Screenplay Format: How a Page Is Laid Out

Screenplay format is made of four things: the slug line, the action line, the character name and the dialogue. It exists for two reasons — so that one page runs roughly one minute of screen time, and so that everyone reads the same page the same way. The standard used almost everywhere is the American (master scene) format.

Four basic elements

Slug line: INT. or EXT. + location + DAY/NIGHT.
Action: present tense, only what can be seen and heard.
Character name: above the line, centred, in capitals.
Dialogue: directly under the character name.

Rough measures

The classic setting: 12-point Courier, about 55 lines per page, 1 page ≈ 1 minute. Don't get stuck on the details — a screenwriting tool lays this out for you.

Wrong / Right

Wrong

Plain prose: "The woman came into the room, she was exhausted, she turned to her husband and asked why he was late, and they argued."

Right (formatted)

INT. KITCHEN – NIGHT

SELMA closes the door softly. Without taking off her
coat, she looks at the cold plate on the table.

              SELMA
     Again. Not a word.

              KENAN
     No signal out there.

Checklist

Does every scene have an INT/EXT + location + time slug line?
Is the action in present tense and visible?
Are the character names consistent from first page to last?
Does the dialogue avoid repeating what the scene already shows?

Frequently asked questions

What font is a screenplay written in?

The standard is 12-point Courier (Courier New or Courier Prime). It's a monospaced face: every character takes the same width, so page length becomes a usable estimate of running time — 1 page ≈ 1 minute.

What's the difference between the American and the French format?

In the American format everything runs in a single column: slug line, action, the character name centred and the dialogue beneath it. In the French format the page is split in two: image on the left, sound and dialogue on the right. The American format is the standard for film and television almost everywhere.

What margins should a screenplay page have?

The classic measure: about 1.5 inches on the left (binding room), roughly 1 inch on the right, top and bottom. The character name sits near the centre and the dialogue below it in a narrow column.

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