Like any narrative text, screenplays may be viewed in terms of story time and discourse time. Conventions of Cinematic Time in Screenwriting. The test for any of these tactics comes down to answering the question: Does the reader know where they are in that moment?īe a good GPS for your reader: Keep it clear, concise, and consistent.3.4.2.
News package slugline full#
This style works in part because of the quick beats of the scenes, the connection between all of these smaller locations to the main location of the full slugline, and the narrative momentum of Judy Hopps and her desire to show the drill instructor that she’s got the right stuff.
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Here, one scene heading acts like a title for a sequence, allowing a series of shot headings beneath it to act as nested bullet points for a montage-style series of moments.ĮXT. One Location For One SequenceĪnother example of breaking up space on the page to work with the flow of the sequence comes from Jared Bush and Phil Johnston’s script for Zootopia. They also pull us further and further into the heart of the building, and the start of the mystery. The scene headings, coupled with the use of description, weave us through the house, setting up the locations we’ll become more familiar with. Mr Thrombey you up there? Mr Thrombey I’m coming in.Ī cramped attic study, every shelf crammed with curios. Fran heads out onto the landing and UP an EVEN NARROWER half flight of stairs, which leads to a single door. THROMBEY ESTATE - 3RD FLOOR MASTER BEDROOM - DAWNīut the bed is empty, unslept in. Up a much narrower creaky flight of steep stairs.Īs the story focuses in on the particular movements of the housekeeper, Fran, the sluglines narrow their focus to specific rooms that the story will return to: The house has not woken up, and Fran steps lightly. Second floor: a hallway, doors all closed. Stray champagne flutes.įollow one housekeeper named FRAN carrying a tray of coffee up a flight of stairs. Gothic with a theme of antique games, arcane puzzles and decorative weapons.įirst floor: A drawing room, living room, kitchen. MANOR - PANTRY / LIVING ROOM / FOYER / HALLWAY - DAWN Next comes a series of scene headings that break up multiple sub-locations within the home, suggesting quick cuts and roving movement. In Rian Johnson’s script for Knives Out, he opens the script with some quick scenes moving through the main location of the film: Harlan Thrombey’s Manor House.įirst, an exterior shot establishing the overall location, giving it a sense of scale and tone.
This streamlines your writing process and to makes work easier for anyone breaking down the locations within your script.īut you can take this subdivision of the slugline further when you need to suggest ways of exploring these spaces. The extra dash sets aside a separate space within the larger building, allowing you to quickly return to a portion of a familiar location later on. Some example scene headings from the script include: In Paul Schrader’s First Reformed, a few larger buildings are key, becoming repeatedly used locations. Taking this a step farther, let’s look at subdividing locations. You’re using the slugline to move us to a new location and keep the reader from getting bogged down. Writing that initial description in tandem with the scene heading can allow you to trim it down to its most concise form. It’s those two sentences beneath that give you the feel of the location. The location name (Nate’s Restaurant) is simple, but specific: It’s a proper name that also tells you the type of place. The kind of place that refills your Sprite. There’s a pull to create detailed, specific scene headings that stretch both ends of the margins, squeezing all the possible juice out of that space.īut look at this one-two punch from Aline Brosh McKenna’s script for The Devil Wears Prada:
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