Also known as production draft
The production draft: scene numbers, locks, and revision marks — the document departments schedule and shoot from, not the clean selling draft.
A shooting script prioritizes shared reference over literary polish. Scene numbers, omitted scenes, and coloured pages matter more than whether a transition looks elegant on a spec read. Departments schedule and shoot from this document; ambiguity becomes a cost on the clock and in the sides.
The story may still change after a shooting script is issued -- production drafts revise constantly. What changes is the publishing discipline: locks, colours, and lettered inserts keep the crew aligned while you fix dialogue on page 42 without inventing a new continuum every night.
Do not submit a shooting-script costume as a sales draft. Heavy CONTINUED spam, camera lists, and revision colours on a cold spec can read as inexperience to managers. Keep specs clean; graduate to shooting-script apparatus when prep and the production office actually need that machinery.
When the project is greenlit into prep or production and the draft is issued with numbers and revision tracking. The story may still change -- the document type changes with the job it must do.
Sometimes, especially with a director's pass, but many still keep direction light. Numbers, locks, and revision marks are the defining production apparatus -- not an obligatory shot list on every scene.
A scene number kept in the continuum after the scene was cut, so later numbers do not shift. The page may read OMITTED rather than renumbering the entire script.
No. Write a clean spec-style draft first. Add shooting-script machinery when production numbering and revision distribution become real constraints.
