Fade in:
Int. the writers room – day
Seven scripts stacked on a table. Each one a different color.
White, blue, pink, yellow, green, goldenrod, buff. The order a real production revises in.
On the wall, one sentence, big enough to read from the back:
The wall
IF THE AUDIENCE CANNOT SEE IT OR HEAR IT, IT IS NOT IN YOUR SCRIPT.
What this is
A screenplay is a blueprint for a film. Not a novel, not a diary, not a place for internal thoughts, and not a place to explain your themes. Every rule below is a detail of that one rule up on the wall.
We get one guaranteed meeting together, and maybe three or four more scattered across the year. That is not enough class time to hand you one assignment at a time, so today you are getting the whole map at once.
Due dates come later, step by step, as we go. Today is the briefing: what you are making, in what order, and what finished looks like. Nothing here is waiting on me to unlock it.
Every date on this page is marked TARGET for a reason. They are preliminary, spaced to give you room, and they will move when the calendar moves. The order never changes, only the dates do. When one shifts, it shifts here first.
You turn work in through Google Classroom. Every step below has a TURN IT IN bar at the bottom telling you exactly what to hand over, and the submission link drops into that bar when the assignment opens. Check back here rather than hunting through a feed.
The order, and why it is the order
- Steps 1 and 2 set up your tools and the format language.
- Step 3 teaches you to dramatize a choice between two people.
- Step 4 plans a story before you write a word of it.
- Step 5 tells that story with zero dialogue. This is the whole point of the class.
- Step 6 puts your pages in front of people who will tell you what they actually saw.
- Step 7 puts the talking back in, on purpose, in the smallest amount that works.
Skip ahead and step 7 is where you find out you skipped.
Every step opens with an INSERT showing what a finished version looks like, before it tells you how to make one. Read that part twice. Most work loses points because nobody ever held it up next to the finished thing.
Cut to:
Int. wherever you write – night
The Desk
You cannot write a screenplay in a Google Doc. Format is doing half the storytelling, and the software handles format for you, so you can spend your brain on the story instead of the tab key.
Insert – what a complete step 1 looks like
A browser opens. Writer Duet loads. You are already signed in.
One project in the list. It has a real name, not "Untitled."
On screen: a title page. Your film's title. Your name under WRITTEN BY. An email you will still have in four years.
A PDF sits on your desktop. You open it. Page one is the title page, in Courier twelve point.
Not one word of story yet. That is correct. The desk is set and nothing has been written.
The moves
- Go to writerduet.com and make a free account.
- Do not use your school email. That account disappears when you graduate and takes your scripts with it.
- Do not forget your password. Write it down somewhere real.
- Start a new project and name it after your film, even if the name is temporary.
- Click the gray TITLE PAGE button on the left, below your main document. Fill in Title, Author, Contact.
- Export a PDF. Open it. Title page first, body in Courier, and you are done.
Darien-Sensei
Every year somebody loses a finished script to a forgotten password. It is the saddest email I get.
- Writer Duet account exists and you can log into it
- It is not tied to your school email
- Password is saved somewhere you can find it
- Project is named
- Title page has Title, Author, and Contact filled in
- You exported a PDF and opened it to confirm it looks right
Cut to:
Int. the page – continuous
The Rules
Screenplay format is not a style choice. It is a shared language, so a director, an actor, and a person with a budget can read the same page and picture the same movie. Here is the whole language. It fits on one page, which should tell you something.
Scene heading (slugline)
Where and when. All caps. Simple and specific.
INT. is interior. EXT. is exterior. That is the whole system.
Action: what we see
- Present tense. Always.
- One to four lines per paragraph, then break. Three is better.
- Only what a camera could record.
- No camera directions. That is the director's job.
Same beat, written wrong:
You cannot film "feels nervous." Show it instead:
Introducing a character
First appearance only: name in all caps, a short visual, age in parentheses. No backstory, no resume.
Dialogue
Character name in caps above the line. Natural, purposeful, short. Long speeches need a dramatic reason to exist.
Visual language over explanation
Instead of she is heartbroken:
Replace every abstract idea with a physical action. If you cannot film it, rewrite it.
The page rule
One page is about one minute of screen time. If it drags on the page, it drags worse on screen.
Insert – what a complete step 2 looks like
A scrap of a page in Writer Duet. Each element used once.
One slugline. One action paragraph, four lines or fewer. One character introduced in caps, with an age.
Two lines of dialogue between two people. Eight to twelve lines in all.
Not a story. A finger exercise, like running a scale before you play a song.
You know it is finished when you can point at each element and name it out loud without scrolling back up here.
- Slugline is INT. or EXT., location, dash, time of day, in caps
- Action is present tense and filmable
- Action paragraph is four lines or fewer
- Character introduced in ALL CAPS with age and a visual
- Two dialogue lines, cue above the line
- Nothing on the page describes a feeling instead of showing one
Cut to:
Int. two people, one room – day
The Choice
Your first real script. Two characters, one room, one decision. The person with the power makes the call, and an object on screen carries the weight of it. This is the smallest complete unit of drama, and the one professionals get wrong most often.
Insert – what a complete step 3 looks like
A PDF. Two and a bit pages. One slugline, one location, one continuous stretch of time.
Exactly two characters. Both introduced in caps the first time we see them.
In the first half page, an object sits in the room. Car keys. A letter. A plate of food.
By the last page, that object is what the entire argument is about.
Two people want different things and cannot both get them. One of them decides.
Nobody says "I feel betrayed." Somebody pockets the keys and walks out.
The last line is an action line, not a speech. The choice is shown being made.
The assignment
Write a two-ish page script featuring only two characters, in proper format, that revolves around a choice, one that is eventually made by the person who has the power. Choose a scene object to represent that choice.
Seven questions to answer before you write
- Character want. Who wants what, and who is in their way?
- Choice presented. Will A or B be chosen?
- Scene object. What is the important object the debate is over?
- Side A vs side B. Where does each character stand on the choice?
- Power of choice. Whose choice is it, actually?
- Stakes raise. How does pressure get built on the choice?
- Choice made. What option is chosen?
Darien-Sensei
If the one arguing hardest also gets to decide, there is no scene. There is a speech.
Give the power to the one who says the least.
| Criteria | 1 — not yet | 5 — professional |
|---|---|---|
| Format25% | Sluglines missing or lowercase, prose paragraphs, dialogue run into action, no character introductions. | Correct sluglines, caps intros, clean cues, consistent spacing. Reads like a page from a real script, and the format never distracts you. |
| Choice is dramatized25% | Characters discuss a topic. Nothing is decided, or the decision happens off the page. | A real decision belongs to one character, is pressured from both sides, and is visibly made on the page. You could film the moment it lands. |
| Scene object20% | An object is mentioned once and forgotten, or there is no object at all. | Planted early, handled during the pressure, and it ends the scene. It carries meaning the dialogue never has to state. |
| Power is clear15% | Unclear who decides. Both characters have equal say and the scene has no floor. | Power is obvious from behavior, not announced. The scene shifts when power shifts. |
| Clarity15% | Dense blocks, abstract description, feelings stated outright, hard to picture. | Short action paragraphs, concrete images, white space that makes the read fast. Three readers picture the same movie. |
Cut to:
Ext. the plan – before anything is written
The Beat Sheet
Professionals almost never open a blank script and start typing. They figure out what the story is, what the character wants, and what happens in each major moment. Planning first makes the writing shorter and better.
This is the plan for the film you are about to write, and that film has no dialogue in it at all.
Insert – what a complete step 4 looks like
One page. Half of it white space. A title at the top.
Under it, two sentences that carry the whole story. A student tries to sneak out of class. A suspicious teacher keeps catching them.
Then the main character: age, personality, what they want. Then the obstacle, in one line. A real one.
Then six to eight beats, one or two sentences each, in order.
A stranger reads it in ninety seconds and tells the story back to you. Correctly. No questions.
If they ask "wait, why did they do that," you have a beat missing.
One more test: every beat can be filmed at your school, your house, or one location you can actually get into, with people you actually know.
What the document contains
- Title of your short film.
- Logline. One to two sentences describing the story.
- Main character. One to two sentences: age, personality, what they want.
- Goal. Get out of class early. Win the thing. Hide the thing. Confess the thing.
- Obstacle. Conflict is required. Without conflict there is no story.
- Six to eight beats, one to two sentences each.
The beat shapes
- Opening image. What the world looks like at the beginning.
- Inciting incident. The moment that starts the story.
- Rising conflict. The character tries to solve it and things get harder.
- Midpoint complication. Something unexpected changes the situation.
- Climax. The biggest moment, where the character has to act.
- Resolution. What happens after.
Darien-Sensei
Half a page to one page. A three page beat sheet means you are writing the script instead of planning it.
| Criteria | 1 — not yet | 5 — professional |
|---|---|---|
| Completeness25% | Sections missing. Beats are a list of events with no shape. | Every section present, six to eight beats, in order, each moving the story somewhere new. |
| Want and obstacle25% | Character wants something vague. The obstacle is weather, boredom, or nothing. | A specific want a stranger could name after one read, and an obstacle that fights back and gets worse. |
| Tells without talking30% | Beats depend on a conversation, a confession, or a text message to make sense. | Every beat is understandable with the sound off. The story lives in behavior and objects. |
| Filmable scope20% | Car chases, crowds, six locations, a dog that acts on cue. | Three to five minutes, one or two locations, a cast you could text tonight. |
Cut to:
Int. the challenge – no one speaks
The Silent Script
The main event. Film is a visual medium, and the most powerful scenes ever shot communicate emotion, tension, and story without a single word. You are writing three to five pages with zero dialogue and zero voiceover, and it is going to be a complete story moment.
Insert – what a complete step 5 looks like
A PDF. Three to five pages. Courier. Title page in front.
You scroll and something is missing. No character cues down the center. No indented dialogue. No parentheticals.
Sluglines and action. Short paragraphs. White space between them.
Page one: somebody wants something, and nobody told you what it is.
Page two: something is stopping them, and it gets worse.
Last page: the situation is different. Not fixed. Changed.
A friend reads it in four minutes. Tells you what happened and how the character felt. Gets both right.
The rules
- Three to five pages.
- Correct screenplay formatting.
- No dialogue. None.
- No voiceover narration. That is dialogue wearing a hat.
- Tell a complete story moment through action, body language, objects, and timing.
Story requirements
- A character with a goal. They want something.
- An obstacle. Something makes it hard.
- A change by the end. The situation is different when the scene finishes.
Ideas, if yours collapsed
Somebody sneaks food into a movie theater. A student hides a phone before a teacher notices. A character searches for something important they lost. Somebody tries to impress another person and fails. A character escapes an awkward situation without being rude.
Action writing, enforced
Show emotion through behavior instead of explaining it. One page is one minute, so five pages is a five minute film. Aim for a tight visual moment, not an epic.
| Criteria | 1 — not yet | 5 — professional |
|---|---|---|
| Format25% | Inconsistent sluglines, prose blocks, stray dialogue or voiceover, no character intros. | Clean and consistent throughout. The format never slows the read down. |
| Visual storytelling35% | The story only makes sense if you already know what the writer meant. Emotions are stated, not shown. | A reader with no context gets the story and the feeling. Behavior and objects do all the work. |
| Scene structure20% | Things happen, then it stops. No clear want, no real obstacle, nothing changes. | Goal, obstacle, and change are clear and earned. The ending differs from the beginning in a way that matters. |
| Clarity20% | Long paragraphs, abstract description, hard to picture. | Concise, visual, fast. Every paragraph is a shot you can see. |
Cut to:
Int. table read – eyes closed
The Table Read
You cannot tell whether your visual writing works, because you saw the movie in your head before you wrote a word. The only way to find out is to put the pages in front of other people and watch what shows up in their heads instead.
Insert – what a complete step 6 looks like
Three or four writers around a table. One script in the middle. Fifteen minutes on the clock.
The writer hands the script over and does not speak.
One person reads the action lines out loud, slowly. No voices. No performance.
Everyone else closes their eyes. This is the test: can they see it?
The reading stops. Each listener describes what they saw, beat by beat.
The writer stays quiet and takes notes on where the movie in their head matched, and where it did not.
If three people pictured three different things, the visual writing is not landing yet, and now you know exactly where.
Run the session in this order
- Groups of three to four. Fifteen minute slot per writer.
- Writer hands over the script and goes silent.
- One person reads action lines aloud, slowly. No voices, no performance.
- Everyone else closes their eyes or looks down.
- Each non-writer describes what they saw, beat by beat. This is the whole point of the activity.
- Now the group hits the four questions.
- The writer can finally talk. Clarifying questions only. No defending.
The four questions
- Where did you stop being able to picture it?
- What action or image hit hardest?
- Was there one moment that needed dialogue to make sense? That flags where the visual storytelling broke.
- One "what if" swap, cut, or addition?
What you turn in
One sheet per other writer in your group: what I pictured vs what you intended, strongest visual moment, weakest visual moment, one revision suggestion.
One sheet on your own script: did the group see what you saw, where did the visual writing break, one revision you are making before the final draft.
Darien-Sensei
(if you have no group)
Record yourself reading it out loud. Wait a day. Play it back with your eyes closed.
Write down what you actually see, not what you meant. Or hand it to one person, anyone. One honest listener beats zero.
- Script was read aloud by someone who is not you
- Listeners described what they pictured before giving any feedback
- One completed sheet per other writer in the group
- One completed sheet on your own script
- Every answer names a specific moment, not a general impression
- Your own sheet ends with one revision you are actually making
Cut to:
Int. the room – somebody finally speaks
The Dialogue Pass
Now you put the talking back in. Ten lines minimum, added to a script that already worked without them. This is the order it happens in for a reason: writers who learn dialogue first use it to paper over scenes that do not work.
You built a scene that works. Now the dialogue has something to sit on.
Insert – what a complete step 7 looks like
Two documents side by side.
The first: your silent script, revised, five or six pages, with ten lines of dialogue woven through it.
Not stacked in one conversation at the end. Woven. Pull them out and the scene still stands, just colder.
Two characters who do not sound the same. One says something and means the opposite.
The second: a review on a partner's script. Ten answers. Every one quotes a line and names a page.
Not "the dialogue was good." Instead: page 3, "I'm fine," lands because we just watched her hands shake.
And you sent it to them. That part is not optional.
Part one: add the dialogue
- Add at least ten lines of dialogue, organically.
- Fine if the script grows to five or six pages.
- Formatting, punctuation, and grammar guidelines still apply. All of them.
- Export a PDF from Writer Duet and give it a title.
In Writer Duet, click the gray TITLE PAGE button on the left, below your main document. It acts as its own document. Edit Title, Author, and Contact directly in the fields.
Part two: the coverage review
Swap scripts with a partner. You are reviewing the version after dialogue was added. Every answer needs a specific example from their pages, not a general comment. Note whose script you are reviewing and who is reviewing yours, and actually send them your feedback.
- Necessity. Find one line that could be cut because the action already showed us that moment. Quote it, give the page, and say whether it strengthened the moment or just narrated it.
- Voice. Pick two characters. Quote one line from each that proves they sound like different people.
- Voice. Is there a line where a character sounds like the writer instead of themselves? Quote it.
- Subtext. Find one line that states an emotion or intention too directly. Quote it and rewrite it with the meaning underneath.
- Show, do not tell. Find one piece of action written as literary prose instead of something we can see. Rewrite it as a filmable image. "She felt the weight of years of regret" is a feeling, not a shot. "She stops, sets the photo face down, and leaves it" is.
- Scene function. Find one exchange that moves the scene: power, information, emotion, the relationship. Say what it shifts.
- Scene function. Find one stretch that talks but does not move anything. Say where it stalls.
- Mechanics. Are character cues, parentheticals, and spacing correct? Is the formatting right, in your opinion?
- Final. One thing the dialogue does genuinely well.
- Final. The single highest-impact change you would make if they revised it once more.
| Criteria | 1 — not yet | 5 — professional |
|---|---|---|
| Necessity30% | Dialogue narrates what we just watched, or explains the plot to the audience. | Every line does something the action could not. Cut any one and the scene loses something real. |
| Voice25% | Both characters sound like the same person, and that person sounds like you. | Cover the character cues and you still know who is talking. |
| Subtext20% | Characters announce their feelings and intentions outright. | Characters say one thing and mean another, and the audience catches it without help. |
| Mechanics10% | Cues, parentheticals, spacing, and punctuation are inconsistent. No title page. | Clean and correct throughout, title page filled, PDF exports properly. |
| Coverage review15% | General comments. No quotes, no page numbers, never sent to the partner. | All ten answers quote a line and name a page, the rewrites are better, and the partner has it in hand. |
Cut to:
Int. classroom – the days I am actually there
When we meet
Meetings are for the things that need a room full of people: reading out loud, arguing about a scene, watching somebody realize their ending does not work. Each one has a due date attached when we get there.
The steps do not wait for the meetings. Keep moving between them.
Kickoff
The one rule, the format language, and the seven questions behind a scene. You leave with steps 1 through 7 in hand and step 3 started.
Table read
Step 6, run live in groups. Bring your silent script printed or on a screen you can hand over.
Dialogue workshop
Step 7 in the room. We add lines, read them out loud, and cut the ones that were narrating.
Final read
Finished scripts read aloud, coverage traded, and a preview of the scene work that decides who makes a film next year.
| Step | What lands | Target |
|---|---|---|
| 01 & 02 | The Desk and The Rules. Account, title page, format drill. | Tue Sep 29 |
| 03 | The Choice. Two-page script. | Tue Oct 13 |
| 04 | The Beat Sheet. No dialogue plan. | Tue Oct 27 |
| 05 | The Silent Script. Three to five pages. | Tue Nov 17 |
| 06 | The Table Read. Feedback sheets. | Tue Dec 1 |
| 07 | The Dialogue Pass. Revised script plus coverage. | Tue Dec 15 |
Cut to:
Int. dark room – lights down
Screening room
We watch these together and then take them apart. Same questions every time: why does this work, how do they get into the action early, what do you like, what do you not?
Escape
An AVPA Sony film, shot at this school by students who sat where you are sitting. Why does this work? How do they get into the action early? What do you like, and what do you not?
Play →The Social Network
Dialogue that moves. Watch who holds the power, and count how many times it changes hands.
Play →Cut to:
Int. reference desk – open all year
Reference desk
A scene is a miniature movie
A good scene has the same shape as an entire film. A world and a protagonist with a goal, then an inciting incident that reveals a conflict, rising tension toward a false conclusion, a reversal, escalating tension into a climax, and a new status quo that gives the next scene a reason to exist.
- Status quo. The scene begins. The world as it stands.
- Inciting incident. Something arrives and reveals the conflict.
- Rising tension. Pressure builds on the thing that matters.
- False conclusion. The expected outcome. The way you thought it would go.
- Reversal. The course changes. Going back is no longer possible.
- Escalating tension. Everything accelerates toward the decision.
- Climax. The conflict resolves, one way or another.
- New status quo. The scene ends changed, and that change is why the next scene exists.
Conflict
A scene without conflict is boring, not engaging, and does not serve the plot or the characters. Conflict is what lets characters grow. A scene without conflict is exposition. Exposition should arise naturally during conflict instead.
Film is poetry, not documentary. We use only the words we need, as potently as possible, to pull the viewer in.
Definitions worth keeping
- Scene. A sequence of events that takes us from one status quo to a climax, in roughly one location and one continuous unit of time.
- Protagonist. The character being pulled through the arc of the story.
- Antagonist. The character pulling them through it, actively placing obstacles in the way.
- In medias res. Into the middle of a narrative, without preamble.
- Arc. It does not have to be profound. A realization, a humbling, a meaningful change in trajectory all count.
Save these. Seriously.
- Save the Cat beat sheet cheat sheetBlake Snyder's breakdown of basically every movie ever made, on one printable sheet.
- Save the Cat beat sheet libraryA study of the beats that make a film, applied to dozens of real movies.
- The Blake Snyder beat sheet, page by pageA hack for writing a structurally perfect script. A bit advanced, worth keeping anyway.
- Writer DuetWhere you write. Free account, personal email, password you will remember.
- Can the audience SEE this?
- Can the audience HEAR this?
- Is everything in present tense?
- Are character names formatted correctly?
- Are action paragraphs short and clear?
- Did you export the PDF and open it to check?
If all six are yes, you are writing like a filmmaker.
Cut to:
Int. the good example – at last
Model pages
Four finished examples, one per thing you have to make. Every rubric on this page describes work that looks like this. Steal the shape, not the story: turn in your own version of these and you will get a polite nod and a low score.
Model 01 · Step 03, the choice
"Roster" – two characters, one object, one decision
Int. tech center – after school
Monitors off. One lamp. The room smells like gamer.
MARISOL (17), team captain, hoodie sleeves past her fingers, sorts a stack of laminated player badges.
One badge sits apart from the others. Blank. She has not written a name on it.
DEV (16), all elbows and four new inches of height, hovers in the doorway with a gym bag he has not put down.
Dev
Coach posted the bracket.
Marisol
I saw.
Dev sets the bag down. Finally.
Dev
Kenny's numbers are better than mine. I know that. I also know he bailed on scrims twice.
Marisol squares the stack of badges. Taps them on the desk. Twice.
Dev
You've been holding that blank one since Tuesday.
Marisol
I've been holding it since Tuesday.
She uncaps a marker. Holds it above the blank badge.
Dev does not breathe.
She writes. Four letters. Caps the marker.
She slides the badge across the desk, face down, and picks up her keys.
Marisol
Lock up when you're done looking at it.
She goes. Dev stares at the back of the badge for a long moment.
He turns it over.
Model 02 · Step 04, the beat sheet
"The Last Good Chair"
Title: The Last Good Chair
Logline: During finals week, a sophomore discovers the library's one non-broken chair is unclaimed, and spends four minutes defending it from the entire student body without saying a word.
Main character: JUNE, 15, deeply prepared for a test she has not studied for, treats small territory as sacred ground.
Goal: Sit in the good chair for one entire period.
Obstacle: Everyone else also wants the chair, and the librarian enforces a rule about leaving bags on furniture.
- Opening image. A library of wobbling chairs. Sixteen students, sixteen bad chairs, one perfect empty one under the window.
- Inciting incident. June spots it. So does a senior across the room. They lock eyes.
- Rising conflict. June gets there first and sits. Victory lasts nine seconds, until she realizes her backpack is across the room.
- Midpoint complication. The librarian taps a laminated sign: NO SAVING SEATS. June cannot leave and cannot stay without her bag.
- Rising conflict. June builds a decoy out of a hoodie and a water bottle. It fools nobody, least of all the senior.
- Climax. The bell. Both of them lunge. June gets there. The senior gets the chair's armrest, which comes off in his hand.
- Resolution. The chair is now also broken. June sits in it anyway, victorious, tilting slightly. She opens the book she never studied.
Model 03 · Step 05, the silent script
"The Last Good Chair" – page one
Int. school library – day
A wide room of long tables. Every chair leans a few degrees in a direction it was not built to lean.
JUNE (15), backpack strapped to both shoulders like she is about to hike out, scans the room.
Her eyes stop.
Under the window: one chair. Four legs. Both armrests. Unoccupied.
She takes a step. Across the room, a SENIOR lowers his phone. He has seen it too.
Neither of them runs. Running would mean admitting it matters.
They walk. Fast. Pretending not to.
June slides into the chair one half-second ahead, sets both hands on the armrests, and exhales.
The senior stops short. Adjusts his collar. Sits in a chair that immediately tilts.
June closes her eyes. Bliss.
Then opens them.
Across the library, on a table she left ninety seconds ago: her backpack.
Model 04 · Step 07, the dialogue pass
Same beat, three versions
Version A, the silent original. It works. It just ends quietly.
Version B, dialogue that narrates. This is the trap, and it is the most common failure in the pile.
Version C, dialogue that does work the action could not.
House rules for using these
- Steal the shape. Object planted early. Power in the quiet character. Beats you can film in one room.
- Do not steal the story. A chair, a badge and a library are now off limits, because I have read them.
- Match the density, not the length. Three lines of action, maximum. White space is not wasted page, it is pacing.
- If a line explains a feeling, cut it and find the physical thing that shows it instead. That single habit is most of the grade.
Fade out.