Huh! I didn't know you could buy pre-hole punched paper! I learned that just today, and now I shall be heading off to buy some! What have you learned form someone else's online journal?

-- Saundra (headspace@anywherebeyond.com), March 23, 2001

Answers

Oh yes, three-holed paper is manna from heaven.

Actually, when my husband bought a case of white paper (none three- holed, of course) I almost bought the niftiest thing -- an electric hole-punch. It drills holes in stacks of paper, and would allow you to choose whichever white paper you prefer, never worry about which paper is in the printer, and when you are finally satisfied that THIS is the final draft, drill that sucker. The drill was less than a hundred bucks at the time, around 75, I think. I bought it. I brought it home. I was very thrilled with my purchase. It was a "gadget" and it brought me pleasure.

Then I posted to friends on a screenwriting bbs what a nifty gadget I'd bought, and they were all like, "uh, why would you spend 75 bucks to get something to drill holes in paper, and then have to use it to drill holes in paper, when you can buy paper with holes already drilled?"

I was so bummed. I took it back. And still have to go out and buy three-hole paper whenever I need to print a script. (sigh)

BUT -- THIS is not what I was going to post about, actually. What I was going to post about it --

24 pound three-hole paper? Where do you find such? Clearly not in my Office Depot. It only has the regular 20 pound stuff.

But I also must ask why you would use 24 pound? Years ago when I first started writing scripts an exec told me he could tell by the weight of the script in his hand whether it was too long. I immediately thought, "Whoa, don't want to use heavy paper!"

So, other than the fact that the exec was probably a lying-bastid- show-off-making-false-claims, would a script that "felt heavy" be a detriment? Or would it make any difference at all?

Pooks

-- pooks (TexasTrish@aol.com), March 23, 2001.

You probably wouldn't want to use 24lb paper for screenplays -- it would be WAY too heavy, especially when you've got 110+ pages.

I just use the 24lb paper for the master draft I send to my agent, who then copies it onto regular 20 lb cheap ass paper with piss poor brightness to send off to various folks.

I like the 24 lb, high brightness paper...it's great presentation-wise. But then again, my scripts run the gamut from 30 pages (single camera film) to 48 pages (traditional sitcom format). So it seems heavy, but not overly so.

-- Brad (javagirl@scriptbrads.tv), March 23, 2001.

I guess it's not a well-known fact. I was working at a huge entertainment conglomerate and we were putting together notebooks full of information for a presentation. One of the assistants was manually hole punching paper. About 100 pages for 50+ books. I was appalled. I told her we could buy three hole punch paper. After that, it was on our regularly ordered supply list. The department freaked out whenever the supply was low.

Saundra, I don't know where you live, but you might have to special order it. The Staples catalog carries it, that I know for a fact.

-- Brad (javagirl@scriptbrads.tv), March 23, 2001.

Yeah, I made a stop at Office Depot this morning, and they didn't have any. (Surprisingly enough, I doubt the demand for screenwriting friendly office goods is all that high in the midwest :) ) So, I'm going to pop onto Staples.com and order some. I've been using a manual hole punch, ye gods, and considering that I have the eye-hand coordination of a blind two year old, you can imagine how well that turns out. I hate having to reprint something because I completely misaligned the punches.

-- Saundra (headspace@anywherebeyond.com), March 23, 2001.

Saundra,

I swear by Xerox brand Multi-Use Primary Image paper available at both Staples and Office Depot. I print tons of scripts at a time and virtually never have any jams in my HP 4000 with it.

Office Depot (at least in my mid-Atlantic city) does carry the three-hole punched variety, but don't often display it on the shelves because, let's face it, the peoplewho work there are morons. (If you happen to work there, present company excepted.)

And recently my neighborhood O.D. has started selling full cartons of the Xerox brand stuff at discount, but don't realize in the display stack of cartons they've got 3-hole mixed in and the only difference in the packaging is a 3x4 inch sticker on one corner of the outside which among other things has the word "punch." Usually, these are down below four or five layers of regular un-punched paper, so you'll have to make the morons who work there dig it out for you.

Hope th

-- Reginald Squirrel (rsquirrels@prodigy.net), March 23, 2001.

Office Max is going out of business here -- don't know if any of you have that chain in your area (different from Office Depot) and I found they had put the 3-hole punched paper on sale for like 1/3rd the price. They had reams left; I guess it's not in high demand here, either.

-- toni (toni@la-lagniappe.com), March 23, 2001.

Excuse me for interupting again, but...

THE SERVER IS CUTTING OFF MY POSTS AGAIN!!!!!!

My previous post ended withL

"Hope th"

It should have read with:

"Hope this helps."

See how much difference this makes?

Let's see how far it goes before they cut me off.

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyx

-- Reginald Squirrel (rsquirrels@prodigy.net), March 24, 2001.

Oh, I didn't answer Saundra's original question which was: whave have I learned from someone else's online journal?

Plenty of things. From Toni, I learned that Ford makes an F450 and that men will want to upgrade their trucks no matter what.

From Beth, I learned that there's a company out there making nipple enhancements to go underneath women's bras.

From Peter of Diary of a Slut, I've learned some folks shop at Home Depot for sexual accoutrements.

-- Brad (javagirl@scriptbrads.tv), March 24, 2001.

Nipple enhancements???? What, for that Aaron Spelling, "My, it's awfully nippy on this set" look??

-- Saundra (headspace@anywherebeyond.com), March 25, 2001.

gee, somehow my F450 knowledge doesn't seem quite so fun as Beth's nipple knowledge or Peter's sex-toy-from-Home-Depot knowledge. I gotta get out more.

-- toni (toni@la-lagniappe.com), March 27, 2001.

I learned that Manischewitz wine has a picture of a rabbi on the front.

Oh wait, this is what you've learned from *journals*, not forums. Either way, my white trash horizons have expanded all the way to the Wal-Mart snack bar.

-- Jared (jared@jaredg.org), March 28, 2001.