Scott, thanks for this. I hadn't been able to find any source for this formatting question. I guess my follow up question is: if you don't like the use of CUT TO:, wouldn't it be better to use slug lines and just imply the cut, like this: INT VERIKA'S PARLOR - NIGHT VERIKA reads the cards for BARB. VERIKA AND ANITA ANITA watches intently as Verika turns over the Queen of Wands VERIKA AND SHELLY etc...

That can work. Again for me it's all about readability. If it's clean and gets the point across, and minimizes 'scripty' lingo, you're probably in good shape.

Make sure to stay away from Goldman scripts! : )

Boy, that is the truth! Goldman, for all his success, uses CUT TO [left justifed] to signify every single camera shot, so his scripts are FILLED with them. Of course, he's been doing this approach since the late 60s and is arguably the dean of contemporary American screenwriting, so he can do whatever he damn well wants. But that doesn't mean we can!

I was doing this and adding the match cut to:, and I confused myself by doing that.

Honestly, it's all about the reader. Adding the "CUT TO:" sometimes is the path of least resistance. I 100% agree with Scott -- it does feel very "scripty." However, that comes with good, as well as bad -- it's easier to skim over and let be and still know what it means. My real dislike of it is the extra lines of text it eats up in a script. GRR! Taking up valuable real estate! There is one place that the "CUT TO:" is hard to avoid. When you have a scene that is setup like a job interview, where the INTERVIEWER is talking to multiple candidates in the same location (Presumably, the Interviewer's Office). Speed Dating scenes come to mind. If you find yourself having a difficult time describing the layout and over-explaining the transition when a simple "CUT TO:" would work, use the "CUT TO:" There's no hard and fast rules. Just keep the read as light and swift as possible.

James, you hit a raw nerve for me. Transitions, parentheticals... such a waste of space. One or two lines of line space. I'm always fighting for lines, so that more than any other thing is why I seldom use either.

Easy to say, James. But sooner or later, especially in competition or on other "communal" sites, you end up having to deal with the format nazis, and let's just say life's too effing short for that. Better to get it right the first time.