TEASER FADE IN: INT. NEWSROOM - NIGHT The teaser comes before the opening titles. It runs a page or three and hooks the audience with the question the episode will answer. NORA QUINN (40s), the night editor, reads a proof with a red pen behind her ear. Characters are introduced in capitals the first time, as in a film script. SAM (O.S.) Nora. You need to see this. SAM OKAFOR (25) drops his phone on her desk. On the screen, a photograph we don't get to see yet. NORA Who else has it? SAM Nobody. Yet. END OF TEASER ACT ONE FADE IN: INT. FELIX HART'S OFFICE - NIGHT Each act starts on a new page, with its name centred at the top and FADE IN: under it. FELIX HART (60s), the owner, hasn't taken his coat off. He never does. FELIX (not looking up) If it isn't on page one by midnight, it isn't news. An act ends on a turn: something that keeps the audience watching through the break. NORA Then hold page one. FADE OUT. END OF ACT ONE ACT TWO FADE IN: EXT. CITY STREET - NIGHT Network dramas usually run four or five acts after the teaser, each about ten to twelve pages. Many streaming dramas drop act breaks altogether and read like a film. Sam waits in a bus shelter, his phone held up for a signal. FADE OUT. END OF ACT TWO ACT THREE FADE IN: INT. NEWSROOM - LATER Keep going the same way: an act, a turn, a new page. FADE OUT. END OF ACT THREE ACT FOUR FADE IN: INT. PRINT ROOM - DAWN The last act closes the episode and, in a series, leaves something open for the next one. Nora watches the first copies come off the press. One headline is not the one Felix approved. FADE OUT. END OF EPISODE SERIES TITLE "Episode Title" Written by Your Name Your Name your@email.com Your phone number