A blog on Scene Headings? Really?
Yes.
Because we get submissions like these:
Fix: Must be period rather than colon. The action description is in lowercase and would suffice as “OCEAN.” Needs the addition of NIGHT or DAY.
Fix: NIGHT must be at the end and “ISLAND” is enough without the “ON THE.”
Fix: Scene Headings are not the place for setting the weather.
And then there’s this scenario:
Fix: What we actually have is four locations with separate action:
Horse ranch - Bob drives away from it.
Outskirts of town - Bob dumps the barrow.
Road to Townsville - Bob drives (most likely: INT. CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT)
Service station - Bob parks and sleeps in his pick-up.
It might seem like a pain, but you must write this out as four short scenes, assuming they are that pertinent to the plot in moving the story forward.
So what are Scene Headings?
Scene headings are the location markers that tell us where we are:
Inside or outside (INT. or EXT.)
The LOCATION (Physical space)
Rough time - DAY or NIGHT
Interior effectively means if the camera looks up, there is a roof and it cannot see the sky. So sitting in a convertible car, where the rooftop is folded back down, then this would be an EXT location. If the car has a roof, assuming the camera is inside the car, then this becomes an INT location.
Similarly, a sports stadium would be EXT unless there is a roof over the top.
The location is best kept brief and refer to an environment which a camera can setup in. This includes the world of 3D special environment effects, where a camera placement in the 3D software is still valid and important.
The location part of the scene heading must not include description. If it’s a child’s bedroom, then don’t write “BEN’S MESSY BEDROOM.” The fact that the room is messy should be declared as part of the following action description.
If it is important to the screenplay to help navigate between the city locations where your story spreads, then you can add multiple references to your location like so:
It wouldn’t be wrong the other way around, but I feel it makes better sense to begin big and narrow down to where the scene is, as above, rather than the example below:
There is temptation to declare SUNRISE or SUNSET. These are best done in the ensuing action description. Keep it simple. When you veer from convention, you create unpredictability. This disrupts the flow of the read, and won’t be tolerated unless your story is amazing.
The only other accepted options are LATER or CONTINUOUS.
Whilst period separators are accepted convention (you will not be penalized for it), I personally don’t feel they are as clear as using hyphens, because the periods are already used to abbreviate the Interior/Exterior:
Furthermore, the following would be confusing:
A common misconception is that Slug Lines are the same as Scene Headings.
A slug line is an instance within action description in UPPERCASE to single out information for emphasis.
Slug lines are not scene headings. They are two different screenplay format elements altogether. Unfortunately people’s confusion is merging into common acceptance these days that they are one and the same, and so there is a lot of misleading information on the internet.
That covers the basics of Scene Headings.