Write on-screen text word for word, where it appears: SUPER: over the picture, a card of its own over black, and one label for the whole script.
Direct answer
A SUPER is text superimposed on the picture: a place, a date, a name. Write it exactly as the audience should read it, at the moment it appears: SUPER: or TITLE OVER: in the action, then the words. For words on their own screen, such as a card over black before the first scene, describe the black screen and set the words beneath it. Keep the text short, and use one label for the whole script.
On the page
BLACK SCREEN.
PART ONE: THE CROSSING
EXT. HARBOR ROAD - DAWN
Fog sits on the water. A fishing boat noses past the breakwater.
SUPER:
Portland, Maine. March 1994.
MARA (19), in a borrowed coat, stands at the stern.
Evidence weight
Whatever the label, the text itself goes into the script word for word, at the moment it appears. The Academy Nicholl format guide marks a date with TITLE OVER: and centers the date beneath it; many scripts write SUPER: and the words on the same line.
There is no single standard label. SUPER:, TITLE:, TITLE OVER: and CHYRON: all appear in current scripts, and the Academy Nicholl guide itself uses TITLE OVER: where many writers would write SUPER:. Readers accept any of them. What slows a read is switching labels for the same kind of text, or describing the typography instead of giving the words.
Not one rigid template
A place, a date or a jump in time laid over a scene: the label at the moment it appears, then the words. Readers take SUPER:, SUPERIMPOSE: and TITLE OVER: to mean the same thing.
Text that fills the screen, such as a chapter card, an opening quotation or a date over black, gets its own moment in action, before the heading of the scene that follows it.
Lower-third captions that name a person or a place, often called chyrons, are more common in shooting scripts and documentaries. A spec keeps them for the few names the audience must read.
Reader and handoff friction
Choose for the recipient
In a spec, use on-screen text when the audience needs a fact now and the picture cannot give it: a place, a year, a jump in time. One or two well-placed supers orient a reader; a super on every scene turns into a caption track.
Post-production designs the type and decides the timing; your words are what they set. Keep the wording and its placement stable in revised pages so the graphics list and the script still agree.
In Plot, write the label, SUPER: or TITLE OVER:, as an Action line and the words beneath it. Then choose Centered from the element menu for the words. The centering carries into the PDF and into the Final Draft file you hand the office. A card before your first scene is just Action and Centered lines above the first Scene Heading.
Asked next
SUPER is short for superimpose: text laid over the picture while the scene plays, such as a place, a date or a time jump. The words after SUPER: are exactly what the audience reads on screen.
Start with the black screen in action, such as BLACK SCREEN, then the words exactly as they appear, all before the first scene heading. When the picture arrives, the first heading takes over and the scene begins.
Put it where the jump happens: SUPER: THREE YEARS LATER beside the heading of the first scene in the new time. If the picture already makes the jump obvious, a heading that names the time can do it without a super.
Either is understood. SUPER: is the common short form for words over the picture, and the Academy Nicholl sample uses TITLE OVER:. Pick one label and use it every time, so the reader never wonders whether two labels mean two effects.
A caption in the lower part of the frame that names a person, a place or a time, like a news graphic. Scripts write it as SUPER: or CHYRON: followed by the exact words. Specs use it sparingly; documentaries and shooting scripts use more.
Superimpose
Text or graphics laid over the picture — titles, dates, locations, captions. On the page, commonly written as SUPER: or SUPERIMPOSE: followed by the overlay copy.
Title crawl
Text that scrolls over the picture (or a field of stars) to deliver prologue information — famously the Star Wars opening crawl. On the page: CRAWL or TITLE CRAWL with the copy.
Action
The descriptive prose of a screenplay — what the audience sees and hears, written in present tense. Also called description.
Browse the screenplay formatting reference
Rendered examples and accepted variations for common screenplay situations
Inserts, screens & written material
Put the exact words the audience must read in action, and use an INSERT only when the change in visual emphasis is itself important.
Text messages
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.
Foreign language & subtitles
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.
Continuous action & time jumps
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.
