Screenwriting glossary (lemmas, not a collection page)

Logline

Logline (IT/EN: logline) is the one- or two-sentence summary that names a protagonist, a goal and the obstacle or stakes, without telling the ending. It is not a tagline and not a soggetto. In CineQuill it is a bible field, to be stress-tested against the draft. Long guide: /guides/what-is-a-logline.

Tagline

Tagline (IT/EN: tagline) is the marketing hook — poster, trailer, one-sheet — in a few words. It does not contract the dramatic premise and does not replace a logline in a room. If your «logline» sounds like a slogan, you are writing a tagline.

Soggetto

Soggetto (EN: often left as soggetto, sometimes «story») is the short narrative of the story in Italian development, often 1–5 pages, with a before and an after. It is not a long logline and not a commission synopsis. It lets readers see the arc before the script. Long guide: /guides/soggetto-treatment-outline.

Sinossi / synopsis

Sinossi (EN: synopsis) is the summary for readers, commissioners or a dossier. It usually includes the outcome. It serves people who must decide or catalogue, not a two-sentence premise pitch. Do not mix it with logline or soggetto: three jobs, three lengths.

Trattamento

Trattamento (EN: treatment) is present-tense prose of the film: you see, you hear, value changes, without a formatted script. Douglas, Age, Field and Seger disagree on length — Wikipedia records it; there is no true page count. Long guide: /guides/soggetto-treatment-outline.

Scaletta

Scaletta (EN: scene outline) is the scene-by-scene map, usually numbered and lean: who enters, what they want, what changes. It is not a beat sheet and not yet a script. It comes after the soggetto or treatment, before the formatted page. Long guide: /guides/soggetto-treatment-outline.

Scalettone

Scalettone (EN: detailed or step outline) is the denser scaletta: more action, sometimes lines, still not a script. It is for rooms that want meat before formatting. It is not the treatment (prose of the film) and not Snyder's beat sheet.

Beat

Beat (IT/EN: beat) is the smallest unit of change: a push, a reveal, a value flip inside a scene or between scenes. It is not automatically a Save the Cat «beat». In CineQuill beats carry a function (catalyst, midpoint) without forcing a brand.

Beat sheet

Beat sheet (IT/EN: beat sheet) is a pacing grid — Save the Cat's 15 beats are the most cited example — not the Italian scaletta. It lists functions (Catalyst, Midpoint, All Is Lost), not necessarily every scene. Use it as diagnosis, not as a statute. Mapping: /compare/syd-field-vs-save-the-cat.

Slugline

Slugline (IT: also scene heading or intestazione di scena; EN: slugline) is the INT./EXT./EST. + place + time line that opens a scene: INT. CUCINA - NOTTE. Without a slugline the script cannot be broken down and production does not know where you are. Long guide: /guides/screenplay-format.

Series bible

Series bible (IT: bibbia seriale; EN: series bible or show bible) is the document that fixes a show's DNA: concept, tone, characters, rules, engine across seasons. It is not RAI's 2013 The Bible and not only the in-app bible tool. Long guide: /guides/how-to-write-a-series-bible.

Fountain

Fountain (IT/EN: Fountain) is plain-text markup for screenplays, specified at the public spec fountain.io by John August and Stu Maschwitz. It is not production software: no locked pages, MOREs, colored revisions. A .fountain file stays readable and belongs in git. Comparison: /compare/fountain-vs-fdx.

FDX

FDX (IT/EN: FDX) is Final Draft's XML, built for production delivery: scene numbers, locked pages, colored revisions. It is not Fountain and it is not a PDF. CineQuill exports it from the draft; it does not use it as a shooting environment. Comparison: /compare/fountain-vs-fdx.

Parenthetical

Parenthetical (IT: parentetica; EN: parenthetical) is the line between character and speech, in parentheses, saying how a line is said or to whom. Use it sparingly: if it explains the emotion the dialogue should play, it is a stage direction in disguise. In Fountain it sits between cue and speech.

V.O. and O.S.

V.O. (voice over; IT: voce fuori campo narrata) and O.S. (off screen; IT: fuori campo) say where the voice sits relative to the frame. V.O. is often comment or thought; O.S. is someone in the scene but not in shot. They are not synonyms. Format: /guides/screenplay-format.

Plot point

Plot point (IT: also svolta or plot point; EN: plot point) in Field's paradigm is the turn that closes an act: ~p.30 and ~p.90 on a feature. It is not All Is Lost. Mapping with Save the Cat: /compare/syd-field-vs-save-the-cat. Method: /methods/field-paradigm.

Midpoint

Midpoint (IT/EN: midpoint) is the mid-film value change, ~p.60 in Field and the namesake Save the Cat beat: false victory or false defeat, stakes that double. It is the cleanest mapping between the two systems and the easiest beat to diagnose. Pages: /methods/field-paradigm and /methods/save-the-cat.

Dramaturg

Dramaturg (IT: dramaturg or drammaturgo di sala; EN: dramaturg) tests the logic of a story: want, pressure, theme visible in action. Under the WGA 2026 MBA, generative AI is not a writer and does not produce literary material. Long guide: /ai-dramaturg-for-screenwriters.

How CineQuill uses it

These entries do not live on a /glossary CollectionPage: they live in this guide and, where a lemma has its own page, on that page. CineQuill uses the same names in bible fields, beats and the Fountain editor, so logline, slugline and FDX do not mean three different things in one project.

The Copilot can point back at these definitions when a scene contradicts an entry: a logline that tells the ending, a missing slugline, a beat with no function. It does not replace the room.