Screenplay Manuscript Format

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > FILM > PLAYS vs. FILM > REALITIES > TIPS > FORMAT >

'Write whatever you want, as long as there's a love scene and the girl jumps in the volcano at the end.'

-- David O. Selznick

'It is similar thinking to why everyone wants to remake films. If something has been done before, it is perceived as being more valuable. So if someone else has bought a volcano project, then they are perceived as being more valuable. Each studio thinks theirs is better.'

-- Nick Reed

Be careful in using the screenplay manuscripts on the shelves of your local library. These will nearly always be shooting scripts. They'll be full of specific shots, camera movement and angles -- the sort of thing accomplished screenwriters don't waste time on. The tip-off that you've got a shooting script in your hands: each shot is numbered down the left margin.

• Top Margin: 0.75" - 1.0"

• Bottom Margin: 0.5" - 1.5"

• Description
  • Left Margin: 1.5" - 2.0"
  • Right Margin: 1.0"

• Dialogue
  • Left Margin: 3.0"
  • Right Margin: about 2.3"

• Character s.d.
  • Left Margin: about 3.7"
  • Right Margin: about 3.0"

For a lot of the details on format for screenplays -- and a few more tips on screenwriting -- from the developers of one of the two leading format software programs, check out their Web text Scriptwriting Secrets. It's a bit shy on secrets, but good on format. You don't have to be an Academy Award winning screenwriter to figure out that this whole thing is really designed to sell you Scriptware formatting software.

And once you look at what's involved in screenplay format, give some serious consideration to investing in . . .

You can write a screenplay without this sort of software, but be prepared for lots of agony and torment especially when you start revising -- or even just tinkering -- with that first draft. Even with the best word processing programs like Microsoft Word, it's still an awful lot like scratching it out with a sharp nail on a stone. If you're serious about writing for film, just bite the bullet (as they used to say in Hollywood westerns) and get screenwriting software.

And the world's leading Internet bookstore can get them to you in a few days.