Screenplay format: what goes where, and why it's so strict

The first time you open a screenplay, it looks like a form. Everything indented from the left, some things further to the right, names in capital letters, dialogue roughly centred. It seems arbitrary, until you understand what each block is doing.

The format isn’t a matter of taste. It’s an agreement with everyone who will read the script later: director, actors, costume, assistant director. Each of them can pick the one piece of information they need straight off the page. Break the format and you break the readability.

One rule of thumb runs through it all: one page of screenplay equals roughly one minute of finished film. That only works because the layout is strict. Otherwise page counts would be useless for daily schedules and budgets.

Slugline

The slugline (or scene heading) marks a new scene. Three parts, always in the same order:

INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT

• INT. or EXT. for interior or exterior. For transitions (a car through the city, seen through a window) there is INT./EXT..
• Location specific enough for a location scout to do something with it. Not “APARTMENT”, but “MARA’S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM”.
• Time usually DAY or NIGHT. More specific (DUSK, MORNING) only when the time of day matters dramatically.

The slugline is fully capitalised. No period at the end. A regular hyphen between the parts, no en-dash.

Action

What the camera would see if the scene were playing right now. Present tense, terse:

Mara opens the fridge. Empty. She closes it again, sits down at the kitchen table.

Action blocks are short. Three or four lines, then a paragraph break. Long prose chunks kill the read. What can’t be seen doesn’t belong in action. No thoughts, no backstory, no moods only you have in your head.

What you may put in action: sounds, if they are audible (“A chair scrapes.”). Facial expressions, if they aren’t trivial. Important props on first appearance in CAPITALS (“Mara picks up the RED WALLET from the table.”). That way the props department finds them later by flipping through.

Character and dialogue

The speaker comes centred and in capitals, the dialogue below:

MARA

I’ve been thinking about it.

In proper screenplay layout, character name and dialogue are two separate blocks. The name is centred, the dialogue indented about 25 characters from the left margin. In ScriptZ you can see the blocks from the indentation in the editor and don’t have to manage columns yourself.

If a character is only heard as a voice off-screen, they get a (V.O.) (voiceover) or (O.S.) (off-screen) tag after the name:

MARA (V.O.)

We know each other from the waiting room.

Parenthetical

A direction attached to the dialogue. The thing a stage direction would otherwise convey as delivery: quietly, sarcastically, laughing. In parentheses, indented between name and dialogue:

MARA

(quietly)

I’ve been thinking about it.

Use parentheticals sparingly. If the dialogue is well written, the actor will know how to say it. One parenthetical per scene is plenty, often you need none. Bad screenplays are stuffed with (sad), (angry), (confused) - that isn’t your job, that’s hers.

Transition

A transition note at the end of a scene: CUT TO:, DISSOLVE TO:, SMASH CUT TO:. Right-aligned, capitalised, with a colon:

                                                          CUT TO:

Use transitions only when the cut is something special. A standard cut between two scenes doesn’t need a marker; the next slugline does that automatically. A transition is a stylistic device, not a required element.

Why so strict

Behind each of these blocks sits a production question:

• The slugline tells the AD whether today is day or night, whether the crew needs the cold or hot weather insurance, whether the location needs to be built or rented.
• The action block tells camera and art department what has to happen in frame.
• Dialogue goes to the actor, word-perfect, because every word will be learned.
• Parentheticals give the director an anchor without taking the room away from the actor.
• Transitions tell post-production that something other than a standard cut belongs here.

If you can see the hierarchy on the page, all of them can see it too. Blur it, and everyone has to ask.

What you take away

You don’t have to use every block type to write a good screenplay. But you have to know what each one is for, so that your decision to leave one out is a decision and not an oversight.

ScriptZ formats the blocks automatically as soon as you choose the block type. The indentation, the capitals, the centering happen in the background. You type text, the tool handles the format.