Script Format 1: An Overview

SPEC VS SHOOTING SCRIPTS

Before we start to dive into screenplay format, it’s important to differentiate between two different kinds of screenplays: the spec script and the shooting script. 

A spec script is focused on the story without too much in the way of technical description. While writing a spec script, you should focus on describing your scenes, what your characters are doing in them, and what your characters are saying to each other. More or less. A spec script makes for a better read, if you’re reading scripts for the sake of story.

A shooting script, on the other hand, is closer to the production process and most notably will include some camera direction. This might be something like ‘tight on’ or ‘push to’, or maybe it will include camera shorthand like CU (close-up) or WS (wide shot). There might also be specific direction for perspective and shot angles. The purpose of the shooting script is to help the production crew better visualize and understand what needs to happen in the production process.

While these seem like absolutes, almost every script you’ll find online is some variation that exists between spec script and full-blown shooting script. Meaning it’s probably spec enough for a smooth read, but will have some camera and editing direction here and there.

COURIER

Possibly the first thing that you’ll notice about a screenplay is the typewriter-like font that scripts use. This typeface is called Courier, and it’s the conventional typeface for screenwriting.

You might also notice that characters are spaced a bit differently with Courier than what you’re probably used to. Most ‘normal’ typefaces are proportional, so that characters exhibit various amounts of kerning to more comfortably fit together, which typically means more words on a line.

Courier, by contrast, is a fixed-width typeface, meaning each character takes up the same width on the page. Fixed-width fonts were common when people used typewriters, as the typewriter didn’t know what character you just used, but it needed to make room for the next one. Fixed-width fonts meant that a typewriter could always move over the same amount after a keystroke, and it would always be the right amount.

12-point Courier, specifically, is the standard, as its characters are 1 pica tall (more on that in the typography article, if you’re interested) and 1/10” wide, meaning any combination of ten characters would be 1” in page width.

If you’re wondering why this matters… It doesn’t really. It’s mostly just a traditional holdover from when scripts were written on typewriters. There is still the arguable advantage, however, that the fixed-width typeface helps keep the script lean, with an average pace of about 1 page of script per minute of screentime of a motion picture, whereas a script written in a proportional font would almost certainly be denser, and throw off that rule-of-thumb.

MARGINS

As we go through the basic elements of the screenplay, I’ll give rough conventions as to where and how elements should be formatted on the page, specifically as it relates to margins. 

If you’re using a dedicated and industry-standard software, such as Final Draft, Highland, or Celtx, you can ignore these suggestions, as the software will take care of your margins for you. You just need to make sure the software properly recognizes the elements of your script.

SCENE HEADINGS

Found at the start of every new scene, a scene heading’s purpose is to concisely orient the reader’s vision to where the scene takes place. You can quickly identify a scene heading because the whole line is in ALL CAPS. There are three major parts of the scene heading: camera location (INT./EXT.), scene location, and time of day. Here’s an example:

EXT. DILAPIDATED GRAVEYARD - NIGHT

CAMERA LOCATION

The first part of the scene heading, the camera location, lets the reader know whether we are inside (INT.) or outside (EXT.). The abbreviations stand for INTerior and EXTerior, respectively, and as such should end with a period. 

Whether your camera location is inside or outside is usually pretty easy to figure out, but occasionally it’s not so obvious, such as when you’re under a park shelter or in a convertible. Generally speaking, you can use a ‘rule’ to figure out whether your scene is inside or outside, such as whether or not there’s a roof over your characters’ heads, or whether there are four walls surrounding them, but no rule is perfect.

SCENE LOCATION

The second part of the scene heading is the scene location. This is a concise (one to three word) description of where we are. This is arguably the hardest-working part of the scene heading. It’s also the most difficult for some writers, as it requires an efficient line of thinking to come up with an appropriate and helpful location name. 

For example, ‘CLASSROOM’ is an okay location, but there are many kinds of classrooms. ‘KINDERGARTEN CLASSROOM’ is much different from a ‘LECTURE HALL’, and both are more descriptive and helpful for the reader to create a mental visual of the scene, which is what we should strive for.

Many writers take liberty with the punctuation after location, but the baseline convention is to have a single hyphen between location and time of day.

TIME OF DAY

The third and (usually) final part of a scene heading is the time of day. There are two universally accepted variables here: ‘DAY’ and ‘NIGHT’. This is fairly straightforward; is the sun up or isn’t it? When writing a screenplay, these are your safe options.

Many writers, however, like to be more specific in their time of day, and will use terms like ‘DAWN’, ‘DUSK’, ‘MORNING’, ‘EVENING’, ‘NOON’, or ‘MIDNIGHT’. While these terms are helpful for the reader to understand the time of day, there is the ‘issue’ that a viewer wouldn’t necessarily be able to differentiate dawn from dusk, or morning from evening, as these scenes look the same, visually. 

I don’t personally find this to be problematic - there are many ways in which a viewer has an advantage over a reader, so making something a bit clearer for the reader for once isn’t a bad thing - BUT using a time of day that isn’t ‘DAY’ or ‘NIGHT’ can be used as an excuse to disqualify or ignore a script, in the eyes of certain dogmatic judges or rules committees for festivals and contests. Oftentimes, festivals and contests don’t have the resources necessary to give every script adequate attention, so one way in which they make time is by figuring out ways to disqualify scripts. This is one of those ways. Do I agree with this practice? Hell no, but I understand their logic.

There are other pieces of scene headings that come up fairly frequently, but we’ll focus on those more in the scene heading article. These three simple pieces are the ones that you’ll see with the most frequency, however.

On the page, the scene heading is 1.5 inches from the left edge of the page. The scene heading helps to form the overall left margin.

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION (ACTION)

The bulk of most screenplays should be narrative description, which is sometimes simply referred to as action. This is where the scene is described in more detail to the reader. This is also where the characters actions are described, and where sounds are described (NOT dialogue).

There are a lot of conventions regarding action, but the most important ones are: 

• Write only what the viewer can see and hear 

• Write in the present tense 

• Do NOT summarize action through time

The most important rule, and oftentimes the most difficult to follow, is that a screenwriter should only write what the viewer can see or hear. This doesn’t mean that you can’t exercise a bit of creative flair and freedom in your descriptions; please do! What it does mean is that you should NOT deliver backstory or character thoughts in your narrative description. 

A lesser rule, but still important to the screenplay format, is to write in the present tense. Why should we write in present tense? Because we watch movies in real-time. And because present tense is the most active and engaging tense to read, so it helps keep your reader’s attention.

Finally, a huge problem with most beginning writers: the temptation to summarize action (and even dialogue). What you should do is write what we see and hear in the present tense, as it’s happening. What many novice writers do, however, is to write something like ‘they laugh and drink for ten minutes before everyone leaves and goes back to their homes.’ So much no. I’ve had people say “Well, I don’t want to write every little thing they do because that’s boring.” That’s the point! If you find it too boring to write, then it’s almost certainly too boring to read or to watch, and it shouldn’t be in the script at all. 

Write what’s happening, as we would see and hear it, as it happens.

On the page, the narrative description is in line with the scene headings, 1.5 inches from the left side of the page. With the scene headings, the narrative description forms the left margin, which is a reference point for the other elements.

CHARACTER HEADINGS

Character headings work in some ways like scene headings. They are meant to be a concise way for the reader to know what’s happening. In the case of a character heading, it informs the reader of exactly who is speaking.

If your script allows for it, it’s best to keep the character headings short, which means using a character’s first name as the character heading. You could also use their nickname, or however else the viewer might know them. 

On the page, character headings are about 3.7 inches from the left side of the page, or 2.2 inches (22 spaces) from the left margin.

DIALOGUE

Dialogue should be the simplest part of the script to understand for a new writer. Dialogue is *literally* what your characters are saying. And no, I don’t mean literally like the gist of what they’re saying. I mean literally like word for word exactly what your characters are saying. Do NOT summarize what a character is saying, in either the dialogue section or the action. Just don’t do it.

Will an actor change how something is said? Yeah, probably, but your script should contain an exact variation of what your character is saying.

On the page, dialogue should be about 2.5 inches from the left edge of the page, or 1 inch (10 spaces) inward from the left margin.

TRANSITIONS

Transitions really shouldn’t be of great concern to a new writer, but there are a couple old conventions that some people still feel dogmatic about.

The first is the use of ‘FADE IN:’ at the start of the script. This is usually at the top-left of the page, in-line with and above the first master scene heading. It’s really more of a shooting script element that somehow found its way into most spec scripts. It’s meant to represent the fade from black that you would see at the start of most films. 

Note the use of the colon, which is a frequently misunderstood punctuation, usually meaning ‘following’. So ‘FADE IN:’ roughly means ‘fade in on the following’, which is why it immediately precedes the scene heading.

There are also transitions that writers put between scenes, such as ‘CUT TO:’ or ‘DISSOLVE TO:’. These transitions usually go at the right-side of the page, at the end of a scene. 

Of these, I find that ‘CUT TO:’ is redundant because a cut is the default edit type, so an absence of a transition already implies a cut. I better understand the motivation behind putting ‘DISSOLVE TO:’ before the next scene heading, as that’s implying a specific style of edit that is less frequently used.

Finally, many people still use ‘FADE OUT.’ at the end of a script. This usually goes on the right-hand side of the script as well. Note, however, that this transition has a period instead of a colon, which makes sense because this is the ending punctuation, and there’s nothing following the transition besides credits, which don’t go in the script.

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

Screenwriting is an interesting format of storytelling in that it’s been around for some time, and there are certainly some gatekeepers when it comes to the format, but many established writers will tell you that there really aren’t many hard and fast rules. 

I try not to seem like too much of a dogmatic gatekeeper when it comes to the way that I teach screenwriting, but I do think there are certain core tenets that should be followed, such as writing only what we see and hear, in the present tense, in real time. I so strongly believe in these tenets not only because I believe they are closest to the core of what screenwriting means, but also because they make reading and understanding a script so much easier. This means that readers of your script can most easily visualize your story as a movie, and isn’t that the point?

The irony with teaching screenwriting is that many sources on the subject will say that you have to do this thing, this exact way, but then another source will say, with the same authoritative tone, that you should do it a different way. Where does the truth lie? Well, in many ways, the truth lies with you as a writer, and doing what makes the most sense to you.