August 14, 2026
Screenplay format looks fussy from the outside, but it exists for one reason: a reader needs to know, at a glance, whether they're looking at a location, an action beat, or a line of dialogue. Get the format right and your pages disappear into the story. Get it wrong and every page reminds the reader you're new.
Here are the standard elements, what each one is for, and the margins that make a script read as professional.
Every scene opens with a slugline in capitals: INT. or EXT. for interior or exterior, the location, then the time of day. INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT. It tells the reader and, later, the production exactly where and when we are. Keep it short and consistent - reuse the exact same location name every time you return to it.
Action lines run the full width of the page and describe only what the camera can see and hear. Present tense, active voice, no camera directions unless they're essential. The discipline of writing only what's visible is the single biggest tell between an amateur page and a professional one.
A character cue is the speaker's name in capitals, indented to about 3.7 inches from the left. The dialogue sits under it in a narrower column - roughly 2.5 inches from the left, 2 inches from the right. A parenthetical (a short cue like 'whispering') goes on its own line between the two, used sparingly.
When the same character keeps talking across a page break, the cue takes a (CONT'D). You should never have to type that by hand - a real screenplay editor derives it for you.
Transitions like CUT TO: sit flush right; FADE IN: is the one exception that opens flush left. The page itself is 12-point Courier, one-inch margins top and right, about 1.5 inches on the left for the binding. That monospaced font is what makes one page equal roughly one minute of screen time - the reason page count is such a reliable proxy for runtime.
You do not have to memorize any of this. A purpose-built editor snaps every element into place as you type, so you can think about the scene instead of the tab key.
One More Draft formats scene headings, action, dialogue, and transitions for you - free to start, no card required.
Write a properly formatted script free
