Screenplay formatting reference
Learn the parts of a screenplay page, then find the convention your scene needs: overlapping voices, messages and screens, changes in time, episodic act breaks, or production numbering. The situation guides keep the examples, accepted alternatives, and production judgment close at hand.
Keep the examples and source notes beside your draft, or bring them to class.
INT. LAST TRAIN - NIGHT
Mara's phone lights her face.
MARA
(to herself)
Too late.
CUT TO:
New to screenplay format?
A scene starts with where and when, shows what happens, then names the speaker before the dialogue. These are the elements in the example above. Open a definition for the finer points, or start writing with a template.
The line that opens a scene: interior or exterior, location, and time of day — for example, INT. KITCHEN — NIGHT. It orients the reader and anchors production breakdowns.
The descriptive prose of a screenplay — what the audience sees and hears, written in present tense. Also called description.
The speaker’s name above a dialogue block, conventionally in uppercase — the label that tells the reader who is talking.
A short note in parentheses inside a dialogue block — how a line is delivered or a small action during it, e.g. (whispering). Use sparingly.
Spoken lines under a character cue. In Plot, a dialogue pass proposes changes you can accept or reject line by line while keeping the surrounding action.
An editing instruction between scenes — CUT TO:, DISSOLVE TO:, SMASH CUT TO:. Modern specs use them rarely; most cuts are assumed.
Start with a screenplay template
An opening scene you can adapt, with an explanation of what each line does.
Write and format a scene in Inkwell Plot
Choose elements with the toolbar or keyboard and let Plot lay out the page.
Preview your screenplay as formatted pages
Paste screenplay text or open a Fountain or Final Draft file to check its layout.
What the audience hears, what it reads, and how simultaneous voices share a page.
Establish what the audience sees and hears, then use clear scene headings or an INTERCUT instruction so a phone conversation stays easy to picture.
Use O.S. for a speaker who belongs to the current scene but is outside the frame; use V.O. when the voice comes from outside the scene's immediate physical action.
Put readable on-screen messages in action, identify the sender when needed, and use one consistent pattern instead of disguising silent text as spoken dialogue.
Format two characters speaking at once, create dual dialogue in Inkwell Plot or Final Draft, and decide when an interruption works better as stacked dialogue.
Tell the reader what language is spoken and whether the audience understands it, then write the readable translation without repeating the instruction on every line.
Put the exact words the audience must read in action, and use an INSERT only when the change in visual emphasis is itself important.
When the next scene's sound arrives before its picture, write it just above the scene it belongs to: a (PRE-LAP) cue for a line of dialogue, a PRE-LAP line in action for a sound.
Set sung lines apart from speech — italics or all caps, one lyric line per line — and quote only the lyrics the scene actually needs.
Capitalize a sound, prop, or action only when it has to jump off the page, and a speaking character's name at first appearance, so capitals still mean something.
Keep changes in place, pace, memory, and elapsed time visible without over-directing.
Signal the montage, organize its visual beats in action, and end it clearly when the reader might not otherwise know where ordinary scene flow resumes.
Make the time shift explicit in a scene heading or action cue, then clearly return to the present when the transition could otherwise be missed.
Use CONTINUOUS for unbroken movement into a new location, SAME for simultaneous time, and a plain action beat or new time label for an actual jump forward.
Establish who is dreaming, mark where the dream begins and ends, and show the return to waking life so a dream is never mistaken for the story's reality.
Present the draft appropriately for its reader, then protect production state when it matters.
Keep a normal master title page with authorship and contact information, but create a separate anonymous PDF whenever the current submission rules require it.
Leave scene numbers out of an ordinary spec unless requested; add and preserve them when a production needs stable references for breakdowns, schedules, and revisions.
Match current episodic and house conventions instead of assuming one universal template.
Check the actual file
The reference explains intent. Screenplay Diff shows what changed after a rewrite or format conversion; the FDX migration guide covers an industry-standard handoff.
