Screenplay format: scene headings, margins and indents

Courier 12 point, a 1.5-inch left margin, a fixed dialogue column. Every measurement in screenplay format, and the reason each rule exists.

Screenplay format is not decoration; it is a unit of measurement. A correctly formatted page runs roughly one minute on screen. When a producer weighs a script in their hand and estimates the running time, that is not a party trick — it works because of Courier 12 point and fixed margins. A script that breaks the format announces on page one that the writer does not know the craft.

The measurements below come from Final Draft's own guide and standard industry practice. All of them are built into Movrito.

Paper, typeface and margins

The typeface is not up for debate: Courier, 12 point. The reason is arithmetic, not taste — in a monospaced face every line holds the same number of characters, which is what makes the page-to-minute relationship possible.

The wider left margin is the detail people miss most often. US Letter is standard in the United States, A4 in Europe; the "one page, one minute" rule was calculated on Letter, so an A4 script runs slightly fewer pages.

The scene heading

A scene heading gives three pieces of information in this order: interior or exterior, where, when. All caps, flush left.

Use I/E. when a scene sees both inside and outside at once — the interior of a car and the street through its window, for instance.

DAY and NIGHT are the workhorses. Finer distinctions like MORNING, DUSK or DAWN belong in the heading only when the light genuinely matters, because this line feeds straight into the shooting schedule.

Action

Action starts at the left margin and runs to the right edge of the text block. Write it in the present tense and only in what the camera can see. What a character is thinking does not belong here, because it cannot be photographed.

The first time a character appears, their name goes in caps. An important sound or object can be capitalised too — but the device dulls quickly, so use it sparingly.

Character, parenthetical, dialogue

A speech block has three parts and each one has its own column. The values below are measured from the left edge of the page:

The dialogue column width is fixed. If it is derived from the margins instead, changing the paper size re-breaks every speech and your page count moves.

A parenthetical is a short note to the actor, used only when it is genuinely needed. Emotion labels like "(sad)" are usually redundant — if the line is sad, the line is sad.

Character extensions

You show where a voice is coming from in parentheses beside the character cue:

• (V.O.) — voice over. A narrator or an interior voice, with no physical source in the scene.
• (O.S.) — off screen. The person is in that space but out of frame.
• (CONT'D) — the same character resumes speaking after an action line interrupts.

Transitions

Transitions are capitalised and flush right. Ones ending in "TO" take a colon, ones ending in "OUT" take a period: CUT TO:, DISSOLVE TO:, FADE OUT.

A warning: every source agrees that fewer transitions is better. CUT TO: is now considered redundant, because a new scene heading already means a cut. Final Draft's own blog says professional writers simply skip it. SMASH CUT TO: earns its place when the abruptness is part of the storytelling, and MATCH CUT TO: when you are drawing a visual rhyme.

Page numbers and the title page

The first page carries no number. From page two on, the number goes in the top right corner, half an inch down from the top edge, followed by a period: 2.

Keep the title page plain: the title centred, the writer's name below it, contact details in the lower left corner. No page number. Date and draft note are optional.

The five most common mistakes

1. A 1-inch left margin. It should be 1.5; the binding allowance is a real requirement.
2. Letting the dialogue column stretch with the paper. The column is fixed, and your page count depends on it.
3. CUT TO: between every scene. It pads the page and adds nothing.
4. Numbering the first page. Not standard.
5. Writing the invisible in action. Thoughts cannot be filmed.

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