Editorial Style Guide
Use this
Style Guide when preparing written materials for Screen Australia. It is designed to
ensure consistency across all publications. A copy is available on Davo or from the
Communications Team.
A
ABBREVIATIONS
Use only if necessary. Do not write ‘mins’ instead of ‘minutes’ etc
Abbreviate these Australian states: NSW, NT, WA, SA and ACT
Write out in full: Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, or use lower case e.g. Qld, Vic,
Tas (because unlike the other states, these are not acronyms)
ABORIGINAL
Must be spelled with a capital ‘A’
Please se
e here for further reading from the Australian Human Rights Commission, who state:
The 'A' in 'Aboriginal' is capitalised similar to other designations like 'Australian', 'Arabic'
or 'Nordic'. The word 'aboriginal with a lowercase 'a' refers to an indigenous person from
any part of the world. As such, it does not necessarily refer to the Aboriginal people of
Australia.
'Aboriginal people' is a collective name for the original people of Australia and their
descendants, and does not emphasise the diversity of languages, cultural practices and
spiritual beliefs. This diversity is acknowledged by adding an 's' to 'people' ('Aboriginal
peoples'). 'Aboriginal people' can also be used to refer to more than one Aboriginal
person.
(see also Indigenous Australians)
ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLES
Capitalise first letters, so it reads: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
This is the preferred term, as opposed to Indigenous Australians, or First Nations peoples.
ACRONYMS
In formal writing, spell out in its entirety in first instance, e.g. Australian Academy of
Cinema & Television Arts (AACTA) and use acronym from thereon.
The exception is for the states, where NSW does not need to be spelled out as New
South Wales in the first instance. It is up to the author.
In editorial (e.g. Screen News), where it is a well-known organisation such as NIDA,
there is no need to spell out. Use discretion as to whether average reader will know
the acronym.
ALIGNMENT
Align text left (rather than full justify)
B
BOLD
Bold should be used for emphasis as underlining can appear to be a hyperlink.
BRACKETS
Put acronyms in brackets after the first mention of an organisation if mentioned
extensively throughout, e.g. Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS).
Thereafter just use the acronym. See also
acronyms.
For PDFs or hard copy documents (research papers, legal documents etc.) that refer
to another part of the same document: use brackets, section in single quotes,
capitalise only the first word and list the page number, e.g. (see ‘Financial
considerations for production in Australia’ on page XX).
When adding extra words into a quote to clarify, use hard brackets. E.g. “[But] then
we finished [additional] filming.”
BROADCASTERS
Public broadcasters
ABC -- ABC iview -- ABC Me
SBS -- SBS Viceland
Commercial broadcasters
Nine Network
Channel Seven
Network Ten
BULLET POINTS
Bulleted lists:
are preferable to lists using numbers or letters as they are easier to read and take up
less space
need to be left justified
should come after a colon.
When bullets are fragments of a sentence, do not use a semi-colon, full stop, comma –
except for the last bullet point, where you should use a full stop. Do not use capitals.
E.g. Screen Australia staff enjoy reading this Style Guide because it is:
somewhat short
kind of snappy
very informative.
2
When bullets are complete sentences, use capitals at beginning and full stops at the end
of each bullet point, e.g.
For this type of bulleted list:
Capitals should be at the beginning of each bullet point.
Full stops should be at the end of each bullet point.
If you need to indent your bulleted list further, use a dash, e.g.
There are many terrific examples of Australian films:
Picnic at Hanging Rock
– wonderful use of cinematography
– great acting
Lion
C
CAPITALS
Capitalise first letter of job titles that precede a name, e.g. Head of Production Sally
Caplan
Capitalise the first letters of departments and units at Screen Australia, e.g. the Legal
Department, Business & Audience Department and the Documentary Unit
Capitalise the word ‘government’ only when referring to the proper noun, e.g. the
Australian Government
Capitalise the word ‘festival’ only when referring to the proper noun, e.g. Cannes
Film Festival is one of many festivals around the world that screen films
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, First Nations peoples, and Indigenous
Australians must be written as such
Capitalise Producer Offset, Location Offset, PDV Offset and references to the Offset
Capitalise Co-production only when referring to an official Co-production (see below)
CO-PRODUCTION
Some tips for
WHEN to capitalise:
When writing out POCU in full: Producer Offset and Co-production Unit
When referring to an Official Co-production e.g. provisional Co-production approval
was given to the great film
blah blah. This means
blah blah will still need final
approval before it is considered an Official Co-production.
And
WHEN NOT to capitalise:
When you are referring to a co-production that is not an Official Co-production e.g.
Hacksaw Ridge was a Australian/US co-production, or; “we’ve got the Netflix’s, the
Amazon’s knocking on our door and increasingly looking for co-productions”
When the sentence is referring to co-production as a
verb, not a
noun (as was the
case here with Official Co-production
Cleverman) e.g. Goalpost Pictures Australia
and Pukeko Pictures co-produced a second season of
Cleverman for ABC TV in
co-production with SundanceTV and Red Arrow
Also note:
3
In documents/media releases etc, countries should be written as Australian/partner country
Co-production
E.g.
In this case, we would say Australian/Chinese Co-production
7 Guardians of the Tomb, and Australian/New Zealand Co-production
Cleverman.
D
DASHES
Group words that together become an adjective.
Note the two examples below:
1.
Mustangs FC is about a group of teens who start an
all-girl team at their football club.
2. The trend toward shorter length,
high-cost TV dramas continued with a large number
of
short-run shows (mini-series) such as
Barracuda,
Deep Water and
The Secret
Daughter, but zero
long-form series (comprising 20 or more episodes).
Insert a pause that’s longer than a comma, but less than a full stop.
It’s not just money – it’s the organisations and the people and platforms that come behind it.
Separate a thought from the rest of the sentence.
It managed to tell me so much about Australia during that post-war period – those 10 years
between 1946 and 1956 – while at the same time being so entertaining.
DATES
Should read: number-month-year
E.g. The film festival will start on 20 April 2017
E
F
FIRST NATIONS PEOPLES
Capitalise first letter of each word, so it reads: First Nations peoples. See also:
Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
FONT
The Screen Australia font is ‘Flama’
Flama is not a standard Word font, but you can email Computer Support and have it
installed.
If Flama is not available, use Trebuchet MS (which is the same font used in emails)
Different font sizes are suited to different readers and contexts:
6 to 8 pt for captions and footnotes
in general, 9 to 12 pt for continuous reading
14 pt or larger for primary school readers
14 to 20 pt for older readers and people with visual impairments.
People should only use templates that are available in DAVO – do not create your own.
FOREIGN PROJECTS
Foreign projects are defined as those under foreign creative control, originated and
developed by non-Australians. This includes foreign projects with an Australian production
company operating in a service capacity.
4
G
H
I
INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS
Must be spelled Indigenous with a capital ‘I’
This term encompasses First Nation peoples including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
See also
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Please se
e here for further reading from the Australian Human Rights Commission, who state:
The 'I' in 'Indigenous' is capitalised when referring specifically to Australian Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The lower case 'i' for 'indigenous' is only used when
referring to people originating in more than one region or country such as the Pacific
region, Asiatic region, Canada or New Zealand.
ITALICS
All titles are
italicised and where possible, hyperlinked to The Screen Guide
Italics or
bold should be used for emphasis as underlining can appear to be a
hyperlink
Reports such as
Seeing ourselves can be italicised, but not the annual Drama Report
or Annual Report
Do not italicise initiatives such as Art Bites, Hot Docs etc.
J
K
L
M
MINI-SERIES
A
mini-series is a program comprising up to 13 hours total duration
E.g.
Wentworth, Doctor Doctor, The Secret Daughter, The Wrong Girl, Seven Types of
Ambiguity, The Family Law.
MORE THAN V OVER
Attempt to use
more than instead of
over if it is before a number
E.g.
More than 87 people applied for this round
is more correct than
Over 87 people applied for this round
5
However, as time goes on, it is becoming more and more accepted to interchange
more than
and
over, so it is your personal choice whether you think it looks cleaner or need to minimise
word count by using
over.
N
NUMBERS
For numerals within the body text, nine and under should be
spelled out in words, 10
and over in numerals e.g. nine, 10, 11, 12
except when together in a sentence, e.g. fifteen 90-second films
All numbers must be spelled out in full if they begin a sentence
Use % instead of per cent in editorial copy on Screen News, tables or where several
percentages are used. All percentages should use numerals
For larger numbers in the thousands use commas, e.g. 6,000; 200,000
30s versus thirties: when referring to an era – use 30s; when referring to someone’s
age group (ie Max is in his….) use thirties.
The following styles should be used for periods of history:
1970s, 1990s (no apostrophes)
1980/81, 1921/22, 2001/02 (financial years)
20th century, 19th century (not twentieth century)
The following styles should be used for expressing periods of time:
90-second commercial, 10-minute short
9am, 10.30pm, 7–8.30pm
O
OFFICIAL CO-PRODUCTIONS
Capitalise the ‘O’ and the ‘C’, but not the ‘p’ e.g. Official Co-productions
And
WHEN NOT to capitalise:
When you are referring to a co-production that is not an Official Co-production e.g.
Hacksaw Ridge was a Australian/US co-production, or; “we’ve got the Netflix’s, the
Amazon’s knocking on our door and increasingly looking for co-productions”
When the sentence is referring to co-production as a
verb, not a
noun (as was the
case here with Official Co-production
Cleverman) e.g. Goalpost Pictures Australia
and Pukeko Pictures co-produced a second season of
Cleverman for ABC TV in
co-production with SundanceTV and Red Arrow
Also note:
In documents/media releases etc, countries should be written as Australian/partner country
Co-production
E.g.
In this case, we would say Australian/Chinese Co-production
7 Guardians of the Tomb, and Australian/New Zealand Co-production
Cleverman.
6
P
POSSESSIVE CREDIT A director can take the possessive credit of a film (e.g. Baz Luhrmann’s
Moulin Rouge! or
Jocelyn Moorhouse’s
The Dressmaker) if they have also written the screenplay.
This is based on a ruling by the Directors Guild of the US.
Q
QUOTATION MARKS
Here are a couple of different types of sentences with different punctuation (ending in
question marks etc.):
Quotation marks fall outside full stops, question marks, commas, etc. “I love punctuation and learning about it so damn much,” the Screen Australia worker said.
“It’s just the best part of my day.”
Quotation marks fall outside full stops, question marks, commas, etc. “Do I love punctuation?” Ms Screen Australia said. “Why yes, I do!”
Quotation marks outside the full stop if a broken quote – where only part of it is used - is
at the end of a sentence Mr Screen Australia said he loved learning about punctuation so much that “it was the best
part of my day.”
No need for full stops or commas inside the quotation marks if within the middle of a
sentence like this… The Screen Australia worker said she “enjoyed” learning about punctuation, saying “it was
the best”, and her colleague agreed.
Quoting inside a quote – use single quotation marks “The style guide writer told me ‘here’s a witty sentence about punctuation’ and I didn’t
believe her… but then I read it and she was
so right,” Ms Screen Australia said.
If a quote runs over two lines, use quotation marks only to close the quote at the end
(*note: this does not apply to media releases, which have their own quotation style*)
“Well this is a great quote
R
REFERENCING When citing books, journal articles and websites for reference purposes, use the
author–date system, e.g.
– Krauth, K 2003,
A comma in a haystack, Allen and Unwin, Sydney (book)
– Webster, M 2003, ‘The hidden secrets of publishing’,
Trade Writing Journal, vol. 52,
pp. 50–52 (journal article)
– Jennings, F 2003, ‘Creative writing 101’, University of NSW, Sydney, viewed 6 May
2003
, www.unsw.com.au (website).
7
When listing a long quote place it after a colon, indent the paragraph, use a slightly
smaller font and right justify the reference in brackets, e.g.
If you are serious about becoming a writer it is essential that you join the Australian
Writers' Guild—to increase your bargaining power and to give you access to industry
information as well as a wide range of services. Put simply, membership of the AWG is
the best investment you can make in your career.
(Australian Writers’ Guild, Sydney, viewed 6 May 2003, www.awg.com.au)
Titles of pieces of legislation—Acts, Regulations—should be listed with the date and in italics,
eg
Screen Australia Act 2008. Subsequent mentions should be in plain text and the date no
longer needs to be included, or simply refer to the Act.
S
SEASON VS SERIES
Season = released this year
Series = general term
E.g.
1. The Katering Show season 2 released last week and is the best thing since sliced
bread.
2. A woman’s mind has exploded after watching the series **insert movie/TV title
here**. Not literally. It was just very good.
SERIALS/SERIES
Long-form programs (more than 13 hours total duration), as well as multi-part programs with
episodes shorter than one commercial broadcast hour (e.g.
Home and Away, Neighbours,
Packed to the Rafters).
SPACING
Only use a single space at the end of sentences. Double spacing is a hangover from the days
of typewriters and is now considered incorrect grammar. However, if an employee felt the
need to write some copy on a typewriter and circulate around the office, they could use
double spaces without fear of retribution.
T
TELEMOVIE
One or two-part feature length programs (e.g.
Hoges: The Paul Hogan Story, Mary: The
Making of a Princess).
TEMPLATES
People should only use templates that are available in DAVO – do not create your own.
THE SCREEN GUIDE
All titles and key creatives should be hyperlinked to The Screen Guide
E.g.
Dr George Miller has made bot
h Mad Max an
d Babe. TITLES
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Titles of films, publications and plays are
italicised and where possible, hyperlinked
to The Screen Guide (see: The Screen Guide).
E.g.
Crocodile Dundee
For titles, the words ‘on’, ‘the’, ‘of’, ‘and’, ‘so’ etc (articles, prepositions,
conjunctions) should be in lower case.
Titles of pieces of legislation—Acts, Regulations—should be listed with the date and in
italics, eg
Screen Australia Act 2008. Subsequent mentions should be in plain text
and the date no longer needs to be included, or simply refer to the Act.
TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER
Must be spelled with a capital letter at the beginning of each word, so it reads Torres
Strait Islander.
See also
Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
TV DRAMA
TV drama is defined according to
ACMA guidelines. It comprises scripted programs including
series/serials, mini-series and telemovies of all genres, for both adults and children.
U
UNDERLINE
Avoid underlining within stories and use
bold for emphasis instead. Underlined words can be
mistaken for hyperlinks.
V
W
WEBSITES
Websites, email addresses, or links to news stories should be hyperlinked into the text,
e.g. The
Australian Directors’ Guild (ADG) is calling on female directo
rs to apply for a
new mentorship program as part of Screen Australia
’s Gender Matters initiative. Submit
your application to
xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx before 5pm, 1 April.
If you must write a website out in full, you do not need to include http://
X
Y
Z
COMMONLY USED SPELLINGS
9
Please use the following guide for general spelling.
Please note the use of hyphens, capitals and apostrophes.
Please let the Communications Team know of any new terms that you come across and they
will incorporate into the list.
A
B
C
the Academy Awards®
back-end (eg database)
Cannes Film Festival or Festival
arthouse
box office
de Cannes (note lowercase ‘d’
audiovisual (
no hyphen)
box-office results
on ‘de’ – also see
Capitals
Aurora Script Workshop
section for when to capitalize
Australia–US Free Trade
Film Festival)
Agreement (
en rule)
cashflow
Australian Content Standard
CD-ROM/CD-ROMs
Australian Directors’ Guild (ADG)
Chain of Title
Australian Government (see
chat room
Capitals section)
cinemagoers
Australian Writers' Guild (AWG)
CineMedia (directory)
AWGIE Awards
co-financing
co-investing
official Co-production program
Commonwealth Government
community TV
Cooperate
coordinated
Critics’ Prize (Cannes)
crossover
cross-platform
cross-reference
cross-section
D
E
F
Database
Email
Federal Government (see
de facto
em rule
Capitals section)
decision making
en rule
federally funded fee-based
the Depression
Encore Directory export-
fine cut
deregulation
related Emmy® Award
First World War first-run
Development Department (see
focusing/focused
Capitals section)
Film Licensed Investment
Directors’ Fortnight (Cannes)
Company scheme (FLICs)
Division 10BA/10B
film-related filmmaking/er
(one word) FILMINK
FIPRESCI
First-hand
first-time filmmaker follow-up
free-to-air
Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ) series
full-length full-time full stop
fully funded FX (effects)
Final Certificate (for Producer
Offset)
10
G
H
I
Golden Globe®
high-profile event
IF – Inside Film
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
high profile
Indigenous Australians
government-subsidised guidelines HIVE initiative
Indigenous Department
(cap if part of official document
in-house
title)
interactive digital media
groundbreaking
interlibrary loan
internet
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
J
K
L
Jury Members (Cannes)
keyword/s
loan-out
lineup (e.g. lineup announced)
M
N
O
make-up (cosmetics)
National Interest Program
off-screen
marketplace
non-deductible
Official Co-production Program
media-related
non-lending
Official Co-productions
Melbourne International Film
non-profit
ongoing
Festival (MIFF – see
acronyms)
non-residents
online
mid-1890s
onscreen
mini-series
Oscar®
multi-channelling
multimedia
multiplatform
multi-strand
P
Q
R
Palme d’Or
Queensland Government
reassigned
part-time
qualifying Australian
re-established reinvested
pay TV
production expenditure (QAPE) rewrite RealTime
PDF
Regional Filming Fund (FTO)
per cent
Research Coordinator
postgraduate
residential workshop (SP*RK –
postmarked
no capitals)
post-production
renamed reworked right justify
pre-production
rough cut
pre-sale/s
Royal Commission
Prix du Jury
print-based
production-based
The Production Book
Producer Offset (and Offset, non-
Offset)
post, digital and visual effects
(PDV) Provisional Certificate (for
Producer Offset)
program (not programme; cap if
part of official title)
S
T
U
screen-based
TAFE
up-to-date
Takeover
US-based
11
screen development organisation
Targeted
US (not USA)
(no capitals)
Telefeature
screenplay screenwriter
Telemovie
Script Assessment Service (AWG)
top-rating TV
Second World War
Toronto International Film
self-addressed
Festival (TIFF – see
acronyms)
semicolon
TV drama
shortlist/ed
showreel
single-sided sitcom
South-East Asia
SP*RK Program
State Government but
government state-based
state-funded
storytelling
subcategory
Subclass (visas)
super 8
Sydney Film Festival (SFF – see
acronyms)
V
W
X, Y & Z
VCR
website
Young Filmmakers Fund (no
well-known
apostrophe)
world-class
zero-fee licensing
World War I
World War II
worldwide write-off
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