#SCREENPLAY FORMAT SLUGLINE FULL#
Location and time follow:Īlways use FULL sluglines and always use day or night unless a special time of day is dramatically essential, i.e. If you write all your scenes with sluglines beginning with INT. One is SUPER, a slugline put before language superimposed on the screen, such as a place or date: SUPER: “Three years later”Īnother is INTERCUT, used for a phone conversation after the location of each party is established with prior sluglines. THE SLUGLINE:Īlmost all sluglines begin with INT. Today’s spec script is written in “master scenes” using four elements. This process continued to evolve until all references to the camera were removed from the spec script. ANGLE ON became a popular slugline and sometimes the name of the character would become a slugline, suggesting the same thing. Later, in the eighties, new fashionable terms came into place that suggested how a scene would be shot. Instead of technical terms like “DOLLY SHOT,” writers would describe the same thing in more general language: “the CAMERA MOVES along with them as they walk down the street.” After specific camera directions dropped out of the accepted format, general directions replaced them. Therefore, the evolution of format has been in the direction of removing directorial power from the screenwriter. The scripted scenes were subsequently written and read in a master scene format with very few if any, camera or editing cues. However, directors went ahead and did what they wanted to do, regardless of “in script” direction, so format change was inevitable in order to make the screenplay a more clean and efficient “blueprint for a movie.”ĭirectors, not writers, were going to direct the film and the format was destined to change to reflect this reality. In those days, the screenwriter contributed to directing the film by including in the script precise directions for how the camera would shoot the scene. Terms like “TWO SHOT” and “DOLLY SHOT” were everywhere. I remember looking into screenwriting some thirty years ago and quickly abandoning it because the screenplay format was filled with technical jargon that I was too lazy to learn. Someone should write a book on the evolution of screenplay format. Then why the confusion? For three major reasons: first, screenplay format has evolved in major ways over the years second, established writers tend to use whatever older format with which they learned the craft and finally, published screenplays are shooting scripts, not spec scripts, which contain significant format differences. Contributed By Charles Deemer The Origins of Confusion This is unfortunate because, in fact, the preferred format for the contemporary spec screenplay is straightforward and easy to understand. From the Internet to the public library, conflicting information is everywhere. If you are a student of screenwriting and not confused by screenplay format, then you haven’t been paying attention.
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