ScriptFaze

How to Format a TV Script

There are three dominant television genres: 

 

The sitcom.

The hour-drama.

And the TV movie (or movie-of-the-week, as they were once called).

 

Each of these of genres is formatted differently, so before you look at any format guide you'll need to decide which type of script you want to write. Recently, there's also been a resurgence of channels willing to take a risk on the lame-duck of TV genres, the half-hour drama. If you decide to go down this path, know that half-hour dramas are formatted just like hour-long dramas, but shorter. By half. 

Okay--have you chosen your format? Great! Now choose your link to the appropriate ScriptFaze Format Guide:

How to Format a TV Sitcom

How to Format a TV Drama

How to Format a TV Movie

Why TV Format Matters

Television format—whether for half-hour sitcoms or hour-long dramas—is often a subject of contention among writers new to the business. The biggest question seems to be: Why the hell does it matter? If your structure and characters are thought-out and the dialogue is sizzling off the page, then who cares if your margins are one-inch or two? Or if you use that sweet new font you discovered on cool-fonts.com rather than boring old Courier?

Well, the simple answer is that it DOES matter. It matters a whole lot. The long-winded answer is that the standardized formats fulfill three distinct purposes:

PURPOSE  #1: Proper format is a COMMON LANGUAGE that all writers, execs, producers, directors, actors, cinematographers, etc., use to understand how a script will TRANSLATE to the screen. An action in ALL-CAPS means something different than an action in lower-case. Clear act-breaks suggest how your script will juxtapose against advertisements, and character introductions are demarcated differently because they will be SHOT differently on set. Spanglish was a great idea in theory, but it never translated to real-life because NO ONE ACTUALLY SPOKE IT. Your unformatted script is the exact same thing. It may seem fresh, cool and innovative to you, but in reality it’s just a new language that nobody else speaks.

PURPOSE #2: Television scripts are custom-fit to land at a certain number of minutes—22 minutes for half-hour network show, 44-minutes for hour-long network shows, and 30 or 60 minutes for the same shows on paid cable where time does not have to be carved out for commercials. When a script is properly formatted, it fits an approximate page-per-minute ratio that allows writers to properly guesstimate the best lengths for their scripts, and lets producers know how long a production will be once it is shot. When a script is properly formatted, a 44-page sitcom script should translate into a 22-minute TV program, and a 62-page drama script should cut down to a 60-minute show.

PURPOSE #3: The most important reason that writers must adopt proper TV writing format is because it shows that you BELONG. Any producer who will ever read your script is looking for reasons to say NO to your material, and to move on to the next project in their enormous backlog. That’s the truth. Most execs secretly dread new material, and expect much of it to be awful. You may have written the hottest thing to hit FOX since 24, but if your formatting is AMATEURISH they will assume the CONTENT of your script is amateurish, too. And they won’t read it. End of the road. That’s that. So, why give them a reason to say no? The place to be creative is with your CONCEPT, CHARACTERS and DIALOGUE—not your formatting. Fix your layout, and SHOW those producers that you are a professional before they’ve read a single word. 

So—if I’ve managed to convince you that format matters, you may be now be wondering HOW to format your original television script. If that's the case, you first need to choose what TYPE of television show you want to write:

PICKING YOUR FORMAT

Unlike feature films, different styles of television shows require different formatting. If you’re writing a spec script (a pretend episode of an already existing show) then spend some time tracking down a completed script for your show before you start writing. Nearly every episodic on television is formatted just a little bit differently, and you’ll want to be sure to copy the format of your particular show as closely as possible. Templates for many new shows can also be found packaged with professional screenwriting programs, so if you’re working on Final Draft or Screenwriter, you might want to check to see what shows are already bundled with your software.

For those of you writing an ORIGINAL PILOT, however, you’ll need to begin by deciding if your show is a DRAMA, a TV MOVIE or a SITUATIONAL COMEDY (SITCOM). Click the links blow to view full-length format guides for each genre:

SITCOM

DRAMA

TV MOVIE

How to Format a TV Sitcom

First of all—what is a sitcom, and why are they formatted differently than TV dramas and movies?

The term “sitcom” is short for “situational comedy,” and it is exactly that—a type of television program that is fueled by funny situations and characters RATHER than by plot. But that doesn’t mean structure isn’t important! It just has to be handled differently, and when it comes right down to it, the FUNNY JOKE will always beat out the COMPELLING TWIST.

Sitcoms are shot in front of a LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE. Or at least they should be. Some “audiences” have been replaced by laugh-tracks, but sitcoms are always shot in a three-camera studio format as though they were produced on the stage of a THEATRE. There is an invisible fourth-wall that is never shown because that is where the audience is sitting!

Formatting style for situational comedies has developed out of a long tradition of bucking the norms of movie writing and trying to do something distinctly different. In the 1940s and '50s, sitcom writers also came primarily from theatre, so many of the idiosyncrasies in the half-hour sitcom format are in fact carryovers from playwriting. However we got here, one thing is for sure—sitcoms do not look like movies on the page!

Although 22 minutes when they go to broadcast, sitcom scripts run 40-50 pages long, and are structured as follows:

teaser—commercial—Act I—commercial—Act II—commercial—tag

The first act tends to be slightly longer than the second act, and overall, there should be approximately 15-18 scenes in your finished script.

Here's how to put a sitcom together on the page:

1) Like movie scripts, sitcoms are written in 12-point courier font.

2) If you’re beginning with a TEASER, write and underline the word “TEASER” at the top of your first page, and center it like so:

3) In a sitcom, each scene is demarcated by a LETTER, starting with the letter “A.” Before you can start writing a scene, its scene letter needs to be centered at the top of a new page. If it is the first scene in a teaser, a tag, or a new act, the scene letter should be placed three lines below this specification, like so:

4) Next step, move four spaces down your page, and left-justify a TRANSITION that will bring us into your scene. Some of the most common transitions are “FADE IN,” “FROM BLACK” and “COLD OPEN.” Your page should now look like this:

5) Two spaces below your transition should be your first SLUG LINE, also known as a SCENE HEADING:

Slug lines are made up of these three elements:

1. INT. or EXT. Short for interior and exterior. If it’s both, such as when a drunken cop is thrown through the doorway of his favorite bar, you can write INT./EXT.

2. LOCATION. Where the scene takes place. These should be short, and avoid emotive description. It’s not EXT. THE PENTAGON IN SHAMBLES, just EXT. PENTAGON. Don’t worry—they’ll be room for the fun stuff later.

3. TIME. Usually just DAY or NIGHT, but can also be a specific time, like 3:00 PM, if it’s an important detail to the plot. Try not to overuse demarcations such as DUSK, MORNING, MIDNIGHT, or LATER.

Slug lines are UNDERLINED and are always in CAPS. There are usually two spaces between INT./EXT. and LOCATION, then space, hyphen, space between LOCATION and TIME.

Occasionally, you’ll need a SUBLOCATION to clarify the location. These look like:

INT. HIGH SCHOOL/JANITOR’S OFFICE – DAY

Or:

INT. HIGH SCHOOL – JANITOR’S OFFICE – DAY

Some writers also use PERIODS to separate the parts of a logline, like:

INT. HIGH SCHOOL. JANITOR’S OFFICE. DAY.

A new slug line is needed every time you change locations, so you’ll be writing a lot of these!

6) Next comes your ACTION BLOCK. This is where you can fill in details for your location, and explain what your characters are doing RIGHT NOW. Action is always written in the present tense, and must be written in ALL CAPS. It’s always justified left, and looks like this:

When a character is introduced for the first time, his or her name should be UNDERLINED.

Any action that describes a character’s MOVEMENT, be it an entrance, an exit, or a moonwalk across the middle of the room, should also be underlined:

As much as possible, try to include the names of every character in a scene within the first sentence of your action block. This is a norm, but not a rule, so feel free to organize your introductions how you please.

Sometimes, all of the characters within a scene are also listed parenthetically directly beneath the slug line. This can be a useful way of telling your reader which cast members are in a scene. If you decide to use this method, you must do it consistently throughout your script.

It would look like this:

Another tradition which many writers break these days is to separate out and underline all sounds and sound effects onto their own line, justified to the left, like this:

SOUND: HEAVY CRASH

Or:

SFX: FINGERS ON CHALKBOARD

This formatting may be useful if you want to emphasize an especially important sound, but in general you may just underline your sound within an action block.

7) Almost there! Next stop—dialogue. Sitcoms are all about the talk. Keep your action blocks to a minimum, and try to focus on saying everything you can through dialogue and character movement.

In situational comedies, dialogue is the only part of the script that is NOT in ALL CAPS. Before a person can speak, you need to move two spaces down from your last line of action, and type their character name 2.2 inches from your left margin, like so:

A character’s dialogue block should start TWO SPACES DOWN from his name, and should be sandwiched within in a window one inch from the left margin to two inches before the right margin. The dialogue should be DOUBLE-SPACED, like this:

This double-spacing is why sitcoms tend to average two-pages per minute of screen time rather than the usual one-minute of screen time demanded by TV dramas and film scripts.

Directions for the actors in a sitcom can be very specific, and should be written parenthetically WITHIN the dialogue. These should also be written in ALL CAPS, like this:

8) When you’re ready to end a scene, move down two spaces from the last dialogue or action block, and right-justify the words “FADE OUT” or “CUT TO” like this:

9) When you have finished your scene, tab down to the top of the NEXT BLANK PAGE, and center the words “Scene B” at the top of the page. After that, format your new scene just as you did the last:

When you have finished your teaser, move down three spaces after your last dialogue or action block, and CENTER the words END TEASER.

To begin your FIRST ACT, tab down to the start of the next blank page, and set it up just like your did the start of your teaser:

When you have finished act one, move down three spaces after your last dialogue or action block, and CENTER the words END ACT ONE.

It’s that simple! Move on to your next act and begin again! Every scene always starts at the top of a new page, and your ACTS, TEASER and TAG should always end with a clear END-WHATEVER IT IS bookend.

That’s all there is to it…

You’ve got it! And if you run into the odd situation where you’re unsure how to format something, post a question in the comments section of this article, or check a commonly used reference book such as David Trottier’s The Screenwriter’s Bible. There may also be times when you notice that certain writers or writing instructors suggest slightly different formatting guides. As long as you choose one of them, and are consistent throughout your script, no one will ultimately care whether you go with one small style peculiarity or another.

Now that you know all the tricks of the trade, jump right in and start getting those witty jokes on the page! Remember—the television sitcom is all about three things: JOKES, CHARACTERS and JOKES. Just keep laying ‘em down, one zinger after another, and you’ll be amazed how quickly all that double-line spacing adds up to a finished first draft!

NOTE: Portions of this article first appeared in the article "How to Format a TV Script," penned by this author for the website www.scriptfrenzy.org.

How to Format a TV Movie

If you’re writing a TV movie, once known as a “movie of the week” or a M-O-W, start by reading the post on formatting DRAMAS. All of the same formatting rules apply, except that your sluglines, act breaks, and transitions are generally NOT underlined.

TV movies generally have seven or eight acts, and the first few are the longest. While the first acts can run as long as 20 minutes (which means 20 pages), the last four or five acts may be as short as 7 to 10 minutes.

TV movies can be fun to write, but with the advent of more cinematic cable shows such as The Sopranos, The Wire and Kings, they have fallen off in popularity. If you’re thinking about writing a TV movie, you may just want to write it up as a standard screenplay, as this will open up more doors for getting it read and (gulp) selling it.

How to Format a TV Drama

Dramas usually run one-hour in length, and these days tend to be shot in a more movie-like fashion. Shows like Heroes, Lost, Kings and Dexter are all dramas. In the last few years, an increasing number of comedies slated to be shot in a single-camera, cinematic fashion (rather than in front of a studio audience) have also been scripted in accord with dramatic structure, so the guide below may be used for these non-traditional half-hour shows as well.

As I move through this guide, you'll notice that dramatic television format is nearly identical to feature screenplay writing format—but there are a few important differences. For starters, hour-long dramas usually run about 62 pages long, and are structured as follows:

teaser—commercial—Act I—commercial—Act II—
commercial—Act III—commercial—Act IV—commercial—tag

Pretending for a minute that you have NEVER written a television script in your entire life, here’s how your original one-hour drama should be formatted:

1) ALL of the text in your drama should be typed in 12-point Courier font.

2) Justified LEFT or CENTER, start you script by stating which PART OF THE SCRIPT IT IS—the TEASER, particular ACT, or TAG. This should be underlined and in ALL-CAPS, like so:

2) Next, move down two spaces, and add a TRANSITION, such as “FADE IN,” “FROM BLACK,” or “COLD OPEN.” This should be justified to the left margin of your page, underlined and in ALL-CAPS, like this:

3) Two spaces below your transition should be the SLUG LINE for your TEASER, also known as a SCENE HEADING. Now your page should look something like this:

Slug lines are made up of these three elements:

a. INT. or EXT. Short for interior and exterior. If it’s both, such as when a runaway bulldozer slams through the wall of a crowded diner, you can write INT./EXT.

b. LOCATION. Where the scene takes place. These should be short, and avoid emotive description. It’s not INT. SUPER COOL 1970s SPORTSBAR, just INT. BAR. Don’t worry—they’ll be room for the fun stuff later.

c. TIME. Usually just DAY or NIGHT, but can also be a specific time, like 3:00 PM, if it’s an important detail to the plot. Avoid overusing demarcations like DUSK, MORNING, MIDNIGHT, or LATER.

Slug lines are always in CAPS and underlined. There are usually two spaces between INT./EXT. and LOCATION, then space, hyphen, space between LOCATION and TIME.

Occasionally, you’ll need a SUBLOCATION to clarify the location. These look like:

      INT. HIGH SCHOOL/JANITOR’S OFFICE – DAY

Or:

      INT. HIGH SCHOOL – JANITOR’S OFFICE – DAY

Some writers also use PERIODS to separate the parts of a slug line, like:

   INT. HIGH SCHOOL. JANITOR’S OFFICE. DAY.
      
A new slug line is needed every time you change locations, so you’ll be writing a lot of these!


4) Next comes the ACTION BLOCK. This is where you can fill in details for your location, and explain what your characters are doing RIGHT NOW. Action is always written in the present tense, and in most cases follows standard rules of capitalization and punctuation. It’s always justified left, and looks like this:

Anytime a CHARACTER is introduced in your script for the first time, the character’s name must be in BOLD, and generally, the character’s AGE or AGE RANGE should be placed in parenthesis to the right of it. For example:

Notice the description of the character that precedes his introduction. Your character descriptions can be as detailed as you’d like, but avoid making them so long that they interrupt the momentum of your script.

5) When you’re ready for a character to start speaking, move two spaces down, and indent 2.2 inches from the left margin. This is the same margin used in film screenplay structure, so feel free to use the pre-set formats in any scriptwriting computer program.

Type your character’s name in ALL-CAPS, like this:

Sometimes you’ll have minor characters that you may not want to name, or a “secret” character who hasn’t revealed his or her identity. In these cases, it’s okay to call them WAITER, THUG or POP IDOL. If there are several of the same types of characters, add a number: WAITER #1 or THUG #2.

6) Now that you’re all set up, it’s time to give your character a voice! Dialogue is sandwiched in a window one inch from the left margin to two inches before the right margin. It looks like this:

Notice that in the action blocks before after the dialogue the words BLUE PICKUP TRUCK, DRIVER, HOLLERS and VANISHES have all been capitalized. Any word that describes one or more people, such CROWD, PEOPLE, KIDS or ZOMBIES should always be placed in caps, as should any key props, and words that describe sounds, such as THUMP, BOING, ZING, or WHOOSH.

At certain times, it is also appropriate to capitalize ACTIONS for special emphasis, such as:

      His entire truck VANISHES.

Or:

      The panda bear RACES around the corner.

If you want dialogue to be spoken with a special emphasis, you may indent by an additional .6 inches (or one tab) on the line directly beneath a character’s name, and add your direction in PARENTHETICAL:

A parenthetical can also be used to clarify who a person is talking to, or who they are talking about. For example:

      (to GRANDMA)

Or:

      (re: JIMMY)

If the description within a parenthetical runs longer than a few words, try to move it out of the parenthetical and into the action block preceding the dialogue.

The last thing you need to know about dialogue is how to handle a VOICE OVER, or a situation in which a character can’t be seen on camera but is heard speaking OFF SCREEN. This is easy. Simply add the initials (V.O.) or (O.S.) directly to the right of a character’s name, as in:

      MCGEE (V.O.)

Or:

      ROBOCOP (O.S.)

7) If you need to cut to a new scene, simply drop down two lines and add a NEW SLUG LINE for the next scene:

8) At the END OF YOUR TEASER, move down two spaces from your last action block or line of dialogue, and add the line “END TEASER” underlined and in ALL-CAPS. You may also decide to include a TRANSITION before the END TEASER line, but this is purely optional. The end of your teaser, then, should look like this:

Now, tab down to the START OF THE NEXT PAGE. On the next clean sheet, center the words set up your next act, or since you’ve just finished your teaser, set up ACT ONE:



After your ACT ONE title, move down TWO SPACES and write your first SLUGLINE for this act. It’s uncommon to use a transition after page-one of your script, but you certainly can if you feel like you need it.

After that, simply progress through your act using all of the formatting norms discussed above. And that’s basically all you need to know!


Incidentally, have you ever noticed when watching your favorite TV show that as the program progressed, the commercial breaks got longer and the good stuff in between got shorter? Well—that was planned.

In television, Act One is usually the longest, and each act that follows tends to get progressively shorter. It’s all about getting your audience hooked into your story up front, so that they’ll put with the commercials at the end.

After you’ve written through to your first cliffhanger at the end of ACT ONE are ready to wrap up your act, finish your act just like you did your TEASER:



After that, tab down to the top of your next page, and center the words ACT TWO. Move down two more spaces, and begin your next act!

You’ve got it! And if you run into the odd situation where you’re unsure how to format something, post a question in the comments section of this article, or check a commonly used reference book such as David Trottier’s The Screenwriter’s Bible. There may also be times when you notice that certain writers or writing instructors suggest slightly different formatting guides. As long as you choose one of them, and are consistent throughout your script, no one will ultimately care whether you go with one small style peculiarity or another.

Now that you know all the tricks of the trade, the final step is to WRITE! There may be a correct format, but there’s no correct creative process for pulling off your first TV script. Just keep your butt in your chair, and you’ll be amazed how quickly those pages start to fill up!



NOTE: Portions of this article first appeared in the article "How to Format a TV Script," penned by this author for the website www.scriptfrenzy.org.