Writing for TV vs. Movies: What’s the Difference?

Movies and episodic television series are both cinematic mediums that tell stories primarily through visuals, enhanced by audio elements such as dialogue, sound effects, and soundtracks.

Screenplays (or teleplays, as they are known in television) for both TV shows and movies structure scenes using interior or exterior locations, day or night designations, scene descriptions that outline what should appear on screen, dialogue, transitions when necessary, and other formatting components.

However, beyond these basic screenwriting elements, TV scripts and movie scripts differ significantly, just as the careers of feature film screenwriters and television writers do.

With that in mind, here are the key differences between writing for television and writing for movies.

For films, on average, you’re generally tasked with telling a cinematic story within the confines of ninety minutes to two hours, give or take. The general story structure within such limited running times is a three-act structure - Act One (beginning, Act Two (middle), and Act Three (end). Yes, there are many different types of story structures you can utilize within the overarching three-act structure (see movies like Pulp Fiction and Memento for examples), but a film script always has immediate closure by the end, unless you’re writing for a major studio intellectual property that allows you to leave story and character arcs unresolved for future installments (sequels, spin-offs). 

Even with those sometimes open-ended arcs, the core story of each film has closure. 

• We see characters in their ordinary world.
• They are faced with a conflict. 
• They struggle through that conflict as additional conflicts present themselves. 
• The protagonists eventually either succumb to the conflict (tragedies) or work their way through it. 

A movie tells the whole story in one effort (again, beyond sequels).    

With television, you’re building a world and creating a cast of characters intended to inhabit that world for multiple episodes and multiple seasons. The main story and character arcs need to be stretched to ten to twenty-something episodes (give or take) to fill a season, and then those story and character arcs need to evolve and elevate for additional seasons. Thus, the main arcs will not be resolved by the end of each episode. Instead, the stories and characterizations have a much wider arc that extends through multiple episodes and multiple seasons.  

There are more options in television as well, as far as what type of television format you want to tell your story within. 

• Hour-long dramas
• Hour-long serials
• Hour-long procedurals
• Half-hour sitcoms
• Half-hour dramas
• Limited series
• Miniseries

Each episode will generally center on a smaller story within the larger arcs that does get resolved by the end of the episode, but the characters, plots and stories, and their arcs continue on to the next episode, and through each season of the show. 

It’s fairly simple - non-franchise films are stand-alone cinematic stories with complete closure by the end, while television shows are an ever-evolving and continual medium for their stories and characters. 

Thankfully, if you’re looking to bounce back and forth between writing television show scripts and movie scripts, the format itself isn’t that different. In fact, it’s pretty much the same. 

Both use format elements like:

• Scene Headings
• Scene Description
• Character Names
• Dialogue
• Parentheticals
• Transitions
• Slug Lines 

So, there’s no worry on that front, beyond some very subtle nuances. Example: In TV scripts, the Scene Headings are usually underlined. 

The true difference between TV scripts and movie scripts, when it comes to format, is structural formatting, and how that structure looks aesthetically on the page. 

The structural formatting of television scripts can be different, depending on the type of show and the platform it’s on.  

• TV Network Shows need to be structured to account for commercial breaks. 
• Cable TV Shows can either have to account for commercial breaks, or if they’re on a premium cable station like HBO or Showtime, commercials aren’t an issue. 
• Streaming Channel Shows usually don’t have to worry about commercials, and they also don’t have to account for a specific thirty minute or hour-long timeslot (which can also be the case for premium cable shows who now have their own streaming platforms). Thus, episodes can fall under any amount of run time. 

When you are dealing with commercial breaks, there’s a general structural format to follow so the story momentum falls in line with the breaks for commercials. Hour-long shows are really closer to fifty minutes after commercials. You’ll be breaking your story down into four to five acts within your TV script, including an opening teaser.  

• Teaser - The teaser is usually 2-5 pages long. If it’s a pilot episode, the teaser will introduce the characters and the world. If it’s beyond the pilot, the teaser will introduce that episode’s main characters and the current conflict they’ll be facing. 
• Act One - Act One will start on a new page. The conflict, characters, and situation that the episode will be tackling has already been teased, but now the story is moving forward in full swing. The end of the first act will offer the audience a cliffhanger leading into the commercial break.
• Act Two - Act Two will start on a new page. The characters are dealing with the core conflict, and figuring their way through it, only to be faced with evolving and additional conflicts in a second cliffhanger leading into the next commercial break.
• Act Three - Act Three will start on a new page. This is where the characters are usually at their lowest point. They thought they had it figured out, but then new or evolved conflict came at them in the second act. Now they’re struggling with little-to-no hope in sight, leading to another cliffhanger that will leave audiences wanting to see how they will overcome these dire odds.  
• Act Four and (Possible) Act Five - Act Four will start on a new page. This is where the characters begin to prevail. They’ve figured out how to deal with everything and their plans are in action. Some TV episode scripts end on Act Four. Others utilize a fifth act to fully close things up.

Everything you learned above can be applied to half-hour sitcom scripts, with one caveat - you’re now working under more of a time constraint, which means the structure will be shaved down to a teaser/cold open and two acts, instead of a teaser and four-to-five acts. 

• Teaser/Cold Open - A teaser in the sitcom writing realm is usually referred to as the cold open. It’s often the first laugh of the episode. Some shows use them to introduce the major conflict, theme, or setting of the episode (The Beginning) while others just use them to make us laugh and prepare for the laughs ahead. 
• Act One - As always, Act One starts on a new page. If the cold open hasn’t established the beginning of the story, the first act will. But it also works as the true second act of the episode’s story. 
• Act Two - Starting on its own page, the second act resolves the episode’s story. 
• Tag - Sitcoms sometimes utilize quick tag scenes that offer a final laugh. They are short (a page or less) and lead into the final credits.  

When there are no constraints when it comes to needing to adhere to commercial breaks, TV scripts can be written just like feature movie scripts. This doesn’t mean that the episodes don’t follow the story structure and pacing of network scripts, but they often don’t require the structural formatting embedded within the aesthetics of the actual script. 

If you read pilot scripts from the likes of Game of Thrones or The Sopranos, you’ll notice that they’re written without any act breaks. They resemble feature scripts more so in that way because they were written for HBO, which has no commercial breaks during their content. 

For a more detailed breakdown of these types of television scripts, read Final Draft’s A Simple Guide to Formatting Television Scripts.

The career paths of TV writers and screenwriters writing feature-length movies can be very different. But keep in mind that they also can coincide for successful screenwriters down the road. Many television writers have made the leap from TV to movies, while many feature-length screenwriters have shifted to television and streaming platforms. 

It’s fairly simple to break down. You develop original concepts for movies, write them as what the industry calls spec scripts (scripts written under speculation that they will be sold and produced by Hollywood), and then you market those spec scripts to representation, producers, production companies, and development executives. Your spec scripts will then either be considered for potential acquisition or (more likely) they will be used as writing samples for potential paid writing assignments (the true bread and butter of any working screenwriter).

Writing for television is a vastly different experience than writing features. First and foremost, you’re going to need to live wherever the writers rooms are. But before that, you’re going to need to earn your way into the writers room. You can accomplish that by selling a TV pilot you’ve written or by using it as a writing sample to get hired onto a show. 

Feature screenwriters live off of spec sales and assignments. TV writers make a living working more of a dependable 9-5 (more like 9-8 and beyond, depending on the writers room and show) job. You’re in the office every day of the week (and sometimes on the weekend) collaborating with other writers, producers, and executives. And this will go on for a season-long run (8-9 months or more out of the year) or (if you’re lucky) a series-long run for multiple years as you work your way up the writers room hierarchy. 

But you don’t need to. It’s up to you. If you want to focus solely on movies, go for it. If your dream is working on TV shows, great. If you want to dabble in both, outstanding. But it’s important to know the guidelines and expectations for both. 

All of the formatting differences we’ve discussed are fully applied when using the industry-standard screenwriting software of Final Draft. And if you’re intimidated by the structural formatting aesthetics of TV scripts, fear not - Final Draft takes care of it all with a couple clicks as you write. 

All you need to do is stipulate what type of screenplay you want to write, and the software will automatically format it for you.