Which typewriter is best for writing screenplays?

Razz16mm said:
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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James Ellroy (wrote the novel LA Confidential) still writes with a yellow legal pad, heard an interview of him not long ago on public radio.
 
I think I get it... the meaning of this post...

On another note I chatted with David Ward who I believe has won 2 Oscars for writing and is a big script doctor about writing... he told me he figured at some point he was going to have to learn how to use a computer and learn Final Draft... he was still writing on a yellow pad and his assistant put it into the computer for him...
 
starcentral said:
One you can still by ink cartridges for.
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Typewriter ribbon seems to have been standardized around the turn of the 20th century... or even before... world wide as far as I can tell... currently one can buy 'ink cartridges' for a variety of dot matrix printers, which also use the 1/2 in. ribbon.

One does have to get one's hands dirty... but one can respool the new ribbon on the typewriter spools, and eh wala... it works... one can also reink ribbon if it is a one color type... the dual color type ribbon is not really something one wants to reink...
 
I can type about 50 wpm on a computer. But I can't type a darn thing on a manual typewriter. Where do they hide those pesky on switches?
 
But make sure you've got enough bug powder to feed that sucker! He can get nasty.


I read the last two pages of this thread a few days ago wondering why people were talking about typewriters. Just read the thread from the start...laughed my arse off. :grin:
 
com'on guys this is getting ridiculous - you can try as hard as you like installing font packs that get you close to the right look and even get the computer to sound like the real thing but you're only fooling yourselves - type is type, you can't match the resolution & colour depth with digital and as a storage medium paper is unequaled.
 
Hank Moody uses a IBM Selectric II. Going to buy one for me too.
Personally, I don't like using computer for typing... It distracts you...
 
fdirector said:
Hank Moody uses a IBM Selectric II. Going to buy one for me too.
Personally, I don't like using computer for typing... It distracts you...
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I find the Selectric II rather 'boxy'... The Selectric, or Selectric I, had a bit more 60's vintage curvy futuristicness about it... the II I think was designed by out of work prison designers...
 
The real question should be - which carbon paper is best for screenplays.

- Bill (first produced screenplay written on a typewriter)
 
wcmartell said:
The real question should be - which carbon paper is best for screenplays.

- Bill (first produced screenplay written on a typewriter)
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I have a few sheets of vintage pre-owned carbon paper. I don't know if this will assist in writing that Oscar Winner lurking just beyond those key lever linkages...

In any case I don't think the offerings from Staples or similar these days has quite the Oscar caliber required...
 
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