How to format a phone call in a screenplay

The same call, three ways

In the first lesson’s scene, Dead Air, the caller is only a voice on the phone. That was a choice, not a rule. How you write a call decides what the audience knows, and so how the scene plays.

To see the difference, take one call from a new short film, The Call. Ruth hosts a radio show in the middle of the night. A listener phones in, and he knows a little too much about her booth. Here it is written three ways:

1. One side only: we hear Ruth, not him.
2. The caller in V.O.: we hear both of them, and see only Ruth.
3. Intercut: we see both of them.

1. One side only

We stay with Ruth, and we only hear her side. Write her lines like any other dialogue, with an action line between them to show she’s listening. We learn what the caller said only from how she answers.

Resist putting a (beat) before every line. The actor will find the pauses, and the page stays quick to read.

In Scenarist, when Ruth speaks again her name comes up in the suggestions, so you tap it instead of typing it.

Version 1 · One side only

2. The caller in V.O.

We stay with Ruth, but now we hear the caller too. He isn’t in the booth, so his name gets the extension (V.O.), for voice-over: his voice reaches the scene through the phone.

Not (O.S.). Off screen means the speaker is at the location, in the room with Ruth, just out of the shot. A man on the other end of a phone line isn’t.

And skip (ON PHONE) after his name. A reader can’t tell whether we’re meant to see him on the phone or only hear him through it, which is exactly the question the format should answer.

Version 2 · The caller in V.O.

3. Intercut

We see both of them. Write each location’s scene heading once: Ruth in the booth, then the caller in the apartment across the street. The call happens at the same moment in both places, so the second heading ends in SAME instead of a time of day.

Then one line, INTERCUT - PHONE CONVERSATION, and from there write the dialogue as if they shared a room. No V.O.: we can see both speakers. The editor cuts between the two places however the scene needs.

Version 3 · Intercut

Action still works inside an intercut, and one line can cover both places, like the one where Ruth looks down at her mug while he watches from across the street.

Intercut in Scenarist

In Scenarist the intercut line is a scene heading. Tap the SCENE chip above the keyboard and type it; lowercase is fine, because Return sets it in capitals. Then tap the CHAR chip, pick a name from the suggestions, and you’re back in the dialogue.

When the call is over, just start the next scene. END INTERCUT is optional: a new scene heading, or an action line like “She hangs up”, ends it.

Which one to use

Put the three side by side and they are three different scenes. One keeps us guessing. One lets us listen in. And one shows us the man at the window, while Ruth has no idea we’ve seen him.

So before you write a call, ask one question: what should the audience know?

Next: text messages

The next lesson is how to write a text message in a screenplay: the same question about what the audience knows, on a different screen. New lessons go up first on YouTube.

4:05 Lesson 1 · Start here How to write a screenplay on iPhone A formatted page from a blank script, step by step. It’s where Ruth first takes this call.

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