Unconventional Script Formatting with Film Examples – When It Can Be Powerful

MZed Education

by Mascha DeikovaJuly 24^th, 2025

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We all know that film scripts have a very standardized format, and for a good reason. Yet stumbling upon works of writers who bend the rules to visually communicate tone, rhythm, and emotion on the page is fascinating. Fun! That’s what I felt when I first encountered the mind-blowing writing of “The Substance.” How can the form of a screenplay express its content and style? When is unconventional script formatting particularly powerful? This is an interesting topic to discuss.

It’s also a controversial one. A few threads that I found on “Reddit” (like this one, for example) show that there are at least two sides in this battle. The first one is strongly against unconventional script formatting. They believe that it could annoy the reader, and no one would volunteer to make such a film (unless you are famous – but even then, you can’t take all the liberty in the world). Also, in their opinion, it is better to stick to the words and leave the visuals to the director. On the other hand, some see screenwriting as an art form on its own, so why don’t we make scripts fun to read?

Personally, I’m somewhere in between. I think we should mostly stick to convention, yet there should also be a place for creative exploration. If it serves the story, go for it! For the sake of inspiration, let’s look at several powerful examples below.

Regular script formatting – why?

Before we discuss unconventional script formatting, let’s first review the industry standard. In the MZed course “Writing 101,” writer and director Seth Worley gives us a complete rundown of all the formatting “rules” one needs to know to ensure your script aligns with professional norms.

Formatting may seem trivial, but even if you’ve written a modern-day “Casablanca,” if it’s formatted wrong, no one will read it, and the project will never get made. And chances are, if it were made, it would be about five hours long.

A quote from the MZed course

As Seth explains, one of the important reasons the official format exists in the first place is that it ensures uniformity. By simply flicking through pages, every producer will be able to quickly determine important aspects. For example, the length of the film is easily checked thanks to a consistent page-to-screen ratio. (Standardized formatting ensures that one page equals roughly one minute of screen time.) Additionally, a conventional screenplay is transparent in its details, including the required locations, characters, the number of scenes (divided into interior and exterior shoots), and so on.

Standard script format – hard facts

So, how to format your script to industry standard? Here are some hard facts and tips by Seth Worley:

• Use the standard font: 12-point Courier (which originates from the typeface of actual typewriters). In his lesson, Seth also mentions an updated and more polished version, released by John August, the writer of “Big Fish” and other great movies, some years ago, for free – Courier Prime. Both font variants are acceptable.
• Set the correct margins. 1,5 inches on the left, 1-inch margins on the right, top, and bottom.
• Page numbers appear in the top-right corner, starting on page 2.
• The title page should have the title centered, in quotes, and all caps on line 25. After it, leave four blank lines, then put “By” or “Written by,” another blank line, and then finally, the writer’s name. You can also add your brief contact info and the draft date on the left margin below.
• Many scripts begin with a transition, like “FADE IN” or “BLACK SCREEN,” which are then followed by the first scene.
• Scene headings should be written in all caps and start with either INT (for interior) or EXT (for exterior). Then, name an exact location, put a dash, and specify the time of day. After that, hit enter, and type a scene action in the normal font.
• For dialogue, we start a new line, type the character’s name (also in uppercase), position it 3.7 inches from the left margin, and hit Enter. Sometimes, a writer will include a remark, like V.O. (for voice over) or O.S. (for off-screen), directly after the name. Seth Worley put these abbreviations in the parentheticals on the following line instead. He also recommends refraining from using adjectives in parentheses too often, as it’s not the writer’s job to tell actors how to deliver a line.
• Dialogue is placed 2.5 inches from the left margin, beneath the character name, without any additional punctuation.

If you use a special software like Slugline or Final Draft, you don’t have to worry too much about the correct formatting and margins. These programs are designed to take over for you and will automatically recognize whenever you add a new scene, action, dialogue part, and position all the elements accordingly.

There are other basic tips on how to write screenplays (such as keep your descriptions brief or try to avoid transitions), but that’s a topic for another article. Or go ahead and watch the “Writing 101” course in full on MZed.

The bold and wild formatting in “The Substance’s” script

Now, forget everything you know and everything we discussed before. Open your mind and try reading the script of “The Substance” (at least, scroll through some parts). How does it feel?

Vivid. Crazy. Dynamic. Fun. Punchy. Loud. In your face.

It’s hard to argue that this script has a very distinct style and voice. As does the Oscar-nominated body horror film itself, written and directed by Coralie Fargeat. She uses formatting and typography as an extension of the story’s anger and violence. It doesn’t seem like a mere description of scenes. No, we actually feel them, as if we were there, sucked into this twisted world. Capital letters, bold words, huge titles with a black background – they literally shout at us. Jagged line breaks and rhythmic sentences mirror the story’s dynamic, tension, and the protagonist’s experiences. Coralie even visually highlights how the spaces, distance, and choreography work. For example, in the scene where Elisabeth accidentally listens to her boss humiliating her, while being stuck in the men’s bathroom, we literally “see” and “hear” how he goes away – thanks to the font, which gets smaller and smaller:

Here is what the final scene looks like (from 01:25):

What does this bold choice for script formatting tell us? This is not a nice, polite, and politically correct story that Coralie Fargeat is telling us. You cannot read (or watch) “The Substance” comfortably – it is designed to get under your skin from the very first lines. Take it or leave it. Neutrality and standards wouldn’t work here as strongly.

Show, don’t tell

Of course, the example of “The Substance” is not the only exception to conventions. In fact, many writers incorporate specific tricks into a standardized script layout. For instance, playing with font sizes to emphasize tension, sounds, the pacing of a scene, or sometimes, camera movement. Take a look, for instance, at how “Nightcrawler,” written and directed by Dan Gilroy, uses it in the subsequent sequence. (The full script is available here.)

Lou Bloom, portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal, is an unhinged stringer in Los Angeles who chases grisly and morbid crime scenes to sell footage to TV news. Note how much this one font decision above informs us not only about the described camera movement, but also about the protagonist’s intense, driven, and aggressive personality. As you probably noticed, the entire screenplay uses bold font, which might be a stylistic decision – yet I assume, it also ought to make us feel uneasy and unsettled, just like the main character does.

First-person perspective in the script

Another unusual screenwriting choice stands out in the example of “Oppenheimer.” Christopher Nolan wrote it in the first person, which is something vanishingly rare. (You can read the full script here.)

The celebrated biographical drama follows the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called “father of the atomic bomb,” and mixes the themes of his genius, his guilt, and the political fallout of his work.

We previously wrote about “Oppenheimer’s” close-ups and how they teleport us directly into the scientist’s head. It turns out that Christopher Nolan wanted the audience to live inside Oppenheimer’s perspective, not just watch him, but feel him already during the reading stage. That subjective, experiential language mirrors the film’s subjective structure, and does so with much power. Yes, it is highly unusual. Does it help our perception of the story, though? For sure.  

I clean up as Blackett and the other students leave- one leaves an APPLE for Blackett- GREEN WITH STEM AND TINY LEAF. I pause at a bottle: “Potassium Cyanide”… CLUMSY HANDS SHAKING, I draw CYANIDE into a syringe. I INJECT the apple…

A quote from the script of “Oppenheimer” by Christopher Nolan

Not only formatting, but also the script language matters

On a side note, there are other examples of how breaking screenwriting rules can ultimately benefit the film. We mentioned above that traditionally, scene descriptions should be short and as simple as possible. Well, that’s definitely not the route that “The Lighthouse” by Robert Eggers took. Here are some lines from it:

OLD finishes relieving himself. He shakes his member. He buttons up, and kicks the pot under his bed. The piss nearly sloshes out. Mercifully, it doesn’t.

And how about this action description:

YOUNG is hiding, skulking below the eaves of the roof, wary of the man above. He puts out his cigarette.

The Eggers brothers wrote the entire screenplay in a kind of archaic, 19^th-century English. Not just the dialogue, but also very detailed and atmospheric scene descriptions, which remind one more of a novella than a typical Hollywood spec. Why? The film tells the story of two lighthouse keepers who descend into madness, isolated on a storm-battered rock. It’s surreal, twisted, grim, gothic, and rather more oppressive than releasing. The script here is a blueprint for tone. Just by reading the lines, we are transferred to that island in the 1890s. It allows for an immersive experience, stays authentic to the period, and also hints at stage-play influence, which is later clearly visible in the choreography and blocking.

Imagine this film, but written in a standard modern screenwriting style! Doesn’t click somehow, does it?

Conclusion

Yes, standard script formatting is essential. We shouldn’t throw it away just for the sake of exploring new and bright creative decisions. After all, this is a document that the whole production team will base their work on, so everything should be clear, understandable, and easy to operate with. However, sometimes, it’s beneficial for the story to include some unconventional choices and approach the writing more loosely. The most important question that the writer should ask themselves is why. Do I do it just for fun, or does it actually bring something important to the table?

What about you? Do you always write and layout your scripts in the standard way, or do you also use some fun techniques? What other unconventional script formatting examples would you add to our list? Please, share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Full disclosure: MZed is owned by CineD.

Feature image: film stills from “The Substance” by Coralie Fargeat, 2024, combined with an excerpt from her script.