Jerry, I hope I made the point emphatically enough in the original post: There are not rules.

Jerry, I hope I made the point emphatically enough in the original post: There are not rules. If you read enough contemporary movie scripts, you begin to see patterns, so that probably represents a safe reference point for your own writing.

To your English teacher’s point, I’ve read scripts where the use of ellipses and double dashes, especially in dialogue, distracted from the read. It’s like the writer wrote out the dialogue exactly as they heard the character say it including all the pauses, stops and starts, stutters, etc. It can not only be distracting, it can also put off an actor. Let *them* inhabit the character and be allowed the freedom to interpret the dialogue their way.

But in general, do whatever you see fit to convey the movie you have in your mind’s eye… yet always be mindful you want to make the script as readable as possible.