How to Format a Screenplay: The Complete Guide

If your screenplay isn't formatted to industry standard, it doesn't get read. Period. Readers, agents, and contest judges open hundreds of scripts a week — they spot a non-standard format inside three seconds and toss it. Here's everything you need.

The basics

• Font: Courier 12 point. No exceptions.
• Page size: US Letter (8.5 × 11). Even outside the US.
• Margins: 1.5" left, 1" right, 1" top, 1" bottom.
• Page count: Roughly 1 page = 1 minute on screen. A feature is 90–120 pages.

Sluglines (scene headings)

A slugline tells the reader where and when. It is always uppercase, always on its own line, always has the same structure:

INT./EXT. LOCATION - TIME OF DAY

For example: INT. SARAH'S APARTMENT - NIGHT or EXT. BROOKLYN ROOFTOP - DAWN. The "INT." or "EXT." (interior or exterior) tells the production team whether to build a set or find a location. The TIME helps the cinematographer plan light.

Action lines

Action describes what we see. Present tense. Sentence case (not all caps). Concrete, visual, lean.

Sarah enters the apartment. Drops her keys. Doesn't turn on the light.

Avoid the unfilmable. You can't film a thought. You can film someone staring at a wall, fists clenched. The reader is the actor's first audience — give them something to perform.

Character names & dialogue

Character name centered, all caps, above their dialogue. Dialogue is one indent in from action.

                    SARAH
      I'm not doing this again.

The first time a character appears in action, capitalize their name (SARAH, 30s, exhausted). After that, regular case in action lines, but always uppercase above dialogue.

Parentheticals

Used sparingly to clarify how a line is delivered. Most amateur scripts overuse these. If your dialogue is good, the actor knows how to say it.

                    SARAH
            (whispering)
      He's still in there.

Transitions

CUT TO:, FADE OUT:, DISSOLVE TO: — right-aligned. Modern scripts use these rarely. Most cuts are implied.

The rules nobody tells you

• Don't direct from the page. Avoid camera directions like "WIDE SHOT" or "ZOOM IN." That's the director's job.
• Don't number scenes in a spec script. Numbering happens during production.
• Don't bold, italicize, or underline action. The page should be quiet.
• One scene = one slugline. If location changes, you start a new scene.

Tools that handle this for you

You don't need to memorize tab stops. Tools like ShipShit, Final Draft, and Fountain auto-format as you type. Spend your energy on story; let the tool handle margins.

The format is just the container. What matters is what you put in it.