GlossaryPage elements
Fade In
Also: FADE IN · FADE OUT
"FADE IN:" is the transition that traditionally opens a screenplay, set flush left at the very top of page one. Its mirror, "FADE OUT.", closes the script. The pair brackets the screenplay the way a curtain frames a stage — the image rising from and settling back into black.
"FADE IN:" is the first thing on the first page of a conventionally formatted screenplay. It is flush left, in caps, followed by a colon, and signals the picture emerging from black.
"FADE OUT." ends the script, flush right or flush left by house style, followed by a period. Some writers drop the opening "FADE IN:" as a stylistic choice; the closing "FADE OUT." is more often kept.