Ask Dr. Format: MORNING HAS BROKEN
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.
MORNING HAS BROKEN
QUESTION
I am taking a screenwriting course at my local junior college. I have the opening scene heading stating time of day as MORNING. My teacher scratched this out and replaced it with DAY, citing that the time of morning is assumed. She said that attaching so many different times of day to your scene headings will drive a producer crazy. What is the correct way? If my scene starts in the morning, should I put MORNING?
ANSWER
Your teacher makes a good point. As a general rule, use DAY or NIGHT at the end of your master scene headings. For one thing, DAY and NIGHT are easier to shoot than MORNING and TWILIGHT. However, there are story situations when you need to emphasize the time of day (or night) and, in those cases, you should emphasize the time of day. So use your discretion.
LOST IN SPACE
QUESTION
What should a writer indicate for the time of day in the slug line [scene heading] when the time of day is not relevant? For example, if a scene takes place in space, such as on a spaceship, then the normal concepts of night and day do not apply. Similarly, a scene might take place in a subterranean cavern so deep that the time of day isn't relevant, since no sunlight can reach it.
ANSWER
There are two schools of thought on this. One is that the time of day is, as you say, irrelevant. Thus, a scene heading might be written as follows:
EXT. SPACE
And certainly, that is all you need for that scene heading.
Another school of thought holds that since people behave as if it is night or day (sleeping or working, for example), those terms should be used in INTERIOR scenes, such as inside the spaceship or cave. However, usually that "assumed" time of day would already be obvious to the reader, so I lean towards the first school of thought.
As a separate issue, I don't see a problem writing DAY or NIGHT, where doing so would clarify the situation.
MAY I INTRODUCE...?
QUESTION
I am unclear about how to introduce a character's name. I have read several books that state a character's name should not be revealed to the reader until that character speaks. Yet there are several other books that state you can introduce a character's name with the character's description. Should main character names be introduced when they appear and minor character names introduced when they speak, or should the format remain consistent in some way?
ANSWER
One of the hallmarks of effective spec writing is the ability to be clear and not confuse the reader. The last thing you want is for an executive or agent to stop reading your script because they are confused. Thus, I usually favor simplicity and consistency over complexity and inconsistency. As a reader, I want to know the character's name at the moment that character first appears. Naturally, there will be exceptions, but there should be a good dramatic or comedic reason for those exceptions.
Good luck and keep writing!