What is a Screenplay?

A screenplay or script is the template for a film, or movie.

It describes the action and dialogue so that actors and directors can bring the story to life, on screen.

Screenplays typically range from 1 to 120 pages.

A short screenplay or script is the template for a short film, and typically runs from 1 to 45 pages.

At the upper range of the short category (40 to 45 pages), the script may be suitable for a television episode.

A full-length feature may run from 90 to 120 pages.

As a rule of thumb, each formatted page translates to 1 minute of screen time.

 

 

The font should be 12-point Courier New.

There should be a double space, between paragraphs

Within each paragraph, lines should be single-spaced.

(also known as slug lines) should be set out in the form:

 

INT. VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN’S LAB - NIGHT

Dark and dingy, with sporadic flashes of light from weird gadgets on the tables.

VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN sits at a bench.

The hulking form of a MONSTER is on a slab, behind him.

Victor turns, as a groan issues from the monster.

MONSTER

Urggh...

VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN

It’s alive! Alive!! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

And so on.

You may notice that there are indents for speaking characters and their dialogue.

These should be handled automatically by your screenwriting software.

There are templates for screenplay writing, for most standard word processors, like Microsoft Word.

Ideally, though, you should use a dedicated screenwriting word processor.

Of these, Final Draft is the most popular commercially available product.

There is a freeware alternative - RoughDraft - which you don't have to pay for.

 

Scene descriptions

CONDITION. LOCATION - TIME OF DAY all capitalised.

Conditions include:

INT. denoting an Interior

EXT. denoting Exterior

INT. / EXT. Inside, looking out (eg. in a car)

EXT. / INT. Outside, looking in (eg. on a porch)

Time of day can be restricted to DAY or NIGHT.

You are free to use AFTERNOON, DAWN, etc., if these are essential to the scene.

Location is whatever you make of it.

CHARACTER NAMES should be capitalised, when first introducing the character, and also whenever the character is speaking.

At every other point in the story, the character name is not written in capital letters.

For example:

 

Formatted, How?

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