Most scene changes need no transition: the next heading is the cut. Write one when the edit tells the story, and treat FADE IN and FADE OUT as a choice.
Direct answer
A new scene heading already tells the reader the picture has changed, so most scene changes need no transition at all. Write one when the edit itself carries meaning: SMASH CUT TO: for a jolt, MATCH CUT TO: when two images rhyme, DISSOLVE TO: when time slips away. FADE IN: to open and FADE OUT. to close are optional bookends. Current advice is split on whether a spec should use them, so pick one approach and keep it.
On the page
FADE IN:
INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHT
Mara presses her ear to the door. Silence. Then, very softly, a monitor flatlines.
SMASH CUT TO:
EXT. WEDDING RECEPTION - DAY
Confetti. A brass band hits its first note. Mara laughs too loudly.
INT. RECEPTION TENT - LATER
The band packs up. Mara sits alone with a warm glass of champagne.
Evidence weight
A new heading already signals a change of place or time, so a transition between ordinary scenes adds nothing. The Academy Nicholl format guide notes that many writers have dropped transitions between scenes for exactly that reason, and Final Draft's advice is to write CUT TO: only for a sudden or abrupt visual change.
The live argument is about FADE IN:. Final Draft's 2025 and 2026 transition guides both call it a sign of a novice at the top of a spec, while the Academy Nicholl format guide and a great many produced scripts open with it. Choose one and keep your ending consistent with it. What every guide agrees on is that a CUT TO: after every scene adds nothing the next heading has not already said.
Not one rigid template
SMASH CUT TO: sells an abrupt contrast, MATCH CUT TO: joins two images that share a shape or idea, and DISSOLVE TO: lets time or memory blur. Each belongs where the edit is part of the story, and each loses its force as a habit.
Transitions sit at the right margin in capitals, at the end of the outgoing scene and just above the next heading. FADE IN: is the traditional exception: in the Academy Nicholl sample it stands at the left margin above the first scene.
The Academy Nicholl sample opens on FADE IN: and closes on FADE OUT. and THE END, and many produced scripts still do. Final Draft's 2025 and 2026 transition guides call FADE IN: at the top of a spec a novice signal. Both appear in current drafts.
A DISSOLVE TO: was once the standard way into a flashback; Final Draft now calls that dated. A scene heading that names the time does the job and keeps the scene list readable.
Reader and handoff friction
Choose for the recipient
In a spec, let the headings do the cutting and keep transitions for the few edits a reader must feel. Whether to open on FADE IN: is your call. Either is current, so choose one and close the script to match.
Once the script goes into production, a transition is a note for the director and the editor, who decide the actual cut. Keep the ones that carry intent, and leave them in place in revised pages so the edit and the script still agree.
In Plot, type CUT TO: (or any line in capitals that ends in TO:) and it becomes a Transition, set at the right margin in the editor and in the PDF. Choose Transition from the element menu, or its number shortcut, to turn any line into one, and Plot suggests the rest as you type: FADE OUT., DISSOLVE TO:, SMASH CUT TO:, MATCH CUT TO: and any you have already used in the script.
Asked next
A smash cut is an abrupt jump for shock or comedy, like silence cut straight into a roaring crowd. A match cut joins two shots that share a shape, a movement or an idea, so the audience feels the connection. One jolts; the other rhymes.
When the edit itself tells part of the story: a jolt between two moods, an image that rhymes with the next, time dissolving. If taking the transition out would not change how the reader imagines the cut, the scene heading is enough.
At the left margin, above the first scene heading, as the Academy Nicholl sample sets it. Every other transition sits at the right margin. If you leave FADE IN: out, the first scene heading opens the script on its own.
Most scripts close with FADE OUT. at the right margin, and many add THE END centered below it, as the Academy Nicholl sample does. FADE TO BLACK. is a common alternative. Choose one close and keep it in step with how the script opens.
Transition
An editing instruction between scenes — CUT TO:, DISSOLVE TO:, SMASH CUT TO:. Modern specs use them rarely; most cuts are assumed.
FADE IN / FADE OUT
Classic bookend transitions: FADE IN: opens a script (or sequence); FADE OUT. or FADE TO BLACK ends it. They mark soft boundaries rather than hard cuts.
SMASH CUT
An abrupt cut from one scene to another at a moment the audience expects the first to continue, so the contrast hits as hard as possible. Written as the transition SMASH CUT TO:, flush right, and best kept for the few cuts whose timing is the point.
MATCH CUT
A cut that links two shots through a shared shape, movement, composition or sound, so one image seems to become the next. Written as the transition MATCH CUT TO: when the connection between the two moments is part of the story.
DISSOLVE
A transition where one image gradually replaces another. On the page, often written DISSOLVE TO: to suggest time passage, memory, or thematic linkage rather than a hard cut.
Browse the screenplay formatting reference
Rendered examples and accepted variations for common screenplay situations
Flashbacks
Mark a flashback in the scene heading, run longer memories as a sequence, and return to the present so readers never lose the timeline. With page examples.
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.
Pre-laps & sound bridges
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.
Montage
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.
