slugline question: DAY or NIGHT?

[Randall_Oelerich]

EXT. SUBWAY SYSTEM - ???
INT. SUBWAY TRAIN CAR - ???

Occurs to me that there is not day or night in the subway, in the subway train car; not until if and when a subway train car were to come above ground into the open environment. So what does one put for DAY or NIGHT, or can that just be left out of the slugline?

 

[Duke M.]

Since subways occasionally go above ground I think you need a little more.

I think if added "underground' you wouldn't need to say day or night.

Same with space ships.

 

[Charli]

Regardless of the interior, is your action happening at midnight or midday? Like being in a house with no windows, there is still a time of day involved.

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

Yes but a house is lit (looks) differently depending on time of day because of windows and ambient light streaming in or not.

Regardless of the interior, is your action happening at midnight or midday? Like being in a house with no windows, there is still a time of day involved.

 

[Ted Spencer]

Regardless of the interior, is your action happening at midnight or midday? Like being in a house with no windows, there is still a time of day involved.

Right!

Also, "SUBWAY TUNNEL" might be a better phrase if that's what you mean. But day or night would still apply because who knows - there could be some of that stuff we've all heard about being 'at the end of the tunnel'...

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

Makes sense. So time (DAY/NIGHT) is not always needed for a slugline?

Since subways occasionally go above ground I think you need a little more. I think if added "underground' you wouldn't need to say day or night. Same with space ships.

 

[Ted Spencer]

I think Charli's right on this. Even more so if the previous or next scene might be "CONT." from/to another scene at whatever time of day/night you're in...

On a spaceship in outer space, I suppose there is no day and night, technically speaking, so you might not need it there. You might want to indicate date and time though, either in the scene header or a super, eg: "DAY 26 - 1900 HOURS" or whatever...

Otherwise, back on Earth, I'd say just go ahead and put DAY or NIGHT in. It's gotta be one or the other in the storyline, right?

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

Okeedokee then. Thank you all! Writing my first subway underground scene, was uncertain what is kosher. ~r

 

[Nathan.Buxton]

Leaving out a DAY or NIGHT or anything is fine... as long as it makes sense.

And on a spaceship (or in a subway) day or night can be useful to distinguish between the activities of "DAY" (waking hours) or "NIGHT" (when everyone is sleeping)

 

[Blaine]

It's just a little ink. The more important thing in this case is for the the continuity. Let us know when it's happening. Sure, we don't need to light it differently BUT for the sense of where we are in the story, let us know when it's happening.

 

[Lt_Col_Wade]

Nathan makes a good point - while it might not require lighting a scene differently, slugging a subway scene as day automatically brings to mind workers, shoppers etc. while night brings to mind a much less crowded possibly more dangerous scene. This is important for designers, extras etc., but also remember that it accomplishes this without using a single word of description in action - getting much more mileage out of much less page space.