Comments on: Avoid CUT TO’s in a busy sequence

By: John

John — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 17:36:35 +0000

Actually, see the post on intercutting.

By: Gary

Gary — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 12:30:46 +0000

brock, how about combining the scene headings?

INT. MARIAâ€™S KITCHEN/SEANâ€™S KITCHEN

Maria paces the room, phone glued to her ear.

MARIA I canâ€™t believe youâ€™d do that!

SEAN Do what?

MARIA That!

By: jay

jay — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 01:02:49 +0000

sort of related to the above question:

suppose i wanted to intercut two scenes, how would i go about doing that exactly?

By: brock

brock — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 16:27:13 +0000

Maybe I'm foolish for asking this, but I have but for location changes I have been using scene headings, so that in a phone conversation I will have:

** INT. MARIA'S KITCHEN

Maria paces the room, phone glued to her ear.

MARIA I can't believe you'd do that!

INT. SEAN'S KITCHEN

SEAN Do what?

INT. MARIA'S KITCHEN

MARIA That!

** Is it correct to assume that by using slug lines, I could avoid the scene headings? If I were to do it that way, would I use a slug line that is essentially identical to my scene headings but without the "INT." or "EXT."?

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 18:00:35 +0000

Thank you so much.

By: John

John — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 17:17:11 +0000

Doug:

Yes, often those sluglines will get individual scene numbers when the script is broken down.

By: doug

doug — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 18:59:21 +0000

My question in particular, do the abbreviated sluglines in a sequence, like those in the page examples above get a scene numbers in the shooting script? In other words are they formated as action or scene heading?

Similarly (yet differently) , say we see earth from space and "push in" until we are on someone in their living room. There are particular things we want to reveal in the push, so do we slug "FROM OUTER SPACE, THROUGH THE CLOUDS, ON NEIGHBORHOOD, THROUGH A WINDOW," or just format it as action since it is considered one camera move (though mostly cgi.)

Boy, can I make my questions any longer?

By: John

John — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 18:21:30 +0000

Many screenwriters have stopped using them altogether. However, I am still a major proponent of CUT TO:’s. I don’t use them after every scene. Rather, I use them when I need to indicate a major change of place or time, or to help sell a joke. In my opinion, they can really help the read.

By: doug

doug — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 05:13:06 +0000

I believe they are. The only thing I’ve seen once in a while, understandibly, are the occasional match and smash cuts…and those are very occasional.

By: Alex Epstein

Alex Epstein — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 00:43:56 +0000

Does anyone still use CUT TO’s at all? I had the impression they were old hat now.

By: doug

doug — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 07:00:10 +0000

When breaking the action down this way, would you format “IN THE STANDS”, etc. as an actual slugline? In other words, when it goes to production, does that cut-to get a scene number to designate a new camera setup?