PUNCTUATION

The subject of punctuation in scripts merits special attention.

Period

A period at the end of a sentence is always followed by two spaces. However, a period that is part of the abbreviation EXT. or INT. in a shot heading is followed by just one space:

EXT. DESTROYER

Ellipsis

An ellipsis is three periods followed by a single space. It is most commonly used in dialogue to indicate that a character’s speech has trailed off, many times before starting again:

MARVIN

I’d like to say I’ll help you but
I just … I don’t know.

An ellipsis is also used when we join a character midspeech:

NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.)

… Severe weather moving toward
Wyandotte County with strong winds.

Ellipses are sometimes grossly overused. If a comma will suffice, use a comma. Reserve the ellipsis for its specialized uses.

Dash

A dash is two hyphens in sequence, with a space before and a space after. It is used in both dialogue and direction to set off parenthetical material:

He’s wearing a floppy hat — the kind worn by Norwegian fishermen — and staggering around like a serious drunk.

It is also used when dialogue abruptly breaks off:

HELGE

What the —

Never leave a dash dangling on a line by itself:

PATSY

Why anyone would say that is beyond

Instead, carry the last word onto the line with the dash:

PATSY

Why anyone would say that is
beyond —

Hyphen

In scripts, the hyphen is used in the ordinary way, to hyphenate words like mother-in-law and three-year-old, and to break longer words at the ends of lines of direction:

Teddy races toward the tracks, trying to beat the locomotive to the crossing.

Use moderation when hyphenating at the ends of lines of direction, and never hyphenate the ends of two lines in a row.

Don’t hyphenate words at the ends of lines of dialogue (unless they’re already hyphenated, like writer-director). Instead of this:

DR. MATHIS

Based on the imaging today, medullo-
blastoma is a possibility.

Do this:

DR. MATHIS

Based on the imaging today,
medulloblastoma is a possibility.

The hyphen gets special treatment in shot headings. When used to separate elements in shot headings, the hyphen is sandwiched between two spaces, one before and one after:

CLOSE SHOT — CLAW HAMMER

Hyphenate compound words when they are used like this:

THE HORSE IS A TWO-YEAR-OLD. SHE’S A TWO-YEAR-OLD HORSE.

But not when they are used like this:

The horse is two years old.

Quotation marks

Quotation marks are placed around all quoted material, plus titles of:

Periods and commas always go inside the quotation marks:

On the monitors, reruns are playing of “Gilligan’s Island,” “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Leave it to Beaver.”

Semicolons and colons always go outside quotation marks:

Simon hums “Clementine”; Trevino pens the names of what he calls “my boys”: Johnny Walker and Jack Daniels.

Question marks and exclamation points go inside quotation marks when they are part of the original quotation:

The banner at the front of the church reads, “Hallelujah!”

Griffin laughs too loud at the “Got Milk?” commercial.

Question marks and exclamation points go outside when they are not part of the original quotation:

The horse leaps through the flames while the rider whistles “The William Tell Overture”!

Who could have guessed he’d need to know the words of Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”?

Underscoring

Underscoring of multiple words is always continuous and the punctuation at the end of the sentence is not underscored. It should look like this:

The money is gone.

Not this:

The money is gone.

And not this:

The money is gone.

Underscore:

Spread on the desk are a copy of the Times, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Hamlet, plus books about the bomber Enola Gay and the destroyer Madison.

Punctuation and capitalization in direct address

Direct address refers to occasions in dialogue when a character uses the name of the person he is directly speaking to, or addressing. Always set a name used in direct address apart with commas:

SAL

Hi, Deb. How’s it going, Marge?
Nikki, you mind passing the peas?

Plus, just as you would capitalize the first letter of a proper name, capitalize the first letter of any name used in place of a proper name in direct address:

WILLIAM

(greeting his guests)

Hello, Dad. Hi, Mom. How are
you, Coach?
Nice to see you,
Sarge.
You too, Officer. And,
Your Honor, wow, what an honor!

But don’t capitalize pet names, terms of endearment and the like:

WILLIAM

It was a great party, honey. I
mean it, sweetheart.
      (to tipsy guest)
Time to head home, pal.

And don’t capitalize improper names (e.g. mom, coach, sergeant) when they aren’t being used in direct address:

WILLIAM

What a party! My dad was there.
So was my mom and my high school
track coach and my old drill
sergeant and Judge Lemon and that
nice police officer who looks
like Carl Maiden.