1. Formatting a screenplay

2. The basics Screenplays are written in 12 pt, courier font. There are screenwriting programs that make the formatting easy - Final Draft is the industry standard - but it costs $$$. Free demo allows 15 pages to be saved. finaldraft.com Celtx is free and lives on the cloud - celtx.com Each script page is approx. 1 minute

3. Title Page Every draft of every script needs a title page. There is a very specific way to make a title page. Keep it simple. Final Draft and Celtx have a template for this

5. There are 4 parts to a screenplay page

6. Scene Heading Are we inside or outside? Where are we? What time of day is it? #1

7. Description/Action What is the viewer seeing onscreen? You should be descriptive as possible without being too wordy. Write visually. Show, Don’t Tell! #2

8. Use action verbs. Avoid using “is”. Include only characters names and elements which can be seen or heard. Don’t include character backgrounds. Save that for a character breakdown. (Brenda, a cheerleader, has been head cheerleader until recently and isn’t handling it too well) CHARACTER NAMES should be in ALL CAPS the first time they are introduced in the script. ACTION

9. Character Always Capitalized Consistent in character name #3

10. Dialogue What the actors say #4

11. DIALOGUE If the character is heard but not shown talking, follow the character name with (V.O.) voice over. Also, for any narrator not on camera.

12. DIALOGUE If the character is not present within the scene, (on the phone) follow the character name with (O.S) off screen

13. (PARENTHETICALS) Used to express emotion, the manner in which the character speaks the line (laughing) or to describe brief bits of action (looking up)

14. A character can mosey, amble, sashay, shuffle, saunter, stumble, limp,strut, don’t just let them “walk” if you can help it. Visualize their movement. Learn to love re-writing your own work. WRITING IS RE-WRITING No first draft has ever been produced. The re-write is 90% of the work of producing a script. Write what you know. You are the creator of your screenplay world, don’t let them down. Screenwriting is still WRITING!