1. SCENE HEADER

You generally put three bits of information into a scene header.

 

The first thing you need to convey is whether the action is outside, inside or both. EXT. is used for exterior, INT. is used for interior, and E/I is used for exterior/interior (or I/E).

 

Next, you state where the scene is taking place. In the example above, it's an APARTMENT BLOCK.

 

Finally, give a sense of the time.

 

If the action is switching from location to location (say, for example, you're writing a scene and the characters are moving through a house) then you wouldn't necessarily want to keep reminding the reader that it's NIGHT every time the characters enter a new room.  Some writers would simply use the word 'CONTINUOUS' to show that the action is continuing, but other writers prefer just to drop this third element if it is obvious through dialogue and action that the scenes are unfolding in real time.

 

2. ACTION

No points for guessing that this is used to describe action. You can also use it to describe the scene and to give a brief character description. Always put a character's name in block capitals when you first introduce them, and always indicate their age if they are important characters.

 

As mentioned earlier, you are not writing a short story or a novel - you are writing a film, so bear this in mind when you write your action.

 

In a short story, it would be fine to say something like 'Detective Easkey got to the top of the stairs and stopped a moment to catch his breath. The stairs, for some reason, reminded him of his honeymoon on that cruise ship with the huge staircase. God, what was the name of that cruise ship again? He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember much anymore. It was horrible to be getting old.' But whether or not Detective Easkey is thinking about cruise ships or honeymoons is totally irrelevant for the purpose of the film's action.

 

One piece of advice that I keep in mind is to not write what cannot be shown. It's not a hard and fast rule, and breaking it can often be a nice way to convey something to a potential director. I remember one character description I read where it gave a physical description of a character and then said something like -- He's also an ex-con, but we'll get to that later. It stuck with me. You can imagine a director's eyes lighting up when he saw that line, but don't over-do it or you'll end up with a short story.

 

3. CHARACTER

Easy. Every time a character speaks, you put their name in capitals on a line by itself. 

 

4. DIALOGUE

Again, easy. This is what the character says.

 

5. PARENTHETICAL

This comes in brackets between the character's name and their dialogue. The boundaries can often blur between when to use paretheticals and when to use action. Generally, you'd go for parenthetical if you want to communicate the pacing/intention of the dialogue.

 

By the way, you hear stories of some actors crossing through all of the parentheticals for their character because they don't want to be told how to deliver their lines by the writer! If this is ever a problem for you... well, it's a nice problem to have, because it means someone is making a movie that you've written! Used properly, parentheticals are a good tool.

 

6. TRANSITION

These are being used less and less in screenwriting but they haven't completely disappeared, hence the inclusion in the screenplay pages above.

 

You'll notice there was no transition used when Detective Easkey went from inside the apartment block corridor to inside the apartment. That's because everything else made it abdundantly clear that he had gone from one place to another.

 

At the end of the apartment scene, we cut to a coffee shop. The CUT TO indicates that we have had a complete change of location. You could argue that the scene description itself would make that clear. This is one of those things where it comes down to personal preference.

 

CUT TO is one of a few different types of transition - there's also DISSOLVE TO, SMASH CUT, FADE OUT, etc.