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The Ultimate Screenplay Format Reference

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Title Page

If you follow the recommendations in The Screenwriter’s Bible, your title page will be almost empty.

It should contain the title of your script, optionally followed by the word ‘by’ or the words ‘Screenplay by’, followed by your name. You may decide to make a comment about copyright in the lower left hand corner, but it’s not really common. All of this in ordinary size 12 Courier or Courier New font.

Somehow very close to this:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ll see

by

John Smith

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         wgaw# XXXXXXXXX       

 

        


Plain size 12 Courier or Courier New font.

No other fonts, no italics, no bold letters or digits. Nothing like that. Nowhere. Never.
 

The First Page

No page number on page one.

You may put the title of your script at the top of page one, but not on any of the following pages. If you decide to put it on page one, it must be centered, capped and underscored.

You should begin with FADE IN: flush at the left margin. Almost all screenplays do that. Some readers take this very serious.

It follows a master scene heading or narrative description.

You may alternatively start your screenplay with BLACK SCREEN followed by words to be superimposed on the black screen. That will look this way:

 

 

       BLACK SCREEN

       SUPER:

                 “These are the adventures of the
                 Starship Enterprise ...”

       FADE IN:

       INT. ENTERPRISE COMMAND BRIDGE - DAY

       ...

                

Note: No page number at the top right corner. Numbering of the pages of the script thus begins with 2. on the third page if you include the title page which would be page number 0.

 

Credits and Titles

Don’t worry about these. If you feel you absolutely need them The Screenwriter’s Bible suggests something like ROLL CREDITS or BEGIN CREDITS. In that case end with END CREDITS. You could also use TITLES instead of CREDITS.

 

The Last Page

If you started the script with FADE IN: (suggested), the last line of the last page of the script must be FADE OUT. or a FADE TO BLACK. flush to the right margin:
 



                     NARRATOR
         And they lived happily ever after.

                                               FADE OUT.

 

Like all pages except for the title page and page one, the last page must have a page number in the top right corner, of course.

Please excuse the crudity of the model - it’s not due to scale.

This just provides an overall impression. Click here for the exact measurements.

For the exact measurements consult this page.