The Screenwriting Group Articles

Formatting a Screenplay

Now that we have the basic terminology and elements of a screenplay down from our first article "Elements of a Screenplay" , let's get into a bit of formatting so that we're all on the same page in terms of how screenplays need to look. A standard screenplay should observe the following general guidelines and margins for each of the elements:

OVERALL STYLE ELEMENTS

Font. The most important overall style element to keep in mind is that screenplays should be written in some variant of Courier 12-point font. The specific font itself doesn't really matter and many programs have their own proprietary variants; the important thing to remember is that it should generally be in the Courier family. Some examples are: Courier New (a standard font for both Windows and Mac operating systems), Courier Final Draft and/or Courier MM Screenwriter (proprietary fonts that come with Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter software, respectively), and Courier Prime (a free font developed by screenwriter John August). All of these and other variants are perfectly acceptable. It is not recommended that you write scripts in other font families such as Times New Roman, Arial, or Verdana. The reason Courier 12-point font is used is because it's monospaced style allows producers to more accurately estimate how long it will take to shoot your script based on the number of pages you've written. Variable-width fonts like Arial or Times New Roman make it considerably more difficult to estimate shooting time.

Page Numbers. Standard screenplay formatting includes a page number followed by a period in the top right-hand corner of the page, starting on page 2. This is a somewhat archaic rule that originally came from a time when almost all screenplays started with "FADE IN:" at the top right-hand corner of the first page. That convention isn't always followed these days, but the "no number on the first page" convention has endured over the years nonetheless. It's not a huge detail, but it's worth noting that almost all standard screenwriting software include an omission of a page number on the first page as a default.

Covers & Binding. Although this is only an aspect of physically printed screenplays (and is becoming less and less common in favor of electronic PDF files), if you're ever printing out a script the industry-standard method of binding it is to use brass fasteners ("brads") like these ones:

ASIN: B00006IBK1	ACCO Solid Brass Fasteners, 1 1/4 Inch Capacity, 100 Count, (A7071505) 1 Box 1-1/4" Product Type: Office Products
	Amazon's Price: Price N/A Buy Now!

Some people will occasionally put washers like these on the back of their scripts...

ASIN: B00006XY3I	ACCO Brass Washers, 15/32", Box of 100 (71511) Product Type: Office Products
	Amazon's Price: Price N/A Buy Now!

... but washers are completely optional. It's also important to note that the brads go in the top and bottom hole of your three-hole punched pages only. You leave the center hole open rather than placing a brad in that as well.

If you'd like to include a cover on your script, use an 8.5" x 11" sheet of card or cover stock on the front and back. Even though you may be tempted to use a fancier option such as a presentation binder, report cover, spiral or comb binding, etc., avoid including anything other than brads and an optional card stock cover. It's also important to note that there are no "standards" in terms of materials. There is a lot of misinformation in the screenwriting industry and it absolutely does not matter if you pay for high-quality linen script covers or any of that stuff. You can certainly pay for higher-quality materials if you'd like, but vendors like The Writers Store   would like you to believe that you have to pay $10 per box of fancy "premium" brads, or $10 for a set of 12 "ProScript" covers, or even extra money for these infernal things  . I'll focus an entire later article on the myths of the screenwriting industry, but for now all you need to know is that you can buy everything you need to professionally bind your screenplay (standard paper, standard brads, etc.) and make it indistinguishable from a pro writer's for about $10 at any office supply or big-box/superstore.

The reason why the binding is so simple (and specific) is because scripts are often pulled apart in order to be photocopied or scanned and distributed to multiple people. Brads make it easy for assistants and interns to unbind the script, do their thing, and put it back together again just like it was. It becomes considerably more difficult and time consuming if they're trying to pull out spiral binding, or need a screwdriver to open those "screw and post" fasteners. Additionally, your script is likely being read along with half a dozen others, so the brad fasteners and minimalist card stock covers (if any) cut down on size so a reader isn't trying to haul home six 1" to 1-1/2" binders at a time.

Here's a rough image of what a professionally put-together hard copy of a script looks like:

ELEMENT MARGINS

Remember the screenplay elements from the last article (transition, scene heading, dialogue, etc.)? Well, it turns out that each of those has a specific set of margins on the page. I'm just going to list them here so you have an easy reference guide. If you use screenwriting software (we'll talk in the coming weeks about programs you can use), this stuff is automatically taken care of for you; if you're writing in a normal word processing program like Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, or the like, though, you should generally observe the following margins:

SCENE HEADING. Left-aligned, 1.5" to 7.5" (i.e., 1" from the right side of the page). Scene headings are written in ALL CAPS and follow the rules of location, specific location, time, etc. that were outlined in the last article, "Elements of a Screenplay" .

ACTION. Left-aligned, 1.5" to 7.5" (i.e, 1" from the right side of the page). Action elements are generally written with standard capitalization rules; the exception to this is that sometimes writers will use ALL CAPS, bold, underline, italicize, or otherwise emphasize specific words they want to call out on the page, such as sound effects, important details, etc. Character names are also written in ALL CAPS the first time they're introduced. I'll go into specifics of writing action elements in another newsletter, but these special formatting choices should be used sparingly to avoid distracting the reader.

CHARACTER NAMES. Left-aligned, 3.5" to 7.25" (i.e., 1.25" from the right side of the page). Character names are always written in ALL CAPS.

DIALOGUE. Left-aligned, 2.5" to 6.0" (i.e., 2.5" from the right side of the page). Dialogue generally follows the same formatting rules as Action elements, described above.

PARENTHETICALS. Left-aligned, 3.0" to 5.5" (i.e., 3" from the right side of the page). Parentheticals generally follow the same formatting rules as Action and Dialogue elements, described above (except that they're enclosed within parentheses).

TRANSITIONS. Right-aligned, 5.5" to 7" (i.e., 1.5" from the right side of the page). Transitions are always written in ALL CAPS, usually with a colon (:) or period (.) after the transition.

For those who are more visual learners, refer back to the Elements of a Screenplay   example we used in the last article to get a visual idea of how these margins play out on the page.

TITLE PAGES

There are a few general conventions that a screenplay title page should follow:

Title. Obviously, the title needs to appear somewhere on the title page. In the past, the title was just written in ALL CAPS in the same Courier 12-point font that the rest of the script was written in. Sometimes the title might be bold or underlined to make it stand out. There has been a loosening of the "rules" in recent years and it's also considered acceptable if you want to use a custom font for the title, as long as that font is easy to read.

Byline. The next most important part of the title page is the byline for the original writer. Generally speaking, there are a few different kinds of credit that distinguish who has written what:

Written by. This signifies that the author is the complete originator of the work. From idea to finished draft, the screenwriter came up with everything on his or her own.

Screenplay by. This signifies that the actual screenplay itself was written by the screenwriter. This is generally used in conjunction with "story by" credit to indicate who was responsible for the idea and who was responsible for the actual writing, or when the work is clearly an adaptation of some other material. For example, if I'm writing what's clearly a re-imagining of Romeo & Juliet, it would be appropriate to say I wrote the screenplay, not that the work was "Written by" me, as the implication there is that I also came up with the underlying story. Similarly, if John Doe and Jane Doe came up with the story for a script, but Jane is the only one who wrote it, it would be appropriate to say "Story by John Doe & Jane Doe, Screenplay by Jane Doe."

And versus Ampersand (&). The word "and" denotes writers who have done work on the same project independently. An ampersand (&) denotes writers who have done work on the same project together. In other words, if John and Jane Doe from the above example work collaboratively to come up with the idea together, the credit should say, "Story by John Doe & Jane Doe." If, however, John Doe came up with the story and, say, sold it to someone else, and then Jane Doe came along later and added her own ideas before eventually writing the script, it would be appropriate to say "Story by John Doe and Jane Doe, Screenplay by Jane Doe" since they both contributed to the story, but not in a capacity where they worked together.

And don't worry; we'll go over screen credits in another article too. These are just basics. Generally speaking, the byline is a two-line block with the specific credit on the first line, and the names on the second line. A second two-line block is required if there's story and screenplay credit. Here's an example (you can also put a space between the two lines of each block if you wish):

Story by:
John Doe and Jane Doe

Screenplay by:
Jane Doe

Revisions. One of the most important parts of a title page is that you must keep a list of who did what revisions on the title page. The reason for this is that the Writers Guild (or whoever else is determining writing credit) needs to see who made which contributions on which date to the script to determine who ultimately deserves final screen credit on the motion picture. Writers Guild rules actually prohibit you from removing anyone else's name from the title page; you just add yours on instead... either as the last name on the list of people who have done revisions, or underneath with the heading "current revisions by."

Contact Information. On the bottom left-hand side of the page (some people put it on the right-hand side, but left is typically standard), you put your contact information. If you have an agent or manager, you typically put their contact information there, since your agent or manager is supposed to be the one handling your dealmaking and offers. If you're not represented by anyone, however, you typically put your own contact information so people who like the script know how to reach you. It used to be that you'd include all your info (name, address, phone, email, fax if you had it, etc.), but it's also entirely acceptable to just put your name, phone number, and email to keep things simple.

Here's an example of a script title page template so you have a visual reference:

THERE ARE NO RULES

Again, some of this stuff will merit its own article since we went over a lot of information in this article. But there's just one other thing that you need to remember when writing a screenplay, and that's that there are no rules. Many of the formatting instructions provided here are a "best practices" kind of thing in order to help you write a script in a format that isn't going to raise any eyebrows. The honest truth, though, is that there are very few hard and fast rules in the world of screenwriting format. People naturally want to apply rules to the format because rules are easy to objectively follow, but the goal is writing a quality script, not just a well-formatted one. If using a different font and centering a few lines in an action element helps you tell your story, go for it. As long as you're making a stylistic choice for a reason (and not overdoing it), it's unlikely that you'll run across a reader who will dismiss your script solely because you made a stylistic choice to do something differently.

Don't focus so much on the rules. And with low-priced (and even free) options for screenwriting software (to be detailed in another article), the formatting elements are basically a non-issue. Just open the program, don't fiddle with the settings too much, and most of these programs will allow you to write in fully-standard screenplay format without giving it a lot of thought or preparation.

Hopefully this gives you a good overview of some of the formatting standards for screenplays. It's a very specific format for a variety of reasons, but the good news is that we're entering an era where it's increasingly more acceptable and more common to find people who bend or even break the rules for stylistic effect. As long as you follow some general guidelines (font, general margins, title page elements, etc.), you should have no problem making your stuff look professional. Now if only coming up with great content were this easy...

And if any of you have any questions about any of the above, feel free to post in "The Screenwriting Group Forum" . And don't forget to tag me, Jeff , so I get a notification that you've posted!