Screenplay formatting reference
Direct answers for the moments that make writers stop: overlapping voices, messages and screens, changes in time, episodic act breaks, title pages, and production numbering. Each page shows a recognizable screenplay page, accepted alternatives, and the point where a reading draft becomes a production workflow.
INT. LAST TRAIN - NIGHT
Mara's phone lights her face.
MARA
Too late.
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.
Use side-by-side dialogue only when two speeches are genuinely simultaneous; use interruptions, dashes, or action beats when the timing is sequential.
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.
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.
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.
