Screenplay Submission Scripts

Screenplay Submission Scripts

Written by Ray Fox

Scripts (referred to as 'shooting scripts') available at libraries and elsewhere are not the form in which most professional writers submit their scripts. Submission scripts, sales scripts, first draft scripts all share certain characteristics. For example; no scene numbers, few if any camera shots designated and sequences written in master scenes.

There is no standard format used by all professional screenwriters in the American film industry. Professional scripts typically resemble the format of the Microsoft Word Template and samplescript.pdf that follows. Margins may be slightly different, a dash here or there, parentheticals used this way or that but professional screenplays generally fit these guidelines. Your script does not have to mimic the provided formats exactly, but it should closely resemble them.

First Impressions

Weaknesses that might invoke a poor first impression* (based only on a script’s title page and page one):

1. Typo/misspelling on the title page.
2. Typo/misspelling in the first scene header.
3. Typos/misspellings in the first sentence or paragraph or page.
4. Triple/double spacing of every/many line(s) on first page.
5. Lack of spacing between scene header and description and/or between description and dialogue and/or between dialogue and dialogue.
6. Use of font other than Courier 12-point, ten-pitch, non-proportional.
7. Extensive use of bold print.
8. Dialogue that stretches from the left margin to the right margin.
9. Extra space between character name and dialogue.
10. Description and/or dialogue typed ALL CAPS.
11. Extremely narrow or extremely wide outside margins.
12. Long, long, long descriptive passages.
13. Handwritten or hand-printed script.
14. Other glaring, non-standard format usage.
1. *Source: Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting

MSWord Template

Format Sample (PDF)

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