Which typewriter is best for writing screenplays?

I'm sure Moses would attest, stone tablets are easily broken... buried clay tablets that no one reads or transcribes however, seem to last for millennia in their original form...
 
Drop one of those stone tablet action scripts on Michael Bay's desk and how can he ignore you. Bigger is better. No D-Girl can even lift it to send it back to you unread. CAA and William Morris Endeavor will be all over you! Success is near!
 
This one finally has been retired to a shelf in the Room of Africa home office. Wrote quite a bit on this, actually.

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Thanks to all for delivering me from my seriousness - writing is soooo lonely - living with the constant risk of wasted time. As to the original question - is it naive to think that its always and only the story, the story, the gd story that counts?

The next "Best Original Screenplay" could be typed on a typewriter. Right?
 
David Jimerson said:
I wrote my very first script on one of these.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/3373325...pe=vintage&ga_page=3&order=date_desc&includes[0]=tags&includes[1]=title
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OMG... So did I. My folks got me that typewriter for Christmas one year... after I show great interested in taking a typing class the next term in school... eighth grade, if I remember correctly. I didn't have the heart to tell them that my interest in the typing class was because the typing teacher was a fantastic looking babe, and all the fellas were signing up for typing.... we learned on Selectrics. Of course, now, after is all said and done... I am glad I learned to type early. I spent a lot of time behind my Smith Corona manual..... and here we are.
 
I wonder if there is software so while typing in e.g. Final Draft, each peck on a key on my computer keyboard would issue a sound effect like on the old typewriters, and when I press the ENTER key for a line return, I would get a sound effect of the carriage return from an old typewriter? Now that could be fun just for the sake of it, take away some nauseum from the blank page. Ha!

 
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Randall_Oelerich said:
I wonder if there is software so while typing in e.g. Final Draft, each peck on a key on my computer keyboard would issue a sound effect like on the old typewriters, and when I press the ENTER key for a line return, I would get a sound effect of the carriage return from an old typewriter? Now that could be fun just for the sake of it, take away some nauseum from the blank page. Ha!

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I don't know of a 'add on'... do you also want simultaneous key strokes to 'jam' and require a couple of seconds to clear?

And who whoever is 'manhandling that SM3', ought to take this typing course:


And while we are talking about things dealing with typewriters, I'd personally prefer the following setup for typing: (I sure didn't get this sort of 'visions' in advanced typing in highschool...).

tumblr_m68yde8BUa1qcgxt0o1_400.jpg
 
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I took typing in summer school during my last year in high school (that was a number of years ago) as I recall, but I sure do not have any memories of a typing teacher like the gal below!

j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
And while we are talking about things dealing with typewriters, I'd personally prefer the following setup for typing: (I sure didn't get this sort of 'visions' in advanced typing in highschool...).

tumblr_m68yde8BUa1qcgxt0o1_400.jpg
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If you want to write something like "The Downfall", you better get one of those old German typewriters that have a swastika key. :)

Frank
 
Postmaster said:
If you want to write something like "The Downfall", you better get one of those old German typewriters that have a swastika key. :)

Frank
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About two years ago I saw an ebay listing for someone in Spain selling a Wanderer Werke Continental (as I recall...) with the SS Rune key... the listing specifically excluded 'Germany' as a destination for shipping.

Here's a picture of such a keyboard. The SS rune aside, the biggest difference between the US keyboard and the German keyboard is the switch of the 'Z' and 'Y' keys... "QWERTZ" as opposed to "QWERTY". The umlauted keys are placed in the typical place for punctuation, and so don't break the fingers all that much for 'ordinary words'...

10186031_2_x.jpg


Then there's the AZERTY of the Frenchfries...

In an odd sort of note that both the Wanderer Werke and Triumph started off as 'bicycle' manufacturers of german origin, both acquired typewriter product lines...

Of course beyond Germany Triumph is probably only associated with motorcycles, due to the founder having built a bicycle production plant in Coventry England in the late 19th Century which expended into motorbikes and motorcycles.
 
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Whacky thought, not sure if it is good or bad-- but i wonder if (i imagine so) anybody has rigged up a computer to a typewriter, so for example if i had a script i could have it printed out somehow on an old typewriter, complete with random faded ink, etc. I know there are old typewriter fonts one can use, in fact i might get one just for fun, to mimic an old typewriter-- if i could only get the sound of an old typewriter. Too much time on my hands perhaps.
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
Whacky thought, not sure if it is good or bad-- but i wonder if (i imagine so) anybody has rigged up a computer to a typewriter, so for example if i had a script i could have it printed out somehow on an old typewriter, complete with random faded ink, etc. I know there are old typewriter fonts one can use, in fact i might get one just for fun, to mimic an old typewriter-- if i could only get the sound of an old typewriter. Too much time on my hands perhaps.
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In the 80's an IBM golfball typewriter could be connected to a computer as a printer
 
At a college lecture a student asked Elmore Leonard what he used to write with when he started out and what did he use today with all the changes in technology. He replied. " When I wrote my first novel I used a yellow legal pad and a 5 cent Scripto pen... Now I use a yellow legal pad and a $150 Mont Blanc."
 
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