There is one element that I have to include, as it is integral to the script. It is a recurring image of a curved line that reveals itself as a circle to the background of a high speed train.
How can I format this properly as there is no scene heading for it?
— John C.
via IMDb
Beginning screenwriters often get too nervous about formatting, scared that one missing scene header will make their scripts un-filmable. Or worse, un-commercial.
Get over it. If you need to write your curved train tracks, just write ’em. Images like this don’t need their own scene headers; just treat them as stand-alone sluglines, or little mini-scenes.
A CURVED LINE
slowly moves across the screen. We’re looking at something from a very high angle, but it’s not clear what.
TRANSITION TO:
EXT. SOMEWHERE ELSE
And a scene happens.
Later in the script, when you need to finally reveal what this image actually is, you might try something like this:
THE SAME CURVED LINE
stretches across the screen. Now, a high-speed train enters from the bottom of the frame, running along the arc — actually the tracks of the French TGV.
We RUSH IN closer, feeling the energy of the train as it races through mustard-yellow fields. We drop alongside the fourth car, looking in through the window to find Charlotte asleep, her head tilted against the glass.