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Film & Television vocabulary · Pre-Production and Scripts

Screenplay

Meaning in film & television, with examples

/ˈskriːnpleɪ/nounCore term

In film & television, screenplay means: The written plan of a film in a standard format, with scene headings, descriptions of action, character names and dialogue.

In Turkish: senaryo, film senaryosu

How it is used

The formal word used in credits, contracts and awards: Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay. Screenplays use a fixed layout, usually written in software such as Final Draft; as a rule of thumb one page equals about one minute of screen time.

Example sentences

  1. The screenplay is 110 pages, so the film will probably run just under two hours.

  2. Her screenplay is based on a novel by Sabahattin Ali.

Common collocations

  • original screenplay
  • adapted screenplay
  • write a screenplay
  • screenplay format
  • spec screenplay
  • scriptThe written text of a film, TV show or play, with the dialogue, the action and the scene descriptions that the cast and crew follow.
  • screenwriterA person who writes screenplays for films or scripts for TV series, either original stories or adaptations of books and other works.
  • dialogueThe words that characters speak to each other in a film, series or play.
  • sceneA part of a film or TV episode that happens in one place and at one time, usually made up of several shots.

More terms: Pre-Production and Scripts

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