Script Delivery Format Template

Script readers expect a familiar page, so the settings are close to universal. The Academy's 2026-2027 Nicholl Fellowships rules ask for a PDF of a feature script in standard industry format (12 point Courier), 80 to 125 pages long¹. The same rules say cheated margins may count against a script in judging.

Advice on scene numbers splits even within one organization. BBC Writers' screenplay format guide, last updated in 2004, leaves them off a spec film script², while its current submission style guide asks for numbered scenes and pages³. Start from the defaults below, then follow the reader in front of you.

Check the page count in the exported PDF, since the same script can paginate differently in another app. To see how headings, action and dialogue sit inside those margins, the screenplay scene writer writes a full scene in script layout.

Write both versions now, from the same details, so the blind one is never a rushed edit an hour before a deadline. For the full version, the BBC format guide puts one contact address in the bottom left corner², with a phone number and email. An agent's details go on the right, and a spec script needs no draft number or date.

A WGA registration number is optional on the full version. Add one to a blind page only if the contest allows it, as the Nicholl rules do.

• Full: the title centered, with "written by" and your name beneath it, and your contact details at the bottom
• Blind: the title, centered, and nothing else on the page

Make the PDF your default. Final Draft, which sells screenwriting software, tells writers to submit the PDF, not the original document⁴, since a PDF discourages changes and opens on almost any device. The Nicholl rules ask for a PDF as well.

Editable files, usually Final Draft's .fdx format, are for people who will work on the script rather than read it. A producer's office, for example, may import one to break the script down for a shooting schedule. Wait until someone asks.

Keep a short register with one row per recipient, because two readers who both want a PDF can still need opposite title pages.

Before the first agent sees it, script coverage shows you what a reader will say while you can still fix it. For a pilot, have a TV series pitch document ready for when a producer asks what comes next.

A clean title page is only half the job. The Nicholl rules make each entrant responsible for keeping their name, address, phone number and other identifying details off every page¹. BBC Writers warns that some screenwriting software creates a title page when it converts a script to PDF³, and that page may include your name.

Your name can also hide inside the file. Microsoft notes that Word files carry properties such as the author and the name of whoever last saved them⁵, and Word can copy them into a PDF it saves. Fade In, a screenwriting app, can pull the title page's author into headers, footers and the metadata it writes for a PDF⁶.

1. 1

   Export the blind version

   Use the title-only page, and switch off any title page your software adds on export.

2. 2

   Read every header and footer

   A name or email in a running header undoes a clean title page.

3. 3

   Open the PDF's properties

   Clear the Author field and anything else that names you, then reopen the file to confirm.

4. 4

   Rename the file

   Use the script's title, not your name.

When a script heads into production, the shooting script gets scene numbers and its pages are locked, so "page 34, scene 32" means the same thing to everyone. The BBC's scriptwriting glossary explains that later changes go out as revisions under a color system⁷. A common order is white, blue, pink, yellow, green and goldenrod, though it varies between productions and countries.

Usually only the changed pages go out, printed on the new color, with an asterisk in the margin beside each changed line. If new material overflows page 34, it continues on a new page 34A, and page 35 keeps its number. A cut scene keeps its number too: its heading stays in place, marked OMITTED.

If a reader's notes point to structure rather than format, rework the draft against a screenplay beat sheet before it goes out again. The template on this page holds the register, both title pages and the revision log. River can fill in the register and title pages from your script and recipient list, then start the log when the script locks.