Screenplay format: how to lay out a script, element by element

Screenplay format at a glance

If you only need the numbers, here they are. These are the conventions for a US spec screenplay: the version you write to sell, enter in a contest, or hand to a director.

These are conventions, not law. Different software varies by a fraction of an inch, and nobody will measure. What readers notice is a page that looks wrong, and these settings make sure yours doesn't.

You don't have to set any of this up by hand. Our free screenplay templates for Google Docs, Word, and Fountain come ready to go. In a Film Room, you type plain text and the format happens as you write.

What a screenplay page looks like

Here's the opening of a real short, Whistling Boy in the Graveyard, written in a Film Room. On the left is the page; on the right is the plain text that made it.

EXT. FIELD - DAY

Flashes of light resolve into an interlaced VIDEO IMAGE.

THE SHEPHERD (64), flowing robe, headdress, staff, stands in a flock of plywood sheep. He gives the lens a fatherly glance.

SHEPHERD
It's a good day to be a shepherd.

INT. SARA'S BEDROOM - DAY

Already you can see most of the system:

• a scene heading tells us where and when we are
• action tells us what we see
• a character name tells us who's talking
• dialogue is what they say

Every other element is a variation on those four.

Scene headings (sluglines)

A scene heading starts every new scene. It answers three questions in one line: inside or outside, where, and when.

INT. LAUNDROMAT - NIGHT

The three parts:

1. INT. or EXT. Interior or exterior. Use INT./EXT. for a scene that moves between the two, like a car driving past.
2. The location. Be specific enough to be useful, and consistent: once it's MAYA'S KITCHEN, it stays MAYA'S KITCHEN. For a place inside a larger place, go from big to small: INT. HOSPITAL - ICU - NIGHT.
3. Time of day. Usually DAY or NIGHT. Writers also use CONTINUOUS (we follow the action straight from the last scene), LATER, and MOMENTS LATER. Avoid clock times like 4:17 PM unless the exact time matters to the story.

Scene headings are all capitals, with a blank line before and after.

Secondary headings. When the action moves around a location you've already set up, you can use a short heading like THE BACK DOOR or UPSTAIRS HALLWAY instead of repeating the whole slugline.

Action

Action (also called description or scene direction) is everything the audience sees and hears. It runs the full width of the page.

INT. LAUNDROMAT - NIGHT

Fluorescent hum. One dryer spins. NOA (19), headphones, physics textbook, waits for a load that's taking forever.

The dryer stops. Noa doesn't notice.

Rules of thumb:

• Present tense, always. "Noa waits," not "Noa waited."
• Only what can be seen or heard. You can't film "Noa thinks about her father." You can film her looking at his old watch.
• Keep paragraphs short. Three or four lines is plenty. White space makes a script fast to read, and readers notice.
• One paragraph, one beat. A new paragraph usually means a new shot or a new moment.

Introducing characters. The first time a character appears, put their name in CAPITALS, usually with an age in parentheses and a short, telling description. After that, their name is written normally in action.

Sounds. Many writers put important sound effects in capitals (The dryer BUZZES). It's optional and fading, but it's still common, and it helps the sound team spot them.

Character names

The character name sits above each speech, indented about 3.7" from the left edge of the page, in capitals.

NOA
This is the slowest dryer in America.

Use the same name every time. If a character is MRS. PATEL in one scene and AMINA in the next, readers think they're two people.

Character extensions

A short note in parentheses after the name tells us how we hear the voice:

MANAGER (O.S.)
We close in five minutes!

NOA
(to herself)
Of course we do.

She yanks open the dryer. Everything is still damp.

NOA (CONT'D)
Of course it is.

Many writers now leave out (CONT'D) when the same character speaks again after action. Screenwriting software adds it automatically, so it isn't wrong either way. Just be consistent.

Dialogue

Dialogue sits in a narrower column under the character name, about 2.5" from the left edge and roughly 3.5" wide. That narrow column is part of why one page works out to about a minute.

NOA
I've been here forty minutes. I could've hand-washed everything. I could've hand-washed the building.

Rules of thumb:

• Write how people talk, not how they write: fragments, interruptions, people dodging questions.
• Break up long speeches. Speeches over five or six lines on the page should earn it.
• Don't format accents phonetically. Note it once in action ("a thick Glasgow accent") and write the words normally.

Parentheticals

A parenthetical is a short direction inside dialogue: who a line is aimed at, a small action, or a tone that isn't obvious from the words.

NOA
(holding up a sock)
This is a crime scene.

Use them sparingly. Actors and directors don't love being told how to say a line, and a script full of (angrily) reads as nervous. The good uses:

• who a line is aimed at, like (to the manager)
• a tone that would otherwise be misread, like (sarcastic)
• a tiny action that has to happen mid-speech

Keep them short. Never end one with a period, and never put a whole sentence of action in one. If it's longer than a few words, it's probably action.

Transitions

Transitions sit on the right margin, in capitals, and tell us how one scene moves to the next.

Noa slams the dryer shut.

CUT TO:

EXT. LAUNDROMAT - CONTINUOUS

In a spec script, use very few. A cut to the next scene is assumed. That's what a new scene heading means. Most modern spec scripts use only:

• FADE IN: at the very start (written at the left margin, as action)
• FADE OUT. at the very end
• the occasional transition that does real work, such as SMASH CUT TO: for a jolt, or MATCH CUT TO: for a visual rhyme

Others you'll see are DISSOLVE TO:, JUMP CUT TO:, and FADE TO BLACK.

Shots and camera directions

In a spec script, the director decides the shots. Writers who call every angle are read as stepping on the director, and it slows the read down.

When a shot really matters to the story, you can use one, sparingly:

• CLOSE ON / ANGLE ON: draws attention to something
• INSERT: a close look at an object, like a letter or a phone screen
• POV: what a character sees

Often you can direct the eye without naming a shot. Writing "Her hand. Shaking." as its own action line does the same job as CLOSE ON.

Special situations

Montages and series of shots

A montage compresses time. Label it, list the beats, and close it.

MONTAGE - NOA STUDIES

-- Noa, flashcards, laundromat. The dryer spins.

-- Noa, flashcards, bus stop. Rain.

-- Noa, asleep on the flashcards. The dryer BUZZES. She jolts awake.

END MONTAGE

A SERIES OF SHOTS is formatted the same way. Use it when the shots tell a story in order, rather than showing time passing.

Phone calls and intercuts

When two characters talk from different places, set up both locations, then use INTERCUT so you don't have to repeat headings with every line.

INT. LAUNDROMAT - NIGHT

Noa's phone buzzes. She answers.

INT. DORM ROOM - SAME TIME

KAI (19) lies upside down on a bunk bed.

INTERCUT - LAUNDROMAT / DORM ROOM

KAI
Is it dry yet?

NOA
Don't.

If we only hear the other person, keep the scene in one place and give their lines a (V.O.).

Flashbacks and dreams

Mark them in the scene heading, then mark where they end:

INT. CHILDHOOD KITCHEN - DAY (FLASHBACK) … and later BACK TO PRESENT DAY or simply a new scene heading. Dreams work the same way.

Text messages and screens

There's no single standard yet. The most common approach is to describe the screen in action and set the message apart, often in italics or capitals:

ON NOA'S PHONE: "is it dry yet"

Pick one style and use it the same way every time.

Two people talking at once

Screenwriting software can print dual dialogue: two speeches side by side, for when characters talk over each other. Templates can't do this easily. In plain text, the Fountain syntax for it is a caret (^) after the second character's name.

Songs and lyrics

Write lyrics as dialogue, in italics or with a note in action that the character is singing. Be careful naming specific copyrighted songs in a spec script. Securing the rights later can be expensive, and readers know it.

The title page

The title page is simple, and simpler is better.

• Title in capitals, centered, about a third of the way down
• "Written by" on a line below, then your name
• Contact details (email, phone, and your agent or manager if you have one) in the bottom left corner

Leave off dates, draft numbers, pictures, and colored fonts. Readers want it clean. In Fountain, the title page is just a few Key: value lines at the top of the file. See the Fountain cheat sheet for the full list.

How long should a screenplay be?

Because of the one-page-per-minute rule, page count is a running-time estimate. Rough ranges:

A short for a festival or a weekend challenge is usually far shorter than that ceiling, often 5 to 15 pages. If you're writing for a timed event like a 48-hour film challenge, check your event's running-time rules before you write.

Spec scripts vs. shooting scripts

Everything above describes a spec script, the version written to be read. Once a script goes into production, it becomes a shooting script, which adds things readers don't need:

• Scene numbers on both sides of each scene heading
• Revision pages printed on colored paper (blue, then pink, then yellow, and so on), so everyone knows which changes they have
• (MORE) and (CONT'D) markers wherever dialogue breaks across a page, which software handles for you
• More specific shots, if the director wants them

Don't number scenes or add revision colors in a spec. It reads as if you don't know the difference.

Common screenplay formatting mistakes

1. Camera directions on every page. Let the director direct.
2. Writing the unfilmable. Thoughts, backstory, and feelings that never reach the screen don't belong in action.
3. Paragraphs that run eight or ten lines. Break them up.
4. Parentheticals doing an actor's job. Cut most of them.
5. Inconsistent names. The same character and the same location should have the same name every time.
6. Scene numbers and CONTINUED markers in a spec script. They're for production.
7. A busy title page. Title, credit, author, contact. That's it.
8. Fighting the format. Shrinking margins or font to hit a page count is obvious to anyone who reads a lot of scripts.

Tools that format for you

You can format a screenplay by hand, but you don't have to:

• Templates. Our free screenplay templates set up Google Docs and Word with every element as a style.
• Screenwriting software. Final Draft, WriterDuet, Fade In, and Highland all handle page breaks, (MORE) and (CONT'D), and revisions.
• Fountain. Write in plain text and let an app lay out the page. The Fountain cheat sheet has every rule on one page.