Ask Dr. Format: LOCATION HIERARCHY and PAGE 1

DAVE TROTTIER has sold or optioned ten screenplays (three produced) and helped hundreds of writers break into the writing business.  He is an award-winning teacher and script consultant, author of The Screenwriter’s Bible, and friendly host of keepwriting.com.  Read more tips on the Ask Dr. Format page.

Dr. Format

LOCATION HIERARCHY

QUESTION

I hope you may be able to settle a minor disagreement between a colleague and I regarding the correct format for master scene headings (slug lines). When I write a new location without a preceding establishing shot, I usually start with the specific room or area in which the action takes place, and then move outwards. For example:

INT. LOBBY, FOUR SEASONS HOTEL, LOS ANGELES - NIGHT

In my mind, this offers the most clarity as the first image the reader will conjure up is of a lobby in a swanky hotel, which happens to be in Los Angeles. My colleague, however, believes that the information should be presented in the reverse manner, as follows:

INT. LOS ANGELES, FOUR SEASONS HOTEL, LOBBY - NIGHT

So which is correct?

ANSWER

Your colleague wins the bet. But you also win because you asked the question. You should start with the larger location (identifying the primary or master location) and work down to the smaller location (or secondary location that is part of the primary location). The scene heading would actually look more like this:

INT. LOS ANGELES - FOUR SEASON HOTEL - LOBBY – NIGHT

However, that would not look right because a shot of Los Angeles would have to be an exterior shot, not an interior shot. In this case, I suggest you establish Los Angeles first, as follows:

EXT. LOS ANGELES - NIGHT

The city is alive with pedestrians and traffic. In the distance sits the Four Seasons Hotel.

INT. FOUR SEASONS HOTEL - LOBBY - CONTINUOUS

And you probably don’t need the CONTINUOUS, since that is already obvious. The above example communicates to the reader that we open in Los Angeles and then move towards the hotel.

Another approach is to open with an exterior of the hotel, and then cut to the lobby. In that case, you could communicate that the hotel is in Los Angeles via a sign on the wall or through dialogue. Or, you could open in the interior of the hotel and still identify the city, as follows:

INT. FOUR SEASONS HOTEL – LOBBY (LOS ANGELES) – DAY

Or place the parenthetical at the end of the scene heading.

PAGE 1

QUESTION

If you use a quote to open the script on the page preceding FADE IN, is that page considered page 1, or is the next page beginning with FADE IN still considered the first page?

ANSWER

The page beginning with FADE IN is always page 1.

As a general suggestion, don't place a quote on a separate page between the title page and page 1. If that quote is important, and if you want the audience to see it on the movie screen, then it should appear on page 1. Thus, page 1 would look something like this:

BLACK SCREEN

SUPER: "Two can live as cheaply as one, but only half as long. – Dave Trottier"

FADE IN:

A piggy bank.

Page 1 should not have a page number typed on it; but page two, and all pages thereafter, will have page numbers appearing in the upper right corner.

Good luck and keep writing!