Writing a screenplay in Studio: Enter and Tab, line types, Script Settings and the title page
Studio can write film and television scripts in the page format the industry uses: 12-point Courier, with each kind of line in its proper place. As a rule of thumb, one page of script runs about a minute of screen time.
Start a screenplay
To begin a new script, use any of these:
- Choose Book → New Screenplay, then Film or Television Episode.
- On My Books, click New Screenplay.
- On the welcome screen, click Start a New Screenplay.
To see every kind of line before you write your own, choose Book → New Screenplay → Open the Sample Screenplay.
Write with Enter and Tab
Studio guesses what usually comes next, so you can mostly keep typing and press Enter.
- Enter moves on to the line that usually follows. After a character's name, it gives you dialogue. After a parenthetical, it gives you dialogue. After a transition, it gives you a scene heading.
- Tab changes the kind of the current line. On a line of action, Tab makes a character's name. On dialogue, Tab makes a parenthetical.
- A line you start with INT. or EXT. becomes a scene heading by itself.
Scene headings, character names and transitions are set in capitals for you, so you don't need to type them that way.
The line-type buttons
If you prefer to choose the kind of line with the mouse, the toolbar has a button for each of the main kinds:
- Scene heading
- Action
- Character
- Parenthetical
- Dialogue
- Transition
The More menu has four more: Shot, Act break, Centered and Page break.
For a television episode, put an Act break line between the acts. Each act starts on a new page. A screenplay's sections, such as acts or sequences, are for your own use. Their names are never printed in the script.
Script Settings
Open the Script Settings tab to set how the script is laid out:
- Kind of script: Film or Television episode.
- Paper: US Letter for the United States and Canada, or A4 almost everywhere else.
- Two blank lines above each scene heading: the classic studio look.
- Scene headings in bold.
- Mark a speech that runs over the page with (MORE) and (CONT'D).
- Number the scenes in both margins: useful for a shooting script.
This tab also tells you how many pages the script runs and about how many minutes it will take on screen.
Title Page
Open the Title Page tab and fill in:
- Title. For a television episode, use Series and Episode title instead.
- Credit line, such as "Written by".
- Your name.
- Based on, if the script adapts another work.
- Contact details (bottom left).
- Draft (bottom right).
Generate Script
Click Generate Script when the script is ready. Studio writes three files: a PDF, a Fountain file and a Final Draft file.
Studio follows a few layout rules as it prints:
- A speech is split across pages only at the end of a sentence.
- A scene heading is never left alone at the bottom of a page.
- A character's name never separates from their speech.
Scripts written in other programs can be brought in from Fountain (.fountain) or Final Draft (.fdx) files, using File → Import… or Book → Import a Book or Script….