Screenplay revision colours, in order
Once a script goes into production it stops being a document and becomes a version-control system made of coloured paper. Here is the order, and what it is for.
Why colours at all
On a shooting script, pages change constantly and dozens of people are holding copies. Reprinting the whole script every time is impossible, so only changed pages are reissued — on a different colour of paper.
A crew member flips through their script and sees at a glance which pages are current. The colour is the version number, and it is legible from across a room.
The standard order
| # | Colour | Typically |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | White | Production draft — the locked original |
| 2 | Blue | First revision |
| 3 | Pink | Second revision |
| 4 | Yellow | Third revision |
| 5 | Green | Fourth revision |
| 6 | Goldenrod | Fifth revision |
| 7 | Buff | Sixth revision |
| 8 | Salmon | Seventh revision |
| 9 | Cherry | Eighth revision |
After cherry the cycle repeats as double white, double blue, and so on. Most productions never get that far. Some do.
Locked pages and asterisks
When a script is locked, page numbers stop moving. If a revision adds half a page between 42 and 43, the new page becomes 42A rather than pushing everything after it down by one. Schedules, call sheets, and breakdowns all reference page numbers, so renumbering would break the production.
Changed lines are marked with an asterisk in the right margin, and the revision colour and date appear in the header. So a page tells you three things before you read a word: which pass it belongs to, when it was issued, and exactly which lines moved.
Does this apply to you
If you are writing a spec script, no. Send white pages. Revision colours on an unproduced screenplay read as costume rather than craft.
It starts mattering the moment something is being made — even a short with six people. The instant more than one person is holding a printed page, you need a way to know whose copy is current.
Revision tracking on your phone
Create revisions in the standard colour order, mark changed lines automatically, and export pages that show it.
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