Final draft templates how to#
Final draft templates software#
Final draft templates tv#

Although designated as the standard drama template, this template can also be used for single-camera sitcoms such Brooklyn Nine-Nine:

Final draft templates tv#

In Final Draft, go to File > New from Template > TV Templates and choose One-Hour TV Drama. Single-camera TV sitcoms generally break away from multi-cam formatting to where they more or less look like a basic feature screenplay script. The default in Final Draft is 11 spaces but The Big Bang Theory appears to be roughly half of that amount. Again, this can be edited by going to Format > Elements > New Act > Paragraph and changing the “Space Before” to the desired setting. However, in some sitcom scripts, such as The Big Bang Theory, they are formatted a few spaces below the Header. These are uniformly formatted in the same manner: centered and underlined in all caps. Other Elements to be keenly aware of in TV sitcom writing are the Cold Opening, New Act and End of Act Elements. Using the Big Bang example, if your label needs to read CO/A on one page and CO/B on the next place your cursor in the last line of the page before the page that needs to be edited and type in the correct information in the Insert > Label field.

To fill out the information that needs to be displayed in the Header label, go to Insert > Label. Once in the Header menu (Document > Header and Footer) place your cursor where each data marker needs to be, e.g., the label should be formatted to the right of the second line and click on the corresponding data marker from the menu at the top to insert it into the Header field. Note that this script has two cold openings thus, the need for a “CO/A” and “CO/B” label. The second line of the Header contains the following information: the episode title, the date and lastly, a label containing what will either be the act and scene number, or in this example, the cold opening and its accompanying scene letter. The Header has the following information displayed on the first line: the episode name, the draft of the script and the page number.

The default setting in Final Draft is for the Header and Footer to not display on the first page (although this setting can be changed by going to Document > Header & Footer > Options > Show Header on first page). Many TV sitcom scripts also have additional information in the Header and sometimes the Footer of the document. The formatting of each individual Element can be edited by going to Format > Elements (or Element Settings on Windows), choosing the Element that needs to be edited and making said edits either in the Font or Paragraph tab (Element styles are done in the Font tab and spacing is done in Paragraph). In Final Draft, you can toggle through and change Elements in the Elements bar found at the top of the document in Final Drat 11, or at the bottom of the document in Final Draft 10. In this example taken from Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady’s pilot script for The Big Bang Theory pilot, character names are also underlined when first introduced and a cast list is included directly underneath the Scene Heading.

Type out a Scene Heading, Action and a few lines of Dialogue and you’ll notice that Scene Headings are underlined, Action is all caps and dialogue is double-spaced this template follows the industry standard for multi-camera sitcoms such as The Big Bang Theory:

Final draft templates software#

Launch Final Draft screenwriting software and go to File > New from Template > TV Templates choose the Half-Hour Sitcom TV template.

Final draft templates how to#

Using examples provided by the industry-standard screenwriting software Final Draft, here’s how to format a TV sitcom script. In the fast-paced world of TV where new drafts of scripts need to be sent out to an entire production team on a dime, and changes need to be tracked and drafts need to be read and budgeted and scheduled, it’s absolutely crucial that formatting remains intact so that everyone is literally on the same page. Standardized formatting has evolved in Hollywood, and if you’re not using up-to-date industry-standard formatting in your script, it could be perceived as amateur and unprofessional.