JUNIOR SCREENWRITING 101, PART 9: SCREENPLAY FORMAT Now we re getting into the nitty-gritty of actually writing for the screen. A lot of thought went into reaching this point, and for the next two lessons we ll take diverging paths. If you re still working on a story, or can t decide among all your great ideas, you d probably benefit with a little more practice on an existing idea. Take Path #1 (near the end of this lesson). But if you ve already sketched out your story and subjected it to a treatment, and it still holds up that is, you can see its potential as a screen epic--then step right up to Path #2 and go for it! This is the part of the lesson that applies to both. No kind of writing is stricter about form than screenwriting. As you read through the plethora of directions below, it may seem to you that the script gods are impossibly picky, but there are reasons for all the margins and white space. The format guides a trained script-reader through the story and allows her to quickly pick up on the scene progression and major reversals it s as close as visual representation as words-only can get. Also, the set margins hold the action down to approximately one minute per page, which gives the movie pros a clear idea about how long the finished film would be. So that s the deal, and you re stuck with it. In this course you ve already seen a few lines of standard movie script, but here s where we get into detail. You might want to look at a few actual screenplays to get a feel for the pacing and style. Here are links to movies you may already be familiar with: TOY STORY THE PRINCESS BRIDE The Toy Story and Princess Bride scripts follows all the rules you ll learn in this lesson, though you will see more camera directions, such as CUT TO, DISSOLVE, FADE, and ANGLE (indicating the direction of the camera. These are closer to shooting scripts, which the film company prints and distributes after most of the story changes in the original screenplay are made. We won t worry about all those for now. STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS This script doesn t follow all the margin rules you ll find below, but it s Star Wars, after all. Star Wars can get away with it! So here are the rules, in a handy list you can print out on a single sheet of paper, front and back: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SCREENPLAY FORMAT THE RULES Margins: Top, bottom and right margins set at 1. Left margin set at 1.5. Font: Courier New, 12-point. Single page only no printing on the back. 1. A Slugline or Scene Heading appears at the beginning of every new scene or every return to a previous scene. It is typed in ALL CAPS at the left margin and includes three vital bits of information: Whether the scene takes place inside (INT. for interior) or outside (EXT. for exterior) The location of the scene The time of day the scene takes place Examples of slugline format and placement : INT. ABANDONED WAREHOUSE. AROUND MIDNIGHT EXT. BOAT DOCK. MID-AFTERNOON 2. The Action Text briefly describes the visible action before or during the scene. At the beginning of a scene it may introduce new characters. During the scene the action text will also indicate emotions or states of mind, but in as few words as possible. Action text is typed in standard sentence format and aligned with the left margin. Examples of action text format and placement: The banshees are gathering in the haunted forest. A single bonfire eerily lights their faces. Josh runs toward Katie, frightened. 3. The Character Name indicates who s speaking a given line of dialogue. If the character doesn t have a name, he or she may be indicated by an occupation or location, such as GIRL IN BAKERY or PASSENGER or simply MAN #1. The character name is typed in all caps and indented 2.5 inches from the left margin (press the Tab button 5 times) If the character is speaking to someone in the scene (the target character), indicate with a statement in parentheses beside the character s name, as for example: TEACHER (to MARY). As long as the conversation is going on between these two characters, you don t have to keep adding (to--) but if there are more than two people in the scene and conversation is shifting among them, be sure to indicate to whom each character is speaking. If the character is not in view of the camera (as when, for instance, BILL is speak to PHIL but the camera stays on PHIL s face to show his reaction), indicate with O.S. (offscreen) in parentheses beside the character s name, as in BILL (O.S.) If the character is not in the scene at all but providing narration or reflection, indicate with V.O. (voice over) in parentheses beside the character s name, for example ALICIA (V.O.)
4. The Dialogue is what the characters say. All lines of dialogue are indented 1.5 inches from the left margin, or press the Tab button 3 times. 5. Parentheticals are words or short phrases that provide additional information about how a character speaks, feels, or acts. A parenthetical is typed below the character name 2 inches from the left margin. Press the Tab button four times. Example of Character name, Dialogue and Parenthetical: DAVIS (yelling) Where d you put the hammer? The what? PETE (O.S.) DAVIS (louder) The HAMMER!! PETE (O.S.) Look on the shelf above your head! The what? DAVIS DAVIS straightens abruptly, hits his head on the shelf, and knocks off all the tools--including the hammer, which hits him on the nose. DAVIS (as various tools make contact) Ouch! Oof! What the--! Long pause, while DAVIS rubs his nose furiously. A trickle of blood appears between his fingers. PETE (O.S.) Did you find it?
You re probably itching to get started on your first formatted screenplay, but let s do just a little more prep work first. Here s how the first five minutes of The Princess Bride would look as a standard screenplay submitted to the film company (as opposed to a shooting script ). Compare it to the first five minutes of the completed film, found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mey5-ysvbkc&spfreload=5 "THE PRINCESS BRIDE" by William Goldman based on his novel INT. A BOY S BEDROOM. EARLY AFTERNOON. A video game is in progress on a TV screen. A sickly coughing sound is heard. THIS KID, age eight or nine, is sitting up in bed, coughing as he listlessly works the remote. He's hit by another spasm of coughing, puts the remote down. The KID's MOTHER enters, goes to him, fluffs his pillows, kissses him, and briefly feels his forehead. MOTHER You feeling any better? ` (listlessly) A little bit. MOTHER Guess what. What? MOTHER Your grandfather's here. (groaning quietly) Mom, can't you tell him I'm sick?
MOTHER You are sick. That's why he's here. He'll pinch my cheek. I hate that. MOTHER Maybe he won't. The Kid shoots her an "I'm sure" look, as his bursts into the room. He s a bit rumpled, but enthusiastic. A wrapped package is tucked under one arm. He immediately goes to The Kid, pinches his cheek. Hey! How's the sickie? Heh? The KID gives his Mother an "I told you so" look. The MOTHER ignores it, beats a retreat. MOTHER I think I'll leave you two pals. She leaves the room. There's an uncomfortable silence, then-- I brought you a special present. What is it? Open it up. The Kid opens the package, and does his best to smile. A book? That's right. When I was your age, television was called books. And this is a special book. It was the book my father used to read to me when I was sick, and I used to read it to your father. And today, I'm gonna read it to you. Has it got any sports in it?
THE (Suddenly passionate) Are you kidding? Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Revenge. Giants. Monsters. Chases. Escapes. True love. Miracles. The sits in a chair by the bed. (manages a shrug) It doesn't sound too bad. I'll try and stay awake. Oh. Well, thank you very much. It's very nice of you. Your vote of confidence is overwhelming. All right. settles himself in the chair, takes out his glasses, and opens the book. (reading) The Princess Bride, by S. Morgenstern. Chapter One. Buttercup was raised on a small farm in the country of Florin. EXT. s FARM. DAY. The view is rolling hills in the distance with, a beautiful young woman in her late teens, riding her horse toward the farmstead. (O.S.) Her favorite pastimes were riding her horse and tormenting the farm boy that worked there. His name was Westley, but she never called him that. (to the kid) Isn't that a wonderful beginning? (O.S.) (doing his best) Yeah. It's really good. (O.S.) (reading)
Nothing gave Buttercup as much pleasure as ordering Westley around. is standing, holding the reins of her horse, while in the background, WESTLEY, in the stable doorway, looks at her. Farm boy. Polish my horse's saddle. I want to see my face shining in it by morning. WESTLEY (quietly, watching her) As you wish. Westley is perhaps half a dozen years older than Buttercup, as handsome as she is beautiful. He gazes at her as she walks away. (O.S.) "As you wish" was all he ever said to her. WESTLEY, outside, chopping wood. Buttercup drops two large buckets near him. Farm Boy. Fill these with water-- (a beat) --please. WESTLEY As you wish. She leaves; his eyes stay on her. She stops, turns--he manages to look away as now her eyes stay on him. (O.S.) That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying, "As you wish," what he meant was, "I love you." INT. IN THE KITCHEN - DUSK Westley enters with an armload of firewood. (O.S.)
And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back. (pointing to a pitcher that she could reach herself) Farm Boy, fetch me that pitcher. He gets it, hands it to her; they are standing very close to each other gazing into each other's eyes. WESTLEY As you wish. (Now he turns, moves outside.) WESTLEY AND, outside his tiny hovel in the red glow of sunset. They are locked in a passionate kiss. (O.S.) --hold it, hold it-- INT. 'S ROOM. DAY. What is this? Are you trying to trick me?? Where's the sports?--is this a kissing book? --wait, just wait-- --well, when does it get good? Keep your shirt on. Let me read. (reading again) Westley had no money for marriage. So he packed his few belongings and left the farm to seek his fortune across the sea. EXT. GATE TO S FARM. MORNING WESTLEY and stand near the gate to the farm, locked in an embrace.
(O.S.) (reading) It was a very emotional time for Buttercup-- (O.S.) (groaning) I don't be-leeve this. I fear I'll never see you again. WESTLEY Of course you will. But what if something happens to you? WESTLEY Hear this now: I will come for you. But how can you be sure? * * * * * * * * * * * As you ll know if you ve seen The Princess Bride, it s about to get really good. But now finally you should start writing your own. PATH #1: From the treatment you wrote in the last lesson, write a screenplay for the first 5-10 minutes of the film. (Remember, each page when properly formatted equals about one minute of running time, so 5-10 minutes = 5-10 pages.) If the treatment was well-thought-out, you ll have a head start on characters and motivations and plot twists and all that. Now you have to show it. Remember what you ve learned in previous lessons about sixty-second storytelling, showingnot-telling, and thinking like a camera. But there are some specific points we need to consider about how to start off the story: Go back to The Force Awakens screenplay and read from the opening crawl ( Luke Skywalker has vanished down to Kylo Ren saying You know what I came for. This is about five minutes of running time, during which the movie introduces five key characters, and fills in the essential backstory, and presents a crisis and gets BB2 on the road, which sets the main plot in motion. In its first five minutes, Toy Story works in a whopping ten characters. The Princess Bride puts only four characters in play (I m not counting the boy s mom, who does not reappear). How many characters, and how much action to include in the first five minutes will depend on three things:
1) What kind of story it is (comedy, drama, thrill-packed adventure, romance), and 2) How much scene-setting is required. For a science-fiction, fantasy, or historical story you ll need to create some sense of location and time. Toy Story does this by introducing the toys through their owner, Andy. The Force Awakens does this with the opening crawl and a gripping shot of armed storm troopers hurtling toward Jakku. The Princess Bride moves from a boy and his grandfather in a recognizable world into the fantasy world of a book. All very different approaches--what works for you? Also, 3) What is the key incident in the first five minutes? In Toy Story, it s Andy s birthday party, where he ll receive a new favorite toy. In The Force Awakens, it s the raid of the village and BB2 s escape with the map. In The Princess Bride, it s Westley s departure to make his fortune. The first mixes action and dialogue; the second begins with text and moves straight to action without dialogue, and the third starts off with dialogue. What s the right mix to present your key incident? Once you have a good idea how to begin, write a list of characters, a statement of the key incident, and a brief outline of the action. Then... begin. (If you don t want to write an opening scene from your treatment, choose a favorite story such as a fairy tale, myth, or novel--and write the opening scene. Feel free to start where you think the action should begin, include only the necessary backstory, and go for it.) Be sure to format according to the rules! PATH #2: If you wrote a treatment for an original story in the last lesson, now is where you can actually put your great idea into practice and show us what you can do with it. Write a list of characters, a statement of what the first five minutes will accomplish (key incident), and a brief outline of what the scene or scenes will include. And again don t forget to format.