Steps to Writing a Film Script

Getting Started

• The first step is to brainstorm and jot down your ideas on paper. The second step is to think of a plot to reflect your ideas such that it can separated into three acts. Each act should be different from the others. Within each act there should be a major event involving some form of conflict. The first act should serve as the introduction, the second act should serve as the body of the work and the third act should serve as the resolution.

Characters

• In the first act, introduce the main characters. In the second act, develop the characters. In the third act, resolve the characters' problems from the former acts. Try to not put in too many main characters, to allow you to properly define each character's traits, personality and emotions. The average length of a film script is 90 pages to 120 pages.

Screenplay Format

• There are four elements to a screenplay: Slugline (scene heading), action, character names, and Dialogues. Sluglines are put in a new scene's beginning, always written in capital letters, and should describe the scene's setting. A scene's setting include a location (i.e., park, library, store) and a time (i.e., night, day, or exact time). Specify whether the scene will be interior or exterior, so that the crew knows where they will be shooting. Action follows a slugline. Action describes the activities happening on the screen and the characters participating in them. Action is not written in all capital letters, but follows standard capitalization rules. Character names follow action and are written in all capital letters. They describe which character is speaking and always comes before dialogue. The character name can be a proper name or it could be a type of character, such as FIREFIGHTER. The dialogue follows the character name and it's what the character says. It follows standard capitalization rules.

  A sample of all four elements together looks like this:

  INT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT

  A severely injured patient is brought in to the emergency room. There is a lot of tension in the room, and a sense of urgency.

  DOCTOR MALONE

  I don't know if he's going to make it.