Master

Screenplay
Formatting
Every formatting landmine that can blow up a spec
script and what to do instead
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

Master Screenplay Formatting

Every Formatting Landmine That Can Blow Up a Spec Script and What to Do Instead

Copyright © Script Reader Pro

All Rights Reserved

SCRIPT READER PRO

www.scriptreaderpro.com 2
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

Table of Contents

Intro 4
The Nuts & Bolts 7
SCREENPLAY SOFTWARE 7
PRO VS. SPEC FORMATTING 8
TITLE PAGE 10
SCRIPT PAGES 14
Sluglines 19
SLUGLINES 101 19
INT. & EXT. 21
SCENE LOCATION 27
TIME OF DAY 35
SPECIAL INFORMATION 40
Description 60
DESCRIPTION 101 60
ACTION LINES 61
CAMERA ANGLES 83
SCENE TRANSITIONS 94
Dialogue 109
DIALOGUE 101 109
CHARACTER NAME 109
ACTOR DIRECTIONS 125
CHARACTER DIALOGUE 140
Moving forward 168
SCRIPT READER PRO

THE GREAT DISTRACTION 168

DIG DEEPER 170
Outro 172
www.scriptreaderpro.com 3
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

Intro
“The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little
and then take half of that little out and still preserve
an effect of leisure and natural movement.”
– Raymond Chandler

There’s a great deal of confusion in the world of writing spec screenplays surrounding
formatting. “How do I format a Skype call?” “Can I use camera angles?” “Is it okay to bold
sluglines?” Formatting queries like these are some of the most frequently asked questions we
get at Script Reader Pro. Much of this confusion seems to arise out of the fact there isn’t a
codi ed “correct” way of formatting a spec script. There’s no tome entitled “The Golden
Rules of Screenwriting Formatting For The Spec Market” that’s been passed down through
the ages since the dawn of Hollywood. Instead, there are a number of rather vague
formatting “rules” which somehow over the years have become labeled “industry standard.”
The problem is, people have a hard time agreeing on any of them.

Take the simple issue of where to place your contact details on the title page. Some writers
and script consultants say they should always be placed in the bottom left-hand corner.
Others they should always go in the bottom right-hand corner. Or take the more important
issue of how to format an unseen character’s dialogue on the other end of a phone line.
Some books say you should label it as VOICEOVER (V.O.). In other books, it’s recommended
you label it as OFF-SCREEN (O.S.).

This book is our attempt to clear up as much of this confusion and answer as many of the
most pressing formatting questions as we can. The aim is to provide a clear-cut and easy-to-
understand guide on how to format a feature screenplay for the spec market. (Television
formatting is often a whole other ball game, and for advice on that we recommend The TV
Writer’s Workbook by Ellen Sandler.)

Rather than explain formatting in terms of “right” or “wrong,” we focus instead on

recommended “best practices”—the methods least likely to annoy the reader. Whether that
SCRIPT READER PRO

reader is an agent, manager, producer or script reader, your aim should be to let them get
drawn into the story and characters without getting distracted—and often, irritated—by
formatting quirks and inconsistencies.

www.scriptreaderpro.com 4
fi
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

Let’s say at the end of your sluglines you employ fteen different times of day: DAWN, MID
MORNING, LATE MORNING, EARLY AFTERNOON and so on. This choice is probably
more likely to distract and potentially annoy the reader than largely sticking to DAY and
NIGHT. This isn’t to say that this, or other formatting quirks such as overusing camera angles
or alternating between “CAPTAIN FORD” and “CAPT. FORD” are technically “wrong.” What
may get under the skin of one reader may go completely unnoticed by another, so it’s all
subjective, but we think the best approach is to avoid that risk in the rst place. Formatting
isn’t the best place to express yourself, and so we recommend keeping things as clear,
consistent and simple as possible. Instead of coming up with your own exciting variations on
how to format sluglines, save your creativity for the story and characters.

That said, a reader isn’t going to care much about formatting quirks if the story and characters
are utterly fantastic. If you’ve written a gangster movie that’s on a par with The Godfather, you
can probably get away with making a few formatting “mistakes” and the reader will be too
involved in the story to notice or care. Your script will still get bought. But this will happen
despite its formatting irregularities, not because they helped aid the reader’s enjoyment while
reading.

The truth is, it’s extremely rare that a sloppily formatted spec turns out to be a masterpiece.
A script that gets the most basic formatting “rules” wrong is usually lacking in other areas as
well, and readers can be very quick to put two and two together and assume sloppy
formatting equals sloppy story. Follow the guidelines presented in this book, however, and
you’ll avoid giving them that impression. Present your script in a professional manner and the
reader will feel they’re in the hands of a professional when it comes to story and character,
too.
The book is divided into ve parts: Nuts & Bolts, Sluglines, Description, Dialogue and Moving
Forward. In each section, rather than simply saying how to best format each area, we list each
of the major “mistakes” we’ve found within it after all our years reviewing spec screenplays.
We then show you what to do instead, with scene examples of each so you can compare
them side by side.

In the Nuts & Bolts section, we’ll be taking a look at some of the overall basics of screenplay
formatting, including title pages, spec vs. pro screenplay formatting, screenwriting software and
so on. Then we get into the meat of formatting itself, starting with a section on sluglines. Here,
we break down sluglines into their four main components—interior/exterior, location, time,
SCRIPT READER PRO

special information—and analyze the biggest mistakes we see regarding each in spec scripts.

www.scriptreaderpro.com 5
fi
fi
fi
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

Following this, we move on to Description and break the section down into three parts—
action lines, camera angles and transitions—and again look at the recurring mistakes we see
aspiring screenwriters make in each. Finally, in a section on Dialogue, we analyze three areas—
character names, actor directions and the actual dialogue itself—indicating what to avoid and
some suggestions as to what to do instead.

This book does not attempt to answer everything under the sun regarding spec screenplay
formatting. There’s no section, for example, on how to format a FLASHBACK phone
conversation INTERCUT with a DREAM SEQUENCE ght scene on top of a moving train.
Shot in BLACK & WHITE. With text scrolling up the screen. What it does do, however, is
attempt to clear up some of the most common formatting quirks and anomalies we see in
spec scripts that often end up working against the read.

With that said, let’s get started with some nuts and bolts…
SCRIPT READER PRO

www.scriptreaderpro.com 6
fi
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

The Nuts & Bolts

“I don’t think screenplay writing is the same as writing.
I mean, I think it’s blueprinting.”
– Robert Altman

In this preliminary section, we’ll be covering basics like software, pro vs. spec formatting, title
pages and much more.

SCREENPLAY SOFTWARE
Some aspiring screenwriters like to cut corners by using free, non-screenwriting software. The
problem is, it’s usually immediately apparent to the reader that a script has been written on
something other than screenwriting software, usually because the formatting is all over the
place. Which is obviously not a great rst impression.

You’ve probably heard that one page in a script roughly equals one minute of screen time.
This is because all scripts—whether professionally written or on spec—uniformly implement
the same font, line spacings and margins. When they’re written using non-screenwriting
software these things tend to go out the window, along with an accurate way of telling how
long the screenplay actually is.

If you want to take screenwriting seriously yet write using a program like MS Word, we
seriously recommend you bite the bullet and purchase some professional software. Final
Draft and Movie Magic are the two leading brands right now, but Fade In is a great cheaper
alternative. Celtx is even cheaper and also has a free version, but it’s incredibly clunky to use.
Professional software should make writing easier, not harder. Final Draft, Movie Magic and
Fade In do this because they take a huge amount of the heavy lifting associated with
formatting off your hands as everything’s set to “industry standard” right out the box.

However, while these or similar programs take care of the basics, they won’t tell you how to
format a MONTAGE, or when to put character names in caps, and that’s where this book
SCRIPT READER PRO

comes in.

www.scriptreaderpro.com 7
fi
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

PRO VS. SPEC FORMATTING

We always tell our clients to read as many professional screenplays as possible as it’s one of
the very best ways of learning how to write. The problem is, while pro screenplays are great
at helping aspiring writers cultivate a writing style, they often contain a whole host of
formatting quirks and “errors” that may raise red ags if included in a spec.

For every formatting “best practice” we recommend in this book, you’ll probably nd a
professional screenplay that does the exact opposite. Take sluglines, for example. In Mean Girls,
you’ll nd such anomalies as:

INT. THE KITCHEN OF BARRY’S HOUSE.

INT. CALCULUS CLASS.

INT. LUNCHROOM. — DAY.

However, these are the kind of toe-curling sluglines that make readers think an aspiring writer
has no idea what they’re doing.

You’ve probably also heard that description should never run longer than three or four lines.
Well, here’s the opening paragraph to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:

EXT. COMMUTER TRAIN STATION — DAY

It's gray. The platform is packed with business commuters:

suits, overcoats. There is such a lack of color it almost
seems as if it's a black and white shot, except one
commuter holds a bright red heart-shaped box of candy under
his arm. The platform across the tracks is empty. As an
almost empty train pulls up to that platform, one of the
suited men breaks out of the crowd, lurches up the stairs
two at a time, hurries across the overpass and down the
stairs to the other side, just at the empty train stops.
SCRIPT READER PRO

The doors open and the man gets on that train. As the empty
train pulls from the station, the man watches the crowd of
commuters through the train's dirty window. We see his face
for the first time. This is Joel Barish. He is in his 30's,

www.scriptreaderpro.com 8
fi
fl
fi
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

sallow, a bit puffy. His hair is a little messy, his suit

is either vintage or just old and dirty and sort of
threadbare. His bright tie has a photograph of a rodeo
printed on it.

Open a spec script with a paragraph this long and it’s bound to induce much sighing and eye
rolling.

Finally, here’s some dialogue from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Note the odd margins and lines
broken up into separate paragraphs:

VOICE (SARAH CONNOR)

Skynet, the computer which controlled the machines,
sent two terminators back through time. Their
mission: to destroy the leader of the human
Resistance... John Connor. My son.

The first terminator was programmed to strike at

me, in the year 1984... before John was born.
It failed.

The second was set to strike at John himself,

when he was still a child. As before, the
Resistance was able to send a lone warrior. A
protector for John. It was just a question of
which one of them would reach him first...

The thing is, there are so many formatting quirks out there in professional screenplays we’d
be here all week if we tried to list them. But here’s the rub: Tina Fey, Charlie Kaufman and
James Cameron don’t write screenplays for the spec market.

The formatting for scripts written on spec is generally much more conventional than that
found professionally produced screenplays by established writers. An established writer is just
that: established. They have a name and a reputation, and therefore the luxury of turning in
SCRIPT READER PRO

scripts that may not adhere to all the formatting “rules and regulations” of the spec market.
Even if, as we’ve already noted, these so-called “rules” are themselves somewhat nebulous.

www.scriptreaderpro.com 9
 MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

In this book, we won’t be recommending you make up your own format for sluglines as you
go along. Or write description that goes on for sixteen lines. Or that you break dialogue up
into paragraphs. On the other hand, we won’t be preaching a dogmatic set of rules to be
followed no matter what, either. If your description is of such a high standard that it pulls the
reader into the scene despite being sixteen lines deep, then good on you. The reason why
aspiring writers are advised to, say, stick to four lines or less, is because to do otherwise is
generally viewed as a tell-tale sign they don’t know how to write succinctly.

Feel free to break the “rules” and do what you want, just like a professional writer. But only if
you’re 100 percent sure your story’s going to blow the reader away, regardless of any poor
rst impression some irregular formatting may have on them.

TITLE PAGE
The title page is your script’s rst impression and how you present it can give away a
surprising amount of information about the overall quality of the writing therein. What does
the following title page, for example, suggest about the writer’s ability?
SCRIPT READER PRO

www.scriptreaderpro.com 10
fi
fi
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

P.S I LURVE YOU

written by

Sally Kitson

Draft # 17
APRIL 21 2016.

This story is for all the single ladies!

WGA registered #293771

Copywrite Sally Kitson. All rights reserved

Adress: 173 W Harvard Street, Glendale, CA 91247

SCRIPT READER PRO

Phone number : 818. 333.2206

Email: [email protected]
X: @kitsonisthebest
Instagram: @KitsonWrites

www.scriptreaderpro.com 11
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

It’s pretty clear just from this title page alone, that the writer doesn’t have much of a
command of the English language or proper title page formatting. Unlike this page, you want
to make sure it’s as clean and professional in appearance as possible, and this means only
including the following three elements: the title, your name and contact details.

SCRIPT TITLE
Some people insist the script title should always be written in ALL CAPS, or always
underscored and so on. In actual fact, no one cares. It doesn’t matter whether you write the
title in uppercase or lowercase, or whether you underscore it or not, or wrap it in quotation
marks or not. All that matters is that it’s centered 4.0” from the top of the page and, like the
rest of the screenplay, is written in Courier 12-point.

NAME & CO-WRITER’S NAME

This should be spaced four lines below the screenplay title. Again, don’t get too hung up on
the ner details. You can write: “written by” or just “by” but this should be in lowercase. If you
co-wrote the script, simply add an ampersand (&) in-between your names. (Putting “and”
instead indicates one of the writers was brought in to do a rewrite on the other’s work.)

If the script is based on someone else’s original material, simply write “based on the novel by”
or “based on the stage play by,” four lines underneath your own name and in the same style.

CONTACT DETAILS
Keep things simple by adding just your email address in the bottom left or right-hand corner
of the title page. Final Draft automatically populates the contact details in the bottom lefthand
corner, while other professional writers and software add it to the bottom right. It really
doesn’t matter too much, so take your pick.

You can also add your address and phone number if you wish. (Be aware that if you live in,
say, Montreal, Munich, or Mumbai, but are pitching the script to companies based in Los
Angeles, you’re immediately giving away your location, which could potentially prejudice them
in some way.) If you have an attorney, agent or manager, add their details here instead of your
own. And that’s it. Your nished title page should look something like the one below:
SCRIPT READER PRO

www.scriptreaderpro.com 12
fi
fi
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

P.S. I LURVE YOU

by

Sally Kitson

Phone: 818.333.2206
SCRIPT READER PRO

Email: [email protected]

www.scriptreaderpro.com 13
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

Don’t repeat the same mistakes many aspiring screenwriters make by including dates, draft
numbers or copyright information on your title page. Leave these for when you’re writing
under contract for a studio or production company. On a spec, copyright information just
looks paranoid, and dates and draft numbers could well elicit the response: “He’s been
working on this thing since 2010?” Likewise, avoid adding artwork, photos, social media
information, fancy fonts or any design at all on your title page. That is unless you want your
script to scream “I’m an amateur screenwriter” before anyone’s even had a chance to read
the rst page.

SCRIPT PAGES
When you open a blank screenplay document from the provided templates in a professional
screenwriting program, the default settings for dialogue, description and spacings are all set to
industry standard. However, we do sometimes see scripts that have been written using
professional software and yet the margins are all way off, and odd things have been added to
the page that don’t need to be there.

Here’s a quick guide to the do’s and don’ts of formatting your script’s pages in general.

PAGE MARGINS
As ever, nothing is set in stone when it comes to formatting and so there is a small amount of
wiggle room to be had when it comes to margins. Therefore we’ve taken all the guidelines
from the major writers and books out there and given you the best gures to aim for.

I. Top margin. 1”
II. Bottom margin. 1”
III. Left margin (description and sluglines). 1.5”
IV. Right margin (description and sluglines). 0.5” to 1.25” (ragged)
V. Character name. 3.7” from left side of page (2.2” from left margin)
VI. Actor directions (wrylies). 3.1” from left side of page (1.6” from left margin)
VII. Dialogue. 2.5” from left side of page (1.5” from left margin)

That said, all of this is taken care of if you use professional screenwriting software. In Final
Draft, you can edit most of the required settings in Format > Elements > Paragraph (see
SCRIPT READER PRO

below).

www.scriptreaderpro.com 14
fi
fi
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

In Movie Magic, go to Format > Element Styles (see below).

If in doubt whether your margins are correct, load the software’s default template again and
everything will be set in its right place.
SCRIPT READER PRO

www.scriptreaderpro.com 15
 MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

LINE SPACING & PAGE BREAKS

Some state the correct number of lines on a page should be a maximum of fty-seven.
Others put it at fty-four to fty- ve. Let’s just say a well-formatted screenplay should include
approximately fty- ve lines per page—not including the page number in the top right-hand
corner or any spaces after it.

We often received scripts written in programs like MS Word with sixty or more lines
crammed onto the page and it just looks awful. Your goal as a screenwriter should be to craft
easy-to-read, clean dialogue and description, surrounded by lots of white space. Sticking to
the fty- ve lines per page rule helps achieve this.

PAGE NUMBERS
The title page should remain number-free, as should the rst page after the title page. The
rst page to get numbered should be the third one in the screenplay. A number “2” goes in
the top right-hand corner, ush to the right margin. Again, professional screenplay software
will take care of this for you.

SCRIPT FONTS
This is one of the few areas of formatting that’s actually set in stone across the board. Always,
always use Courier 12-point font. This harks back to the fact one page of a screenplay roughly
equals one minute of screen time—if a screenplay’s written in Courier 12-point, that is. A
screenplay written in Courier 10-point or fourteen-point will have a different page count. And
a script written in Arial or Times New Roman will be so far off its actual page count no one
will read it.

There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule. (Well, you can probably just about get away
with writing your script’s title in something other than Courier, but we don’t really
recommend it. If you must stand out and be different when it comes to the font, though, do it
here.)

Finally, there are few different types of Courier 12-point out there but no one really cares
which one you use. The Courier font built into a Mac computer looks slightly different from
that found on a PC. Final Draft’s Courier looks slightly different to Movie Magic’s and so on,
SCRIPT READER PRO

but they’re all just ne. If you want your script to maybe look a little more stylish, check out
John August’s Courier Prime font. It’s billed “Courier, just better,” and while it looks great,
we’ve experienced problems with it going AWOL after software updates.

www.scriptreaderpro.com 16
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fl
fi
fi
fi
fi
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

EXTRA MATERIAL & PAGE GIMMICKS

Avoid adding your name, script title, date, copyright information or anything else to the
header or footer of each page. You may have heard you should add the title again on the rst
page of the script, underlined and in uppercase. If you want to do this, go for it, but it’s not
necessary. In general, we recommend keeping your headings free from anything but page
numbers.

On the page after the title page, some writers like to insert a quote, theme summary,
dedication to their grandma or some other form of gimmick. We recommend avoiding things
like this as they could back re. But what about those witty “Especially you, Jenny Beckman”
notes on the rst few pages of the (500) Days of Summer screenplay? Yes, they’re pretty clever,
but we stick by our point: as an aspiring screenwriter you’re much better off letting your
writing do the talking, rather than trying to impress with gimmicks. Overall, the only things
that should be included in your screenplay’s pages are sluglines, description and dialogue.

Avoid at all costs inserting any of the following: suggested cast lists, budgets, set designs, song
playlists, maps, pictures, photos, optional endings, copyright notices, watermarks or notes to
the reader to help them “understand the story.” You’re just shooting yourself in the foot if you
do by signifying you’re an amateur writer.

Even adding BEGIN CREDITS and END CREDITS at the start of the script is not really your
job as a writer. It’s up to production where the credits go, and including them doesn’t really
add anything to the reading experience so, again, we recommend leaving them out.

HARD COPIES
In an age where most screenplays are shared digitally as PDFs, knowing how to properly bind
and present a hard copy of a screenplay isn’t nearly as prevalent or necessary as it used to be.
However, if you do need to give someone a hard copy of your script, the exact same
information regarding margins, fonts and line spacing, etc. above applies. The only difference is
you’ll need to bind real pieces of paper together. This should be plain, white 8.5” by 11” paper,
with three holes punched in the left- hand margin. They should be bound together by two
brass brads in the top and bottom holes only, leaving the middle hole empty. No.5 or No.6
round-head brass fasteners by Acco (found in all good stationery stores) are perfect.
SCRIPT READER PRO

Resist the temptation to present your script in any other way—comb-bound, spiral bound or
any other method. Doing so will lessen the ease with which that producer who falls in love
with your script can photocopy it and pass it around.

www.scriptreaderpro.com 17
fi
fi
fi
MASTER SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

Also, it goes without saying that you should avoid all the gimmicks mentioned in the previous
section, such as attaching photos, watermarking pages or including casting suggestions.

There’s disagreement about whether you need to put a front and back cover on a hard copy
of a screenplay. Some say no. Others say yes, so it’s really up to you. It’s not something that’s
going to make or break your script getting picked up. If you do include a cover, it should be at
least 65-pound with nothing on it—not even the title. (That should go on a separate title
page, formatted as previously described.) You can choose any color you want for the cover as
long it measures 8.5” by 11” and is punched with three holes, just like the script’s pages.
SCRIPT READER PRO

www.scriptreaderpro.com 18