Screenwriting Basics: An Introductory Primer

Screenplays are written in 12 point Courier (old or new) font, and they typically start with the words “FADE IN:”, all in capital letters and left justified –

FADE IN:

Although “FADE IN:” is technically considered a Transition (more on transitions later), which are right justified, it is acceptable to put “FADE IN:” left justified. FiveSprockets’ story development and scriptwriting software automatically inserts a properly formatted “FADE IN:” when a story is created. “FADE IN:” means the camera is fading into the story, i.e., the story is beginning.

What comes next is a scene header –

FADE IN:

INT. DINING ROOM – DAY

Also known as a Slug Line, the Scene Header tells the reader where we are and what time of day it is. The above says that we are inside (“INT.” for interior) in a dining room and that it’s during the day.

This is a full scene header in a simple form, but there can be many variations, as we’ll see. Here’s another example –

FADE IN:

EXT. CENTRAL PARK – NIGHT (ESTABLISHING)

This scene header tells the reader that we are outside (“EXT.” for exterior) at night in Central Park. Where we are (INT. or EXT.) and the time of day (typically either just DAY or NIGHT) are particularly important to cinematographers (the person in charge of the cameras) since light is critical to their job.

“ESTABLISHING” in parenthesis after the “DAY” / “NIGHT” designation means that this is an establishing camera shot to orient the viewer as to the general location of where we are. It’s usually quickly followed by another scene header that gets more specific, as in –

EXT. SEEDY BAR – NIGHT (ESTABLISHING)

INT. SEEDY BAR – NIGHT

In a booth alone, Justin downs the last few ounces of a beer.

Screenplays consist of five primary elements: (1) scene headers; (2) action sequences; (3) dialogue; (4) scene transitions; and (5) camera directions. FiveSprockets automatically formats these elements according to Hollywood standards, and does other nifty things like remembering scene headers and characters to speed the screenwriting process.

For reading or spec (Speculation) screenplays, it is recommended to keep scene transitions and camera directions to a minimum as compared to shooting screenplays which will include these more Director-driven elements.

Here’s an example of a scene with the three essential elements of a reading screenplay –

INT. DINING ROOM – DAY

MOLLY (21) and AMY (early 30’s) eat scones and drink tea. Molly is tall and skinny and dressed shabby chic with librarian glasses. Amy’s haggard in sweats, chair pushed out from the table to give her pregnant belly room to breathe.

MOLLY
He blew me off. That’s why I put the
old eggs in his car.

AMY
My eggs?

In the above scene, “INT. DINING ROOM – DAY” is a scene header; the paragraph that starts, “MOLLY (21) …” is an action sequence; and the conversation between Molly and Amy is an example of dialogue.

Why should you keep transitions and camera shots to a minimum in reading screenplays? Because your goal as the writer is to tell your story with as little clutter as possible. Including transitions and shots such as “DISSOLVE TO:”, “SMASH CUT:”, “CLOSE UP:”, “EXTREME CLOSE UP:”, and “DUTCH TILT:” – which are all items of concern for a director – detract the reader from understanding the story being told.

Now, if you are the writer and director, and you really like to thread transitions and shots as part of your story-development process, then by all means, do so. But if you’re purely trying to write the best story you can – and aim to have others review and give you feedback (and maybe buy it) – then it’s best to leave the direction to the director.

Back to the above scene – the first time you introduce a character, you capitalize their name and give their age, as was done with Molly and Amy. Capitalizing the name alerts the reader that we’re meeting a new character. If a specific age is important, then give it as was done with Molly (“21”); if not, then approximate it as we did with Amy (“early 30’s”).

It’s also good to give a brief and unique description of your characters,
particularly the primary and supporting ones. Avoid general descriptions. “Shabby chic with librarian glasses” tells us more than simply typing “pretty blonde.”

Dialogue includes a character cue (the name of the person speaking) and then the dialogue (words) that they speak.

FiveSprockets Tip: If you have two characters in a scene exchanging dialogue, at the end of one character’s dialogue press shift-tab (both keys at once) to automatically insert the other character’s cue.

If the two characters are in separate locations, perhaps talking over the phone, an INTERCUT sequence serves as a good short-hand device –

INT. MOLLY’S CONVERTIBLE – DAY

Molly with blue-tooth headset places a hands-free call.

INT. AMY’S KITCHEN – DAY

Amy’s phone RINGS. She answers it.

AMY
Hello.

INTERCUT telephone conversation.

MOLLY
We still on for tea?

AMY
Yes, three o’clock.

It’s advised to write out numbers as was done with the time above. Also, as is the case with “RINGS” above, it’s standard to capitalize significant sound effects and props. This capitalization alerts the sound and props folks. Here’s an example –

Molly slinks from her idling car and heads toward a parked OLD VW VAN.

A car BACKFIRES in the distance, startling Molly.

She recovers and reaches the Van.

A dog BARKS loudly from just over a nearby fence, startling
her again.

DOG OWNER (O.S.)
Carne, you shut up!

The dog quiets and Molly opens the van door and puts a CARTON OF EGGS onto the driver’s seat.

The “O.S.” attached to the character “DOG OWNER” is known as a dialogue modifier. It is short for “off screen”, meaning that the character is in the scene but outside the camera’s view, e.g., we don’t see the Dog Owner but we hear his words. The other popular modifier used like this is “V.O.” for “voice over” and covers a range of situations such as narration, voices on the other end of the phone, answering machines, loudspeakers, and similar situations where the audience is hearing a voice but the person speaking is not physically in the scene.

This is a good time to mention that the general rule of thumb with screenplays is to just put in what the viewer can see and hear. Movies are a visual and audio experience. Unlike novels and other creative works, we don’t need a lot of description, exposition, and internal thoughts and emotions.

For example, consider this text, which we might find in novel, “Maria thinks hard about how to solve the problem, and then, inspired by the memory of her Mom, a light bulb goes off in her head.” The screenplay adaption of this might read –

INT. STUDY – DAY

Maria has her head down in a Calculus book. She drops her
head into her hands in frustration.

She lifts her head, looking off to the side at some pictures
on her desk.

INSERT: Photo of Maria with her Mom.

RETURN TO SCENE

Maria raises her finger and her eyebrows in sudden
realization.

MARIA
Thanks Mom.

Notice how this scene just contains action and dialogue that we can see and hear. The “INSERT:” and “RETURN TO SCENE” are examples of camera directions that are accepted in a reading screenplay because they help tell the story.

Sometimes a screenwriter will give an actor dialogue directions as in –

FATHER
Did you eat the last of the ice
cream?

FRANK
(wryly)
It was the dog.

With “wryly”, the writer has given Frank what’s called an actor’s direction, also known as a parenthetical or a “wryly” (this nickname comes from the overuse of “wryly” as a parenthetical, as in the above).

It’s recommended to keep parentheticals to a minimum. There are several reasons for this: the first is that too many parentheticals quickly become
cluttering to the reader. The second is that, similar to camera directions and scene transitions where the writer is telling the director what to do, with parentheticals, the writer is telling the actor what to do. If you’ve got some quality actors, yield to their talent and ability to do their job.

Parentheticals can also often be redundant or obvious. If you as the writer have drawn your characters and action well enough, the need for parentheticals diminishes. Lastly, parentheticals are often better placed in action. Instead of –

FRANK
(pointing at the dog)
It was the dog.

It’s better to do this –

Without taking his gaze off his Dad, Frank points directly at Carne, the dog –

FRANK
It was the dog.

Why? Well this is a good segue into two other screenwriting principals: (1) one page should equal a minute on the screen; and (2) white space is your friend. These rules are connected. Said another way – to ensure that your screenplay reflects the standard of “one page per minute”, be sure to “use lots of white space”.

In the above scene, by putting the parenthetical into action, we add white space and, more importantly, better adhere to the “one page equals one minute” principal. If we shot this scene, we’d need to get a shot of Frank pointing at the dog and we’d probably also want to get a shot of the dog. That’ll probably take several seconds of screen time. But when this action is thrown into a parenthetical, it’s not reflective of how long it’d actually take to shoot the scene. This is one example of a cheat by the writer, of which there are several.

This leads to another guideline: never have more than four lines of action in a given paragraph. Instead of this –

INT. KITCHEN – DAY

Molly enters. She heads to the refrigerator, opens it and
surveys the contents. Not happy with what she sees, she
shrugs her shoulders, closes the door, and looks about. Maybe the pantry has better options. She heads to a huge cupboard that is the pantry and opens the doors. Ah, that’s what she wanted – crackers. Oh, and raisins. And maybe peanut butter. She grabs all three of these and heads to the island cutting board.

Write something like this –

INT. KITCHEN – DAY

Molly enters, heads to the refrigerator.

She opens the door, surveys the contents.

Not happy with what she sees, she shrugs her shoulders, closes the door, looks to a large cupboard.

AT THE PANTRY

Finding better pickings here, she grabs crackers and raisins.

Oh, and peanut butter, then heads to the island cutting board.

See how much easier this is to read? See all the white space? Isn’t this more likely to adhere to the “one page equals one minute” rule?

Here’s something you may have caught in the above: the “AT THE PANTY” camera direction. Writing things like “AT THE PANTRY” are a quick way for the writer to move about a scene without having to put in a new scene header, and they are perfectly acceptable.

The “one page equals one minute” is another reason that Hollywood has settled on the fixed-width font of Courier 12. If screenwriters used variable fonts and different font sizes, a reader would have no idea if the 100-page script they were about to read would be a 100-minute movie or a 300-minute movie. Since most movies are an hour and a half to two hours (90 minutes to 120 minutes), most screenplays are 90 to 120 pages.

There are guidelines and exceptions within these guideposts. Comedies typically run closer to 90 pages and dramas run closer to 100+ pages. Horror films can be as little as 80 pages (but anything shorter than that would move into the short-form territory). Proven, award-winning screenwriters can pump out 180 pages and still get read, but it’s probably best not to try this if you’re a novice and want to sell your screenplay.

Here are a few other handy tips.

INT./EXT. FRANK’S TRUCK – DAY

Frank talks on his cell while washing his truck.

The “INT./EXT.” designation is used when a scene is both interior and exterior. This often happens with vehicles, garages, tents, and the like.

BEGIN MONTAGE

Ken arrives at Barbie’s door, ready for their date.

The valet at a fancy restaurant opens the driver’s door to
Ken’s Porsche.

Ken and Barbie chink wine glasses at a candlelit table.

Ken and Barbie walk hand-in-hand on a moonlit beach.

They kiss.

END MONTAGE

Montages are a quick way to advance a story and, because the transitions from shot to shot in montages are typically “soft” dissolves, they’re often used for romantic sequences as in the above.

When you want the transitions between the shots to be more abrupt – perhaps for an action sequence – use the similar construct, “BEGIN SERIES OF SHOTS” and “END SERIES OF SHOTS”. “DREAM SEQUENCE” and “END DREAM SEQUENCE” can be used for dreams, and “BEGIN FLASHBACK” and “END FLASHBACK” can be used for flashbacks.

For Montages, Series of Shots, Dream Sequences, and Flashbacks, you can keep the action lines simple as in the above, or you could make them more formal as in –

BEGIN DREAM SEQUENCE

(1) MOLLY’S BEDROOM – Molly asleep in bed.

(2) MOLLY’S BEDROOM – Eggs start filling Molly’s sheets, she wakes in horror

(3) MOLLY’S BATHROOM – Looking at herself in the mirror,
Molly’s face turns into an egg.

(4) MOLLY’S HOUSE – She runs from her house into the
moonlight; falls into a ditch filled with eggs.

END DREAM SEQUENCE

All that’s important is that the reader understands what’s happening and where. But be careful with these devices – it’s typically recommended to keep them to a minimum so that your movie looks like a movie and not like a music video.

We only touched on Scene Headers at the start of this primer, but there can be a lot of acceptable extensions to the simple examples we’ve been using. For more details and accepted variations on Scene Headers, check out the FiveSprockets glossary item for Slug Line.

To end a story, it’s customary to write the words “THE END”, centered after at
least one blank line.

Grinning from ear to ear, Molly throws a handful of eggs into the air.

THE END

You could also add a final “FADE OUT.” or “FADE TO BLACK:” transition, as in –

Grinning from ear to ear, Molly throws a handful of eggs into the air.

FADE OUT.

THE END

You could also have just the “FADE OUT.” or “FADE TO BLACK:” and not include “THE END”. The reader will know that the story has ended.

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