My writing partner and I have been working on a script over the past few months that has made us think a lot about scene headings. We know the basics: scene headings include camera position (INT./EXT.), location (BAR/HOUSE/etc.), and time of day (DAY/NIGHT), but we were encountering issues with this script in particular because it includes two characters with flashbacks in different points in their lives and different settings within the same location. The scene headings were starting to get confusing, so we needed secondary headings and special headings to help readers keep all these locations straight.
Secondary headings help break down locations within the master heading. For example, if your character is in their bedroom of a house in which multiple scenes take place in other rooms, you may want to use a secondary setting for their bedroom. For simplicity sake, include the master location first, then get more specific.
INT. HOUSE - JUDY'S BEDROOM - DAY
House is the master location, and Judy's bedroom is a secondary location within the house. In our case we had the homes of two characters in the same period in history, so we had:
INT. JUDY'S CHILDHOOD HOME - JUDY'S BEDROOM - DAY
INT. TREVOR'S CHILDHOOD HOME - TREVOR'S BEDROOM - DAY
We often saw other rooms in these houses: kitchens, guest rooms, living rooms, etc., so the secondary headings made all the difference when we wanted to see how many times we were in a certain location. If we had merely titled the scene HOUSE for each of them, it would be more work to figure out later in which home we would be shooting.
Then when we jump to Judy and Trevor in their present lives we may again see:
INT. HOUSE - JUDY'S BEDROOM - DAY
OR
INT. JUDY'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - DAY
(Since we will also see Trevor's house and many other houses in the present time, this second option is what we went with)
Notice that we don't give and scene description in the scene heading. If the house is dilapidated or modern we only add that description in the action below the heading. All of this makes it very quick and easy for the reader to know where they are in the story and move on to the meaty stuff.
Now here's where things get tricky: Montages and Flashbacks. Stay posted for how to format these little suckers and feel free to ask about anything you've been struggling with. Some writers have their own story formatting style in addition to story writing style. I'll sift through some of those differences as well, and try to figure out which are most effective.
Happy writing!
Holly Holstein is a Los Angeles based writer with over ten years creating content. She writes independent reviews and articles and is not compensated for her posts. If you enjoy her articles, please sign up to become a member!
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