River
Y CombinatorBacked by Y Combinator
FREE TEMPLATE

Script Delivery Format Template

Three documents and two sheets that map every recipient, from a blind contest to a locked production office, to the format and title page they require.

Free download  ·  No account needed

Delivery Register

Low Water — Delivery Register

Every recipient this script goes to, matched to what it actually requires.

RecipientFormatTitle page
Literary managerPDFFull contact
Blind-read fellowshipPDFTitle only
Line producer (optioned)FDXFull contact

Same script, three recipients, three different title pages. The format alone never tells you that.

Page one for this question collapses to a single binary: PDF if someone is reading the script, FDX if a pipeline is going to parse it. Final Draft's own guidance says exactly that, and so does every export guide that compares the two formats. The binary is correct and it is also not the whole delivery: a script rarely goes to only one kind of recipient. A manager, a blind-read contest and a production office reading the same PDF still need three different title pages.

The Delivery Register holds one row per actual recipient, because the requirement is never just the file format. A literary manager wants a full title page with contact information. A blind-read fellowship like the Nicholl wants a title-only page with no identifying information anywhere in the file, a stricter, separate requirement from PDF versus FDX. What every export guide skips: a PDF commonly carries the writer's name in its own file properties even when the visible title page is blank.

Once a script is optioned and locked for pre-production, delivery becomes revision tracking. The WGA's own standard color order runs White, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Green and Goldenrod, and new material spills into lettered pages without shifting pages downstream. On a worked lock here, a 104-page feature, three revisions add two lettered pages and retire two scenes as OMITTED, landing the script at 106 locked pages. Earlier in a project, a beat sheet or a pitch and treatment pack fits better; this one starts once delivery, not scheduling and budgeting, is the open question.

Every recipient's requirement, and every locked revision, tracked by the numbers

The Delivery Register and Revision History sheets from the pack.

Delivery Register

Illustrative, for a fictional feature, Low Water. Four of the six logged recipients.

RecipientFormatTitle pageStrip?
Literary managerPDFFull contactNo
Blind-read fellowshipPDFTitle onlyYes, incl. file metadata
Open-read festivalPDFPer current rulesPer current rules
Line producer (optioned)FDXFull contactNo

Format is one column of four. Two recipients share the PDF format and still need opposite title pages.

Revision History

Low Water, locked at 104 pages. All four rows: the lock and three revisions.

RevisionPages issuedNew A-pagesLocked count
White (lock)Whole script0104
Blue (1)12, 34, 34A, 45, 46, 881105
Pink (2)8, 91, 91A, 92, 201106
Yellow (3)1, 55, 91A0106

104 pages plus 2 new lettered pages across three revisions lands the script at exactly 106. Nothing else moves the total once it is locked.

What is in the pack

01

Delivery Register

Every recipient the script goes to, matched to its format, its title page, and exactly what has to be stripped or left out for that recipient.

02

Title Page

The full version and the blind version, written from the same project information, plus the note on checking a file's own properties before a blind submission goes out.

03

Formatted Script

Standard delivery format shown on a real page, then the same page after one locked revision, with the A-page and the revision marks it actually produced.

04

Revision Marking Note

The WGA's revision color order, how lettered pages absorb growth, and how OMITTED retires a cut scene's number without disturbing anything after it.

05

Revision History

Every distributed revision logged by color, with its new lettered pages and OMITTED scenes reconciled against the running locked page count.

How it works

  1. 1

    Open in River, or download it

    Open the pack in River and let the agent build the register from your script, or download the blank Word and CSV files instantly.

  2. 2

    Name every recipient

    In River, the agent asks who the script is actually going to next: agents, named contests, a production company, or WGA registration.

  3. 3

    Build the register and the title pages

    The agent checks a named contest's current rules where it can, then fills in the format, the title page treatment, and the strip list for each recipient.

  4. 4

    Lock and track revisions once optioned

    Once the script is locked for pre-production, the agent opens the Revision History and logs every color, lettered page and OMITTED scene against the running count, the same reconciliation a locked scene register already runs for structure.

Frequently asked questions

Is this template free?

Yes, the whole pack downloads free as Word documents and CSV sheets, no signup and no card required. "Edit with AI" is a separate, optional path for writers who want River to build the register directly from a script and a recipient list. Every other pack lives in the template library.

Do I need Final Draft to produce a valid FDX file?

No. FDX is a structured file format that several screenwriting programs can export, not a file only one piece of software can produce. What a line producer or breakdown tool checks is whether the file imports correctly, not which app wrote it, so any program that exports valid FDX satisfies that recipient.

How is this different from a PDF-versus-FDX guide?

Those guides answer one question: which format. This register answers four for every recipient: format, title page, what has to be stripped, and what not to include, because two recipients sharing the same format can still need opposite title pages, which a format-only answer never surfaces.

A contest's rules don't say whether it's blind. What do I do?

Treat it as blind until the rules say otherwise, since a de-anonymized entry to a blind-read program is usually disqualified outright while a blind title page sent to a non-blind program almost never costs anything. Note the uncertainty in the register row rather than guessing at intent.

Does the locking and revision-color system apply to television as well as features?

Yes, the mechanism is the same for a pilot or an episode once it is locked for production, though some television productions define their own revision-color set rather than the WGA's default order. Check the specific production's convention and use it consistently for that run.

What does 'Edit with AI' actually do?

It creates a free River account and installs this exact pack as a private workspace. It opens with the agent ready to read whatever script and recipient list you send, build the register and title pages, and open the Revision History once you say the script is locked.

Send it to the right recipient in the right format, every time

Send the script and who it's going to. The register comes back with the format, the title page and the strip list for each recipient, and the revision history once it's locked.

Edit with AI