Here are some tips for folks who want to read a screenplay but find it confusing and unconventional. If I miss something important, tell me and I'll add it to this post.
1. SCREENPLAYS (SP) ARE NECESSARILY SUCCINCT. They're charged with creating emotionally ladened stories and engaging characters in as few words as possible. There are mechanical and well as creative reasons for this:
Mechanically, the SP should represent the length of the film such that one page equals one minute of screen time. This does not leave room for elaborate descriptions.
Creatively the succinctness leaves plenty of room for the creative input for actors, directors, art directors, costumers, and the composer.
2. SCENE HEADINGS. Every new location or new time begins with a SCENE HEADING, also called a SLUG LINE. The slug line always begins with INT. for interior scene, or EXT. for exterior scene. Sometimes the actions begins inside and ends outside, INT./EXT. is used. Following this is the location of the scene, and at the end of the line is the time of day in simple terms: DAY or NIGHT, or sometimes SUNSET, or DUSK, etc. Slug lines are always ALL CAPS, sometimes they are also underlined and bolded.
At the end of some slug lines is the word ESTABLISHING. This means the shot is a WIDE view of the location, usually a building with no principal actors visible. It's a short scene that establishes where the next action takes place, usually an interior room of the building.
3. ACTION DESCRIPTION immediately follows the slug line. These short sentences describe what is seen and heard, but never what is spoken. SUPER: "TEXT ON SCREEN" indicates text on screen. Sounds created in post-production are always CAPITALIZED, but not sounds that can be recorded on the set. ACTION is always written in present-active voice, never past-tense. SPECIAL EFFECTS are often ALL CAPS as well.
4. DIALOGUE is preceded by the name of the CHARACTER. Both are indented from the margin.
Following the CHARACTER'S NAME, that precedes the words spoken are often abbreviations. If the abbreviations do not follow then the voice is spoken on camera and we see the actor's lips move, although often in the editing room that changes. Lips that move in sync with the picture are in SYNC, a term rarely used in screenplays, but sometimes necessary for clarity.
- V.O. = Voice Over (a voice that is NOT in the scene)
- O.C. = Off Camera (a voice from an actor in the scene but not seen by the camera.
- O.S. = Off Screen is an alternative for O.C.
- SOTTO = the actor speaks the lines softly to him or herself
- CONT'D. = the line that follows is a continuation of the line before separated by an action description of a page break.
- FILTERED = processed voice, possibly to make it sound as if it's coming over a phone.
- SINGS = the lines are sung
- (PRE-LAP) = the line spoken comes from the following scene (after the next slug line). A pre-lap line is concluded after the visual transistion to the next scene.
5. SPECIAL DENOTATIONS usually justified left:
INSERT and END INSERT (or BACK TO SCENE) sets off a close up shot of something in the set that needs to be seen up close. An insert does not require a slug line.
POV and BACK TO SCENE indicates beginning and end of a character's POINT OF VIEW or what the character sees. The camera becomes the character's eyes for a few moments. JAKE'S POV - THE BRACELET. A POV does not require a slug line.
FLASHBACK followed lines later by END FLASHBACK indicates a scene that jumps back in time. FLASHFORWARD does the opposite. Flashbacks require a new slug line.
DREAMS and VISIONS are formatted just like FLASHBACKS.
6. TRANSITIONS are justified RIGHT and include CUT TO, DISSOLVE, FADE IN, FADE OUT, etc.
If no transition is noted, the assumption is a CUT.
