Extended Step Outline

Extended Step Outline

What is a ‘Step Outline’? A Step outline is a detailed telling of a story intended to be turned in to a screenplay for a motion picture. The step outline is used to detail every scene and ‘beat’ of a screenplay’s story, and often has indications of dialogue and character interactions. It is similar to a script treatment but much more detailed.

Your extended step outline can be broken down in to acts and should follow a standard three-act structure (beginning/middle/end) and be either a complete scene, or an extract from a complete film. It must also be highlighted that your step outline should not contain any dialogue. The reason for this is to give you space to describe the setting and what is going on without worrying about what is being said or how it is being delivered. You must visualise the setting and the micro-elements without reliance on dialogue carrying the scene and means you will be focused on mise-en-scene, sound and how it may be shot and edited.

The extended step outline you are required to complete must be between five and eight scenes in length and be a total of 1000 words. As a guideline, the average length of a scene should be between 175 and 200 words in length. (The word count for this step outline will be based on the words of the scene description alone)

Extended Step Outline Template and Complete Template examples