FADE IN:
EXT. KEY WEST MARINA - DAWN - ESTABLISHING
Action
FADE IN:
EXT. KEY WEST MARINA - DAWN - ESTABLISHING
Sailboats, yachts, and cabin cruisers all bob up and down in the warm blue
water.
INT. MASTER SUITE - MORNING
Expensive designer sheets and comforter covers the nude, shapely body of drop
dead gorgeous JULIE COOPER, 25. Sunlight filters through portholes over the
muscled, tan body of FRANKIE CAMPISI, 38. He pulls the comforter down and begins
kissing Julie's naked body.
Expensive designer sheets and comforter covers the nude, shapely body of drop
dead gorgeous JULIE COOPER, 25. Sunlight filters through portholes over the
muscled, tan body of FRANKIE CAMPISI, 38. He pulls the comforter down and grins
at Julie's naked body. Suddenly, Frankie recoils.
There's a devil tattoo on her shoulder that he's never seen before.
INT. MASTER SUITE - MORNING
Expensive designer sheets and comforter covers the nude, shapely body of drop
dead gorgeous JULIE COOPER, 25. Sunlight filters through portholes over the
muscled, tan body of FRANKIE CAMPISI, 38. He pulls the comforter down and begins
kissing Julie's naked body.
FRANKIE
Dialogue
DIALOGUE rules apply when anyone on screen speaks. During a conversation between characters. When a character talks out loud to himself... even be when a character is off-screen and only a voice is heard.INT. MASTER SUITE - MORNING
Expensive designer sheets and comforter covers the nude, shapely body of drop
dead gorgeous JULIE COOPER, 25. Sunlight filters through portholes over the
muscled, tan body of FRANKIE CAMPISI, 38. He pulls the comforter down and begins
kissing Julie's naked body.
FRANKIE
Rise and shine, Bluebird. Time
to spread your wings and fly.
FRANKIE
(wryly)
Good mornin', Bluebird.
JULIE
(sleepily)
What? What time is it?
FRANKIE
(getting out of bed)
After six. You're gonna be late
again and I don't want to hear
it.
Parentheticals are also used in some scripts as the (continuing) notation. If a character is speaking followed by an action line and then the same character continues speaking, this notation can be used, but the New Spec Script frowns on all such superfluously inserted notations.
FRANKIE
(getting out of bed)
After six. You're gonna be late
again and I don't want to hear
it.
Frankie pulls all the covers off of Julie. She sits up in bed, pulls on a long
T-shirt, then swings her legs onto the floor and shuffles off to the bathroom.
FRANKIE (CONT'D)
You're welcome.
Extensions
Frankie pulls all the covers off of Julie. She sits up in bed, pulls on a long
T-shirt, then swings her legs onto the floor and shuffles off to the bathroom.
FRANKIE
(continuing)
You're welcome.
(beat)
Hey, how long you gonna be? I've
got a meeting and I need to
shower.
JULIE (O.S.)
Twenty minutes.
FRANKIE (V.O.)
I knew I wasn't gonna get in
that shower for at least 45
minutes, so I went for a run.
Transition
Frankie pulls on a pair of shorts, slips into some running shoes and exits.
CUT TO:
A PRISONER shoves a homemade shiv against the throat of a PRISON GUARD.
PRISONER
(trembling)
I'll kill him! I mean it.
PRISON GUARD
Take him out! Now! Do it!
ANGLE ON - A PRISON GUARD SHARP-SHOOTER
as he lines up the shot, finger poised on the trigger.
PRISONER
I want to talk to the Warden. NOW!
INSERT - RANSOM NOTE
We have 'established' that we're in a marina at dawn.
The moving pictures we see on screen. Also, the direction given by a director indicating that filming begins.
Every moment in a screenplay takes place NOW. Use the active voice (a window slams shut) not the passive voice (a window is slammed shut).
Always write in PRESENT TIME, not the past. (There are rare exceptions to this; for example, John Milius' The Wind and the Lion had description in past tense like a novel, but then, he also directed the film.)
Keep your paragraphs short... don't let them go on and on over 4 or 5 lines. The reader may scan long action paragraphs without really reading them.
The reader begins to form an idea about the setting and the action taking place. We know we're on a boat, two characters have been introduced to us, we have some idea about their physical appearance. And we have a clue to their relationship.
Avoid a compulsion to write camera angles and shots. If you must emphasize some shot, write it on a single line. Angles and shots are the domain of the director an will likely be added in the Shooting Script.
Character Name
When any character speaks, his or her name appears on the line preceding the dialogue. In screenplays, the name is tabbed to a location that is roughly in the center of the line. In playwriting, typically the name is centered, but with the advent of screenwriting software that automatically positions the character name correctly, it has become acceptable to use a similar format for character names in stageplays.
The speeches between characters in a film or a play.
The Rules:
DIALOGUE margin is indented 2.5" from the left margin. A line of dialogue can be from 30 spaces to 35 spaces long, so the right margin is a bit more flexible, usually 2.0" to 2.5".
Parenthetical
Also known as a "wryly" because of the propensity of amateur screenwriters to try to accent a character's speech -- as in BOB (wryly) -- an inflection to a speech noted by a writer. Of course, in stageplays, all stage directions (at least in Manuscript Format) are in parentheses, but "directing off the page," as it's often called, is equally frowned upon.
It indicates that the character continues speaking throughout the action.
An Extension is a technical note placed directly to the right of the Character name that denotes HOW the character's voice will be heard by the audience. An Off-Screen voice can be heard from a character out of the camera range, or from another room altogether.
Some writers use O.C. (off camera) in place of O.S. The "beat" used above simply denotes that Frankie pauses (perhaps formulating his next thought) before uttering his next bit of dialogue.
Another common extension is V.O. That stands for Voice Over. Think of a V.O. as a narration, or a character speaking while s/he isn't in the scene. Or s/he can be in the scene, but also acting as narrator, reflecting on and describing some time gone by. This dialogue is recorded and then laid in over the scene in editing.
Our character Frankie is reminiscing about the morning on the boat in a Voice Over.
A script notation denoting an editing transition within the telling of a story. For example, DISSOLVE TO: means the action seems to blur and refocus into another scene, and is generally used to denote a passage of time.
Transitions you may be familiar with are:
CUT TO:
DISSOLVE TO:
SMASH CUT:
QUICK CUT:
FADE TO:
FADE OUT (never at the end of the script)
The only time to use a Transition in a spec script is if it's integral to telling the story. For instance, you might use a TIME CUT: to indicate passage of time. More commonly, a DISSOLVE TO: indicates that time has passed. Or, you might need to use MATCH CUT: if you want to illustrate that there is some correlation between something we just saw and something in the new scene. The point is, unless you become quite skilled in screenwriting don't use these things unless absolutely necessary, because the director of the film will probably think of something different.
Shot
What the camera sees. For example, TRACKING SHOT would mean that the camera is following a character or character as he walks in a scene. WIDE SHOT would mean that we see every character that appears in the scene, all at once.
A SHOT tells the reader the focal point within a scene has changed. Here are some examples of shots:
ANGLE ON --
EXTREME CLOSE UP --
PAN TO --
FRANKIE'S POV --
REVERSE ANGLE --
Once in a while, calling a shot is necessary. You want the reader to see something not obvious in the scene or you want to achieve a particular emotion or build to a climax. This device allows you to achieve this goal.
If you are describing a prison riot, with a prisoner holding a guard at knifepoint, and you want the audience to see a sharpshooter aiming at the prisoner, you might use a shot like this:
Another shot used from time to time is INSERT. INSERT is used solely as a direction - to focus on something integral to the scene, often something that the audience needs to read or what would otherwise be too small to be clearly seen in a full, wide scene.
A well-constructed action paragraph or a single line might achieve the same goal without distracting the reader. Be vigilant of the flow of the story, and try not to interrupt it.