What does a writer new to film and television writing need to know to start turning out pages that look like they were generated by a pro?
Ten things, more or less.
Here they are in brief. Each of these topics is treated in detail later in the book.
Use some form of Courier, Courier New, or Courier Final Draft.
Courier looks like this. Without it, a script page doesn’t look like a script page and is doomed to be recycled into a Starbucks cup, from which a more serious screenwriter will sip while writing in Courier font.
Always use 12-point type. Don’t cheat. People who stare at script pages for a living will know. And they’ll turn your script into a coffee cup.
To read more about why 12-point Courier is the font of choice, see “Margins and fonts for single-camera film format.”
Script format relies on two sets of margins, those for the narrow strip of dialogue that runs down the center of the page, and those for everything else. Here is an example of how those two sets of margins appear on a typical script page:
INT. LIEUTENANT’S OFFICE
The new boss is a boxcar of a man named COFFEY. He’s unpacking. Lots of golf paraphernalia. He looks up as Will and Bobbie enter. Will extends a hand. He’s got the people skills Bobbie doesn’t give a damn about.
WILL
Detective Sampson and my partner
Detective Loakes. Welcome to
Southern District, Lieutenant.
I’ve heard good things.
Lt. Coffey shakes Will’s hand but his gaze settles on Bobbie.
LT. COFFEY
Detective Loakes. I’ve heard
things about you.
BOBBIE
What kind of things?
LT. COFFEY
That you’ve got the best mind in
the department.
BOBBIE
Best mind in the department. I
like the sound of that.
He unzips a leather golf bag, removes a five-iron.
LT. COFFEY
And that you’re difficult.
Bobbie has no problem with eye contact now.
BOBBIE
Well. I think you’ll find the
one makes up for the other.
CUT TO:
Notice that the names of characters over dialogue are indented. Notice also that the transition at the end of the short scene — “CUT TO:” — is tabbed far to the right side of the page. Precise margins for each of these elements can be found in the section, “Standard single-camera film format margins.”
Because writing a script means shifting between these sets of margins many hundreds of times, writers need some efficient way to accomplish the margin shifts. This is where Final Draft comes in. Or Movie Magic Screenwriter. Or Celtx. Or Microsoft Word styles. With each of these software solutions, a writer can apply the appropriate margins with a simple keystroke or two. How to choose a method that works best for your budget and temperament is discussed in the chapter “Unleashing the Power of Script Typing Software.”
The rule here: Don’t get creative. Stick with the basics.
For paper, use plain vanilla 8.5-by-11-inch white, three-holed paper, the kind they sell for about $5 a ream at office supply stores.
Bind the script with two brass brads (#5 brass round-head fasteners, manufactured by Acco work beautifully), one in the top hole and one in the bottom hole. Leave the center hole empty. For some Hollywood readers, a brad in the center hole constitutes a grave offense. No kidding.
A cover is unnecessary. If the script is represented by an agent, the agency will put its own cover on the script before submitting it to buyers. Studios and production companies will put their own covers on scripts they own. Otherwise, present the script without a cover, or with a blank cover of 60-lb. card stock of any color.
Don’t spiral bind a script. Don’t put it in a folder or a three-ring binder. Don’t put pictures on the cover. Don’t include budgets, sketches, photos or casting suggestions. All of these will doom the script to return as a Starbucks cup. Keep it simple. Let the script speak for itself.
Film and television scripts include headings at the beginning of each scene to indicate the location of the scene and the time of day it occurs. Sometimes these headings include additional information, like the type of shot to be used, or a notation that the scene takes place in slow motion, or underwater, or in the rain, or that it’s a flashback or a dream sequence. These are variously called shot headings, scene headings or slug lines. They look like this:
EXT. MARTIAN CRATER — DAY
INT. ROADSIDE DINER — LADIES’ ROOM — DAY
CLOSE SHOT — THUMBPRINT ON BROKEN BOTTLE
FLASHBACK — HOSPITAL NURSERY
Shot headings come in such great variety that the longest chapter in this book, “Shot Headings,” is dedicated to covering the topic in detail.
Some writers use so many shot headings that they clutter their pages with unnecessary technical language, get in the way of telling their story, or give the off-putting impression that they’re attempting to direct the film. Others use too few shot headings and their scripts read like stage plays stuck endlessly in one location.
In general, use shot headings as sparingly as possible, but do include them when necessary. Follow three basic rules to determine when a new shot heading is required.
Say a conversation between two fugitives is taking place inside a farmhouse, under the shot heading INT. FARMHOUSE - DAY, and then the fugitives step outside, onto the front porch. A new shot heading is needed to cover the exterior action: EXT. FARMHOUSE - FRONT PORCH - DAY.
Or let’s say the action moves from INT. FARMHOUSE - BEDROOM to INT. FARMHOUSE - KITCHEN. Again, a new shot heading is needed.
And of course this applies when the location shift is even more dramatic, from INT. CRIPPLED APPOLO 13 COMMAND MODULE to INT. HOUSTON CONTROL.
This rule holds even if the location of the scene hasn’t changed. Look at the following example.
INT. LIBRARY — DEAD OF NIGHT
Sylvia’s eyelids are heavy as she sits over the dusty book, forcing herself to keep reading.
She turns a page. Seven hundred and thirty-two down. Nine hundred and six to go.
Her eyes close. Her head bobs. She shakes herself back to consciousness.
SYLVIA
I’m good. I’m awake.
CUT TO:
INT. LIBRARY — MORNING
Light fills the room. Face down in the book, Sylvia snores like a walrus with a head cold.
An example will help make sense of this rule. Let’s say a scene in a romantic comedy takes place at the female lead’s school, inside her classroom. It opens like this:
INT. ROSIE’S KINDERGARTEN CLASSROOM — DAY
It’s raining hard outside. Rosie’s at the classroom door, helping arriving students fold dripping umbrellas and pull their little feet out of rain boots.
She doesn’t notice Allister at the front of the classroom playing with the lid of the terrarium, spinning it over his head like it’s a helicopter rotor.
Rosie finishes with the umbrella. Almost turns in time to catch Allister making like a chopper. But the door blows open and rain flies in. She pushes it closed. Fumbles to get it latched. Doesn’t notice Allister, or:
TERRARIUM
Where the tarantula climbs onto the rim of the open enclosure. Teeters like an arachnid Baryshnikov. And drops into Rosie’s open purse.
Now we want to go back to Rosie, to see her next action, but we can’t do it directly, without first inserting a new shot heading, because Rosie can’t be seen in the current shot of the terrarium. In this case, logic requires a new shot heading, either “INT. CLASSROOM,” or “ROSIE” or “BACK TO SCENE,” like this:
BACK TO SCENE
Rosie finally gets the door to stay closed and turns toward the front of the classroom.
Allister has replaced the terrarium lid and has moved on to dipping his fingers in a fish tank.
Rosie steers him toward his seat.
The same situation arises when POV, or point of view, shots are employed. Or close shots. Or any other time a writer indicates a shot that restricts our view to only a portion of a larger location. To get out of that restrictive shot, a new shot heading is usually needed.
Pay attention to the visual logic of your scenes. Add shot headings when logic demands it. But remember: Simpler is almost always better. Add shot headings only when you have a compelling storytelling reason to do so. For a more detailed discussion on this topic, see “How to decide when to create a new shot heading.”
Shot headings can consist of nothing more than a short description of a specific image:
BUG
At the other extreme, they can contain a great deal of complicated information, and sometimes become ungainly and bloated:
DREAM SEQUENCE — INT. MOUNT WEATHER PRESIDENTIAL BUNKER — SITUATION ROOM — CLOSE SHOT — COMPUTER SCREEN — DAY (SEPTEMBER 11, 2001) (GRAINY VIDEO FOOTAGE)
The same rule applies here: simpler is better. Include all necessary information and no more. Shot headings should only rarely wrap onto a second line, and a shot heading that fills three lines, like the example above, almost never occur. It is displayed here for illustration only, like a giant anaconda in a zoo.
Shot headings can include up to five categories of information. They may, however, contain only one piece of information, like the “BUG” example above. Arrange the necessary information in the following order:
INT. or EXT., to indicate that the scene takes place in an interior or exterior location.
The name of the location itself, such as PRESIDENTIAL BUNKER or FARMHOUSE or SURFACE OF ELECTRON. The location can include multiple parts (e.g. PRESIDENTIAL BUNKER - SITUATION ROOM), and those parts should be listed from general to specific. Put the INT. or EXT. designation together with a location, and you get:
EXT. HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL FIELD
INT. ATTIC
EXT. ROSE BOWL — PARKING LOT
Type of shot, for example EXTREME CLOSEUP or POV SHOT. Call for specific shots only when absolutely necessary.
Subject of shot. The subject of the shot can stand alone:
ROSIE
Or it can be combined with a location:
INT. MISSILE SILO — MARK IV ICBM
Or it can be combined with a type of shot:
EXTREME CLOSEUP — GNAT’S EYEBALL
Time of day. The simplest and most common designations are DAY and NIGHT. More colorful or specific descriptions can also be used: MIDNIGHT, SUNSET or 3 AM:
INT. OUTHOUSE — DAY
EXT. WHITE HOUSE — GREENHOUSE — NIGHT
INT. HOUSE OF BLUES — NOON
Shot headings are typed in all capital letters. They contain no ending punctuation, but EXT. and INT. are followed by periods, and all other elements are separated by a hyphen that is preceded and followed by a single space, as in the examples above.
Read much more about shot headings in the chapter titled “Shot headings.”
Scripts employ direction to introduce characters, describe settings, actions, sounds and camera movement, and to control pace. Because scripts are intended not only to be read but also to serve as technical documents that hundreds of filmmaking professionals will use to produce a film or television episode, some types of information is traditionally typed in all capital letters.
Capitalize the following three types of information when they occur in direction:
The introduction of a speaking character. The first time a speaking character appears on screen, capitalize that character’s name:
The elevator doors slide open and JOSEPH MARTIN long-jumps off. Martin is 40s, in a grass-stained Steelers jersey, cheap eyeglasses held together with silver duct tape. An odd bird.
Sound effects and offscreen sounds. Capitalize the thing making the sound and the sound it makes:
The MOTORIZED CONTRAPTION GROWLS as Martin tries to start it. After a promising SPUTTER, the ENGINE WHEEZES and DIES. Delighted for some reason by this turn of events, Martin produces a STARTER’S PISTOL, raises it over his head and FIRES TWICE.
From somewhere unseen, a CHILD CRIES, a COYOTE HOWLS and a PHONE RINGS.
Camera direction. Capitalize the word “camera,” any verb describing its movement, and any prepositions connected to that movement:
Prius leaps over the river of lava and runs for his life, CAMERA MOVING WITH him THROUGH a twisting series of dark passageways.
Put it all together and you get something like this:
HIGH ABOVE WORLD — DUSK
The CAMERA HOVERS, BROODING. Down below, the dark earth is shrouded in heavy fog. The red towers of the Golden Gate Bridge rise above the murk. The rest of the city lies hidden.
The CAMERA SINKS DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, INTO:
hurries across a parking lot toward a Burger King. He’s tall and thin like a scarecrow. Or a modern-day Gandalf. His name is PHINEAS GAGE. He grips a folded newspaper. A WIND is BLOWING.
Read more in “Capitalization in direction.”
The name of a speaking character appears over every bit of dialogue the character speaks:
BERTIE
I can’t stop lying! Honest to
Pete!
Don’t make the mistake of calling the character Bertie over some of her speeches and Alberta or Frank’s Daughter over others. Readers, casting directors and actors will pause to scratch their heads and wonder if all these names belong to the same character, or if there are actually multiple characters being referenced. For the sake of clarity, keep your character names consistent for the duration of the script.
Read more in “Character names over dialogue.”
Writers sometimes need to provide information about how a line is spoken, or business a character is performing while delivering a line. This information can appear in parenthetical character direction:
The PHONE RINGS. Bobbie picks it up.
BOBBIE
This is Bobbie.
(listens)
I’ll meet you there.
Observe the following guidelines for a professional presentation:
Keep parenthetical character direction to a minimum. Most speeches should contain no parenthetical direction.
Don’t state the obvious. If context makes clear that a character is furious, don’t write “(furiously)” in parenthetical direction.
Make sure the direction pertains only to the speaking character.
Begin parenthetical direction with a lower-case letter, omitting “he” or “she.”
End parenthetical direction without a period.
Don’t end a speech with parenthetical direction.
Keep it brief. Four lines is too long.
Read more in “Parenthetical character direction.”
William Strunk and E. B. White, in their classic book The Elements of Style, implore writers to “omit needless words.” Nowhere is that instruction more needful than in the field of writing for the screen. Readers who carry home backbreaking stacks of screenplays every weekend have no patience for paragraphs larded with needless words. Settings must be described in a handful of vivid words. Characters must be introduced in a single pithy sentence. Actions must be painted with extreme economy of language. Instead of this:
INT. BMW SHOWROOM
This BMW showroom is filled with shiny, sexy, overengineered Bavarian steel on wheels. Eager salesmen sell to upscale, self-important customers. Right now, though, all of these people have forgotten themselves, a rare event indeed, to focus their attention on a woman who is making a scene. Her name is MARTHA LOAKES. She’s somewhere north of 40, south of 50, but looks like she’s older. Her suit is dated. Her makeup is bad. She’s wearing bathroom slippers.
Do this:
INT. BMW SHOWROOM
All that sexy Bavarian steel. Salesmen and upscale customers focus on MARTHA LOAKES, 50s, weathered, wearing a dated suit, bad makeup and bathroom slippers.
With every word keep moving forward, revealing character, unveiling mysteries, in succinct, powerful, lean prose.
Final Draft, Movie Magic Screenwriter, and Celtx can help here. Ultimately, though, the writer bears responsibility for observing these reasonable and time-honored conventions.
Whenever possible, break pages between paragraphs of direction or between speeches:
MARTHA
I tried to call your father. I
couldn’t reach him anywhere.
BOBBIE
You try the cemetery?
-----------Page break-----------
11.
Too much truth. Martha shouts:
MARTHA
I’M NOT LEAVING HERE WITHOUT MY CAR.
Everyone stares. Bobbie stares right back, caught with her self-assurance down around her ankles.
BOBBIE
This is a mentally ill person.
Do you mind?
If a paragraph of direction or speech is too long to fit on a page, move it to the next page. However, if moving the entire paragraph or speech to the next page will leave an excessively short page, the direction or dialogue must be broken between pages. Follow these guidelines:
When breaking dialogue or direction, always break at the end of a sentence, not in the middle.
INT. BMW SHOWROOM
All that sexy Bavarian steel.
-----------Page break-----------
42.
Salesmen and upscale customers focus on MARTHA LOAKES, 50s, weathered, wearing a dated suit, bad makeup and bathroom slippers.
When breaking dialogue, add (MORE) at the bottom of the page and (CONT’D) at the top of the following page, beside the character name. Break before parenthetical character direction, not after.
WILL
The summer Pam was dying, I
couldn’t string two coherent
thoughts together to save my
life. You covered for me,
Bobbie. Hell, sometimes I think
you’re still covering for me.
(MORE)
---------Page break---------
14.
WILL (CONT’D)
(beat)
Now it’s my turn. Let me share
the load on this one. We’ll find
the answers.
Don’t break a page immediately after a shot heading. Instead, carry the shot heading to the top of the next page.
Don’t break a page immediately before a transition, such as a CUT TO:. Instead, keep the transition on the same page with the scene that precedes it.
For detailed instructions about breaking pages, see the following sections:
“Breaking a page after a shot heading”
“Breaking a page in the middle of direction”
“Breaking a page in the middle of dialogue”
“Breaking a page at a transition”
“Act breaks”
Now get started writing. Use the table of contents at the front of this book or the index at the back to find more detailed information and examples whenever questions arise. Or, to learn more of the fundamentals quickly, read the next chapter, “Avoiding a Dozen Deadly Formatting Mistakes.”