--

This is the classic screenplay format developed over decades of Hollywood history. It is used for
productions filmed principally with one camera:

theatrical feature films

hour-long television drama
much half-hour television comedy (with the exception of traditional multi-camera '

sitcoms shot in the style of shows like Two and a HaZfMen)

long-form television, including made-for-television movies and miniseries

The four building blocks of single-camera film format

Despite their potential to map out film and television of soaring imagination, beauty and
complexity, screenplays and teleplays consist of only four basic format elements: shot headings,
direction, dialogue, and transitions.

Shot headings begin each new scene or shot. They may give general information about a scene's
location and the time of day the scene takes place:

INT. PENTAGON - FIFTH FLOOR CORRIDOR - DAY

Or they may give information about the type and subject of a specific shot:

EXTREME CLOSEUP - WANDA'S TRIGGER FINGER

Shot headings are most often followed by direction, passages that describe what is being seen
and heard within the shot or scene:

Micah crawls under the fence, the barbed wire snagging

his tattered jumpsuit. The beam of a searchlight passes
and he presses himself into the ground, desperate to
make himself invisible.

Dialogue consists of the name of the character who is speaking, the actual words that are spoken,
and any parenthetical character direction related to the dialogue:

MIMI
That just figures, don't it?
(smacks steering
wheel )
I go and steal me a car without
Transitions sometimes appear at the end of scenes and indicate how one scene links to the next:

,DISSOLVE TO: I

See Appendix A for sample script pages in single-camera film format.

Margins and fonts for single-camera film format

Standard format dictates that scripts always use afuced-pitch font, such as Courier or
Courier New, and adhere to standard margins. A fixed-pitch font (as opposed to a
proportionally spaced font like the one used in this paragraph) is one in which every letter
occupies the same amount of horizontal space on the line, regardless of whether it is a lower case
i or a capital M. Fonts used for typing scripts are 10 pitch, meaning there are 10 characters per
horizontal inch, and 12 points, which allows six lines of type per vertical inch. Twelve-point
Courier or Courier New fit the bill and are the fonts most often used in scripts. Used in
combination with a fixed-pitch font, standard margins result in script pages with a relatively
uniform amount of content per page.

Why is this important?

Over the years, a rule of thumb developed among filmmakers that one script page translated, on
average, into one minute of finished film. Production cost estimates also came to be based inpart
on the number of pages in a script or scene. So did the amount of time allotted for filming
scenes. Television writers knew that if they wrote roughly 60 pages, they had the right amount of
material for a one-hour show. Feature writers knew that a 120-page screenplay represented a film
of about two hours. And despite any number of quibbles one may have with these formulas
(scripts for the brooding one-hour series China Beach often ran as few as 50 pages while scripts
for the hyperkinetic ER, also an hour long, sometimes stretched up to 70 pages), they are
indelibly part of the day-in and day-out workings of Hollywood even today. Production
schedules are set based on the number of pages to be shot per day. Writers make decisions about
whether or not to cut a scene based on their script's page count. An accurate page count is taken
so seriously in Hollywood that senior executives at Warner Bros. once threatened to disband
their own script processing department when they suspected its staff had compromised standard
script margins on one critical draft of a feature film script. Altering a script's font or margins or
- --.-. - - .---

even paper size from the standard changes the amount of material.that fits on a page and thereby --

upsets all the calculations based on script page counts. It also changes the appearance of the page
in ways that can instantly brand a script as unprofessional. Writers do so at their own peril. I

I
 S I N G L E - C A M E R A FILM F O R M A T

A script page typed with standard margins looks like this: I

3 ~ h e
sun rises'crimson overthe fallen soldiers. Ragged
children move among the dead., searching for survivors. .
Or a serviceable pair of boots.

5~~~~~ CAPTAIN
'YOU younguns, git!
6(turning to his
men)
Ever'body knows his job. Let's
git to it!

The men start reluctantly across the field'.

7~~~ TO:

22 EXT. GRANT'S HEADQUARTERS .- NIGHT 22

A fire burns .outside a dirty canvas tent. Officers

mill. Everyone seems to be waiting for something to
happen.

Standard single-camera . film format margins

Standard single-camera film format margins are as follows:

1. Paper is 3-hole punched 8.5" x 11" white 20 lb. bond.

2. Shot headings: . ..-. . ,-I

Left margin is ,l.7I t .> d/, /.

,

Right margin is 1 1" .: J:- ' ;

Line length is 57 characters

3. Direction:
Left margin is 1.7" "
Right margin is 1.1" 3 ''
Line length is 57 characters
TH-E H O L L Y W O O D STANDAR',D 1 RILEY

4. Dialogue:
Left margin is 2.7" 6.8
Right margin is 2.4" 5 - !
Line length is 34 characters

5. Character name over dialogue:

Left margin is 4.1 " c !o -4
Note that the character name over dialogue is not centered. It
begins at the same fixed point (4.1" fiom the left edge of the page)
no matter how long it is.

6. Parenthetical character direction:

Left margin is 3.4" 8.6
Right margin is 3.1" 7.1
Line length is 19 characters

7. Scene transitions:
Leftmarginis 6.0" 15.Z.
,',2 r:
,
8. Scene numbers: - 3 -/ -2
?-)
"7'

Left scene number goes 1.0" fko& the left edge of the page
Right scene number goes 7.4" 'fiom the left edge of the page
Note that scene numbers should not be added by the writer.
Scene numbers are added by the production office when a script
goes into active preproduction.

9. Page numbers: ' 2, '

Go at 7.2'1, .5" below the top edge of the page.
\
L .$
10. Font:
Courier or Courier New 12 point (or equivalent fixed-pitch serif font)

11. Page length: ,.--

A maximum 0?/5 7 pries (which allows for -.5 " margin
- - at the top and 1 --
---
':
f -3
I
-
margin at the b d o m of each page) J

- - -- - -- - - . - - .- - - - - -

These 57 lines include one line at the top of each page for the page
number, followed by a blank line and the text of the script.

See page 28 for a sample with standard single-camdra film margins. Use it as a template
against which to compare the margins of your own pages.
 SINGLE-CAMERA FILM FORMAT .
I

Are script pages printed on one side of the page or two? ,

In an effort to save paper, some studios have experimented with double-sided script and
some literary agencies routinely copy scripts on both sides of the page. Nevertheless, the
longstandiqg practice 'in ~ o l l ~ w o has
o d beento print scripts only on one side of the page. This
makes reading the script far easier and provides room for the abundant notes that are regularly
written on script pages. In addition, once a project approaches production, single-sided printing .

is an absolute necessity to make possible the replacement of individual script pages with colored
revision pages.
THE H O L L Y W O O D S T A N D A R D / R I L E Y

Single-Camera Template with Standard Margins

BOBBIE
There are some details missing
from his statement to the other
detectives. We need him to fill
in the blanks.
FATHER PETROCELLI
( studies
the cops )
You understand the bullet passed
through his brain. Father Gage
is not the man he was.

INT. UPSTAIRS HALLWAY

Father Petrocelli leads Bobbie and Will down a dim
passage. At the far end he knocks softly on a door,
then turns the knob and pushes it open.
FATHER PETROCELLI
If you need me, I'll be close by.

INT. FATHER'GAGE'SQUARTERS
A bed. A desk. A lamp. Nothing more. Father Gage
bends over the desk, his head wrapped in gauze, a pencil
in his hand, scratching out a manuscript. He finishes
the page and places it atop a stack onthe floor. There
are other stacks. He has written'hundreds of pages. He
starts another.
WILL
Father, we're sorry to bother
you: We're detectives from San
Francisco PD. We need to ask you
a few questions.
Gage doesn't look up.
WILL
What are you writing?
FATHER GAGE
A book.
WILL
What about?
Gage throws down the pencil, pushes back from the desk
and rises to his full, towering height.
FATHER GAGE
'Areyou a believer?