Screenplay The art of formatting.

Script Formatting Now that we have hopefully outlined our story and completed a major biography on our main protagonist, we are ready to begin writing. The program we are going to use is Google docs…but first you must get the Screenplay Formatter ADD ON.

Step 1 Open up the Google search bar. Search “Google Screenplay Formatter.” Select it to OPEN UP. Then in google docs, under ADD ONs, select “Launch.”

Everyone should see this on the right of their screen. This screen is going to be your BEST friend this semester. First, click the blue button “SET SCREENPLAY AND MARGINS FONT.” *YOU MUST DO THIS AT THE BEGINNING OF EVERY SCRIPT YOU WRITE!

Step 2 Save Project as – lastname_title You will see tab on top of side of the screen with the following actions: HEADER (Scene Location) ACTION (What is going on) SPEAKER (Who is speaking) PARENTHESES (Laughing, yelling, *if app) DIALOG (What they are saying.)

HEADER Always begin a new scene with a heading. Ex. If the scene takes place inside a classroom, write this: INT. CLASSROOM – DAY *Should all be CAPS…it will format it for you!)

ACTION Action is what is going on in the scene. If a new character is introduced, give a brief summary of him/her. (You only need to do this once for each character) A majority of screenplays with little to no dialog make up this. Ex: MR. SHERMAN, a tall, good looking man, early to mid- twenties, is LECTURING to the class on how to format their screenplays.

ACTION (cont.) Any key words that are important to the story you are trying to convey should be capitalized. Ex: The phone was RINGING so loud he had to get ear plugs. Ex: There was a loud EXPLOSION outside the house. Also…ALL CHARACTERS are capitalized as well.

SPEAKER When you are about to begin writing dialogue, you need to obviously write first who his talking. Choose SPEAKER and write out the name of whom is about to deliver a line.

SPEAKER After you choose the character who is talking, just hit ENTER and the screenplay will default on the next line to DIALOG. There you can begin writing lines.

TRANSITION When you want to cut to a new scene, click TRANSITION. It will automatically being cursor to the right side of screen. There you can write CUT TO: or FADE OUT.

Misc. You can put TRANSITIONS at the beginning and end of scene. Such as FADE IN: and CUT TO: You want to CUT TO:/DISSOLVE TO: or anything and the end of every scene! PARANTHESES is just if you want to convey something that may not be able to come across just by reading.

QUESTIONS?