Search Results for: slugline

I have recently finished writing a screenplay with a friend. It takes place in present day. Towards the end of the first act, we go to a flashback, 30 years earlier to 1978, when the main character was 8 years old. After the flashback, we come back to November of the next year.

So if the beginning of the film was in December 2008, we then cut to flashback in 1978, and come back to November of 2009. How would we label, or denote this? We were going to put TITLE OVER: November of the following year.

We felt that doing this might confuse people more, in thinking that it is just one year later than the flashback. We’re confused and want to make sure the reader isn’t confused.

It’s not clear from your example whether it’s important that the reader (and ultimately the viewer) know that it’s specifically 2008 — for instance, that it’s an election year. Most likely, it’s not important at all. The story is just set in “present day,” which happens to be 2008 or 2009. So I’d avoid any mention of the year except for the flashback, which is mostly to give a sense of relative ages and period setting.

Specifically, I’d recommend the following:

* Don’t say anything about the year until the flashback.
* Before that, if it’s important that it be December, give us a concrete visual (e.g. Christmas shopping) that lets us know the month, rather than a title over.
* For the flashback, don’t do a title over for the year. Just include [1978] in the sluglines.
* When you return to the present, mark [PRESENT DAY] in the first slugline. You don’t need to continue it after that.
* If you need to show that 11 months have passed, give us a clear story indicator. Something or someone has grown or changed in the interim. (If nothing has changed, why are you jumping forward anyway?)

A project I’m currently writing moves forward a lot in time, much in the way The Godfather or Goodfellas does. At first, my instinct was to carefully label all the time cuts, but it quickly became clear that what mattered wasn’t the months but the forward progress of the story. Readers can keep up with you if they’re engaged.

I am a fifteen year old living just outside of Washington, D.C. I hope to one day be a television producer, but also a film screenwriter. Thanks for your advice about writing the scenes I want to write (not necessarily in order) on paper before typing them on the computer. I felt stupid not thinking about that, but once I used that technique, the first draft of my screenplay came together in about three weeks!

Anyway, I’m not really trying to give a testimonial here, just asking a question and giving my thanks, so here goes: I’m writing the second draft of my screenplay, and I have a slugline situation. For the master, could I write “INT. BARNES AND NOBLE – NIGHT” instead of “INT. BOOKSTORE – NIGHT”. I thought that maybe giving a specific location, even if it wasn’t shot there, would add more of a realism, or connection, with the reader. Even if there’s simply a little bit more of a connection. Is there any con-side of doing this?

— Tim

Your instinct is right: being a little more specific helps the reader immediately understand the location, and saves you from having to throw a line of scene description explaining what kind of bookstore it is.

The only case where the comes back to bite you is when the line producer calls you, frantic: “We can’t get Barnes and Noble! It won’t fit the schedule! You have to rewrite the scene!” And so you end up spitting out colored revision pages that waste everyone’s time.

That’s why I tend to split the difference when I can. Instead of “BOOKSTORE” or “BARNES AND NOBLE,” try “CHAIN BOOKSTORE.” The reader gets what you are trying to say, and the line producer won’t hyperventilate.

For Shazam!, I just wrote a scene that takes place “INT. STARBUCK’S-LIKE COFFEE SHOP.” It should be clear to the line producer, production designer and everyone else that it doesn’t have to be Starbucks. It just needs that vibe.