The first words of any screenplay make up what's known as a scene heading. Also referred to as shot headings and slug lines or sluglines, they are composed of very few elements (namely, location and time of day). While this might seem simple, it's here so many screenwriters make mistakes. And simple mistakes can be the reason someone stops reading your screenplay—no matter how great the story is.
To help writers avoid these mistakes, I wanted to go over the most common errors I see in scene headings when working with new writers by looking at the most common mistakes I see in formatting, order of information, and content.
Mistake Number One: Incorrect Formatting
Formatting problems can plague new writers and are often the reason their scripts don't get read. Remember that some readers are just looking for a reason to say no to your script because they have dozens more to read, so don't give them an excuse to do that by making sure you avoid these common formatting errors:
Scene headings always need to be in ALL CAPS. If you're using screenwriting software, the program should take care of this for you, but always double check to make sure it's correct.
Interior and Exterior are always abbreviated as INT. and EXT. And don't forget the period after either!
The period is followed by one space and no other punctuation (no comma, colon, or hyphen)
The location is followed by one space and one hyphen
A space should come both before and after the hyphen
The time of day comes after the hyphen. No other punctuation is necessary
It's optional to bold your scene headings. Some writers like to do this because it helps the new scenes stand out. Just be sure to be consistent in whichever format you choose
Mistake Number Two: Incorrect Order
Even though most scene headings are comprised of the three basic elements listed above, they can include more information, if needed. If needed really being the operative word, but it it's necessary to include more information, it should be ordered like this:
Interior or Exterior
Location
Type of shot
Subject of shot
Time of day
As long as you get the information in that order, you should be good to go. Remember to separate everything with hyphens – with one space before and after each – and order location details from general to specific, not the other way around.
Mistake Number Three: Incorrect Content
Now that we know what extra content can be included, let's talk about if it should be included, and the answer more often than not is no, it shouldn't be. Scene headings should be simple and straightforward. Descriptive adjectives don't need to go here, and you don't need to duplicate the information in the action lines. Also, remember that your audience never sees the scene headings, so if there's important information there that they need (like the location or year), you'll need to superimpose that information in a title card (also called a chyron) so the audience gets it.
Example:
Look over the following example from Kenneth Lonergan's award winning script Manchester by the Sea to get a sense of how scene headings should look. His formatting is perfect, and the information is ordered correctly, and there are no unnecessary, distracting details. The scene headings are simple, neat, and clean, giving us just enough information to understand where we are and what we're seeing.
You should also look up the screenplays for your favorite movies and start reading them to get a sense of how the story looks on the page.
Remember that screenwriting isn't like writing a novel, there's no need for beautiful or flowery prose. It's a technical document created to help a lot of people make a movie, so the language should always be as clear and simple as possible.
Other Resources:
Christopher Riley's book The Hollywood Standard
Dr. Format's A Crash Course in Scene Headings
John Zaozirny's Most Common Tweet Threads on Time of Day in Slug lines (scroll down to page 53)
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