked page labels too, without asterisks. Every export shows a new scene with the A-number it will have (5A), as the Script pane does, though it isn’t written into your text until you choose Write new scene numbers. In Export options…, Revision marks chooses between the open revision’s marks and none.

Breakdown

A breakdown is a table with a row for each scene, in script order, that a production uses to plan the shoot. Export → Breakdown (CSV) makes a spreadsheet file, and Breakdown (PDF) a printable table. For a screenplay or a stage play, locked or not. The columns are Scene, INT/EXT, Location, Time, Pages, Page, Cast, and Synopsis.

• Pages is the scene’s length in eighths of a page, as productions count it: “1 3/8” is one page and three eighths.
• Page is the page the scene starts on, with its locked label.
• Cast lists the characters in the scene: first those who speak in it, then those named in its action, in the order they first appear. A character who never speaks anywhere in the script is not listed.
• An OMITTED scene is a row that says OMITTED, so the numbers have no gaps.

Two things to know when you open the CSV in a spreadsheet:

• A cell that starts with =, +, -, or @ gets an apostrophe in front of it, so the spreadsheet shows it as text and does not run it as a formula.
• Some spreadsheets read a page count like 3/8 as a date. When you import the file, set the Pages column to Text.

Sides

Sides are the pages one actor needs for their scenes, so they can learn them without the whole script. Choose Export → Sides (PDF)….

• Choose a character, and their scenes are ticked.
• Untick any scene that is not shooting that day; a day’s shoot is often a few scenes, not all of one character’s.
• You get every page a ticked scene is on, at its locked label. Other scenes on those pages are crossed out with a diagonal line, the usual mark for “not this one”.
• The header names the character, the scenes, and the date. Sides follow the script as it stands now, so the open revision’s marks show, since actors learn the current pages.