Jeanne Veillette Bowerman is an Executive at Pipeline Media Group and former Editor-in-Chief of Script magazine and a former Senior Editor at Writer's Digest, where she wrote the regular screenwriting column, Take Two, for Writer's Digest print magazine. Most writers choose to always identify DAY or NIGHT, but some suggest only quantifying the time of day if it’s important to the scene. for “exterior.” Use a period after the abbreviation. Format, encourages writers to ask “Where am I?” I also think of it as “Where is the camera?”įirst, define if the scene is shot inside or outside, using INT. Place a single dash with a space before and after to separate each aspect of a slugline.ĭavid Trottier, aka Dr. Sluglines are always written in CAPS, with an empty line above and below.įormatting sluglines in bold has become popular, but that’s only a personal preference and must be consistent throughout.
Slugline cuts off last letter software#
Screenwriting software takes a lot of the heavy lifting away, but a writer must know the industry standards, regardless. Your script represents a blueprint for the director and production crew.įormatting isn’t sexy, but it’s a requirement of screenwriting. When you’re writing the first draft, don’t put limitations on yourself, but when you rewrite, examine the number of locations and slice and dice, where possible. Screenwriting software remembers each slugline and allows you to insert it wherever needed, which also allows a director to keep track of locations to create a shooting schedule. Some locations are inexpensive, but others are simply impossible, unless the production company can recreate it on a set or use a greenscreen.įilms are never shot in order of scene, but instead, shot by locations, using sluglines to guide them. Increased costs occur every time a camera and crew must move to a new location. As the number of locations increases, so does the film’s price tag. Whenever writers identify a specific time of day, the director has limitations on when he can shoot those scenes. For example, each scene being shot in the daylight or darkness, during sunrise or sunset, represents not only cost, but also time constraints during production.
Locations also aid the producer in identifying the script’s budget. Inside or outside, day or night, or what room in what building. Simply put, a slugline (or slug line) is a scene heading to help orient the reader quickly as to where that action takes place. It’s not enough to simply write “SHAMUS’ P.O.V.The greatest compliment a writer can get is when an executive calls their script “a fast read.” Making your script read quickly requires appropriate use of sluglines. This slug line must state the character by name and refer to what the character sees. When a shot originates from a particular character’s point-of-view, it’s customary to break it out with its own slug line.
In this particular instance, it would also be acceptable to break the sequence into separate scenes, using “BLEACHERS” in the scene heading. If we wish to cut to a character named Ned in the bleachers of a football game, for example, we’d insert “NED” (without the quotes) as a shot element or slug line. While scene headings usually have two blank lines above them, slug lines always have just one. Action or description cannot appear next to it on the same line, but must follow the slug line in a new paragraph. This actually reads better than writing it as a camera direction, such as “ANGLE ON PARKER.”Įach slug line is its own element.