Why is it important?
Presenting work that has a professional appearance is crucial. In the rabidly competitive world of film-making, a poorly or sloppily presented script can be rejected out of hand simply on appearance. Readers may assume, with some justification, that if you cant be bothered to master screenwriting conventions, you're not worth the investment of time required to give your script properconsideration.

And investment is the key word here. Film making is an expensive business and money people tend to be deeply conservative. If you put on a tie to ask your bank manager for a loan, think how much more of a commitment is needed to finance even the most modest project. Unless you have a proven track record, you ignore convention at your peril.

Most scriptwriting conventions, it's true, hark back to the days when writers bashed out their work on battered Remingtons and certain rules may strike you as outdated. Why for example is it considered necessary to use a monospaced type face like Courier or Prestige Elite when most of us now work on computers?

The answer lies in the fact that these conventions have evolved with the history of the film industry into a shared and established "language" and systems of measurement. A script in production draws on the considerable experience of professionals who are part of that history. You need to communicate with them in terms they understand.

TYPOGRAPHIC CONVENTIONS

The best way to learn these is to get a copy of a professional film script. Reading a few will quickly show you that the rules aren't completely rigid; writers will bend them when they need to. Nevertheless there is an accepted "industry standard" which the novice would be wise to master.

Here is a condensed description of correct Screenplay Format adapted from Michael Hauge's book "Writing Screenplays That Sell" (Elm Tree Books):

Outer Margins should be indented 1 inch from the Right, and 1 & half inches from the Left Edge of the Paper.
Text begins 1" from Top of Page, ends 1" from Bottom.
Page Number is placed a half inch from the Top, 1" from Right.
Scene Heading : ALL CAPS; starts at Left Margin. Double Spacing between Scene Heading and Action/Description.
Action/Description format goes to the Outer Margins. Single or Double spaced between paragraphs; Double spacing between Action/Description and a Character Name.
Dialogue : indented 3" from Left, 2" from Right. Double spacing between Dialogue and the next Character Name.
Character Names : ALL CAPS; indented 4" from Left. Single space between a Character's Name and following Dialogue.
Bracketed Acting Directions are centred under the Character's Name. Single spaced before and after.

If you find this dauntingly complex, you needn't become depressed or anxious about it. The good news is that, if you own or work on a computer, you can largely automate most of this formatting. You may not even need to think about it at all!

On the next page, I describe some of the methods for achieving this.