I ran into an issue where I wanted a V.O. of the protagonist making a call where no one picks up, super'd over characterless room transitions, to sort of establish an atmosphere of disarray, desperation and confusion.

I can not figure out how to write this in an industry standard sort of way. It isn't quite a dialogue, it is just the phone ringing and heavy breathing.

My second problem is readability for this particular spec script. The first Act is very visual..  or too visual? I make sure not to direct at all and only include visual details and clues that would be relevant to the progression of the story and optimize their wording. I think this is just a symptom of such little dialogue in Act I.

The absence of dialogue gives me the impression that the first few pages of Act I would have a significantly longer shoot time than I'd like. Should I break up action paragraphs to keep the page-to-film time ratio more manageable?

Right here.

http://www.scripttoolbox.com/