use of CONTINUOUS, LATER, MOMENTS LATER ?

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
How / when do you all use slugline time indicators DAY, NIGHT, CONTINUOUS, LATER, MOMENTS LATER ? I can't even seem to find a reliable guide on the net, seems to be disagreement. Seems like their use should be a no brainer, but then again you know what happens when one assumes.

For example, I have read that each slugline should only have DAY or NIGHT (following the int/ext and location of course). I have read that one should only use DAY/NIGHT when a new location is encountered in the script. Blah blah blah. So, curious what you all do for these time indicators (D,N,C,L,ML)?
 
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I use day and night regardless of the situation because I also have to shoot the films I write and it's nice when scheduling to look at a scene and know what time of day it is without have to read the previous scene.

For spec scripts, that might be different, but if you're going to produce it yourself, just stick with day/night
 
But what to do when the movie is fictive in such a way that there is NO indication of such? I mean, say I write a script on a space station -- would you still use day/night? It seems to be an obvious "no" since it makes little sense to have such terms in a script where there is no clear difference between day and night.
I guess in that case you only use LATER, MOMENTS LATER, CONTINOUS etc and never a clear cut day / night...
 
I am getting some insight as I read the chapter on shots/sluglines in my book on proper formatting of scripts. (The Hollywood Standard by Christopher Riley; and as I read his intro section about why he is qualified I am sold-- he is qualified, very qualified). Even Riley points how how writers misuse and overuse CONTINUOUS and even DAY and NIGHT. So it is not my imagination that it seems a bit confusing as I read screenplays what is correct and incorrect. Bewildering at times. Riley is making some sense out of it.
 
It's all about clarity. I say use the least you can, but make it clear. So CONT. is often necessary, but sometimes just slugging LIVING ROOM, then BEDROOM, etc. as players move from place to place in a location can be clear enough.

An insufficiency of these is worse than too many in my opinion, but overdoing it can be really annoying to readers/actors. I once co/re-wrote a script where the original writer insisted on all kinds of formatting excesses, like all-capping every name every time, all-capping way too many things in general, numbering scenes from the very first draft (so we ended up with lots of scene numbers like 26g-2b on the shooting script), massively over-detailed descriptions of action scenes (like "FRANK SPINS his LEFT LEG under, then KICKS DAVE. We hear SINEW as DAVE WINCES from the PAIN, then GRABS the CUFF of FRANK'S SHIRT, POPPING the BUTTON off as he FALLS SLOWLY to his RIGHT KNEE...") etc., etc., etc. for half a page, when a sentence or two would suffice. Oy vey...

Basically, make it clear, but...

KISS...
 
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Darky Mikado said:
But what to do when the movie is fictive in such a way that there is NO indication of such? I mean, say I write a script on a space station -- would you still use day/night? It seems to be an obvious "no" since it makes little sense to have such terms in a script where there is no clear difference between day and night.
I guess in that case you only use LATER, MOMENTS LATER, CONTINOUS etc and never a clear cut day / night...
Click to expand...

Actually, if your scene(s) are inside a working space station, you will probably make lighting choices that will reflect either DAY or NIGHT. So their use would be appropriate in that case. Whereas, if your scene(s) are "outside"--i.e. in space, a spacewalk (in a spacesuit), in small ship (e.g. Colonial Viper)--then yes, you should probably leave off the time indicator.

(As an aside, another similar situation is deep underwater. e.g. The Hunt for Red October, The Abyss, etc.)

As for CONTINUOUS, I wrote about this before, but in a nutshell, this slug should be used when the camera (note: not the characters) needs to move from one location to another in one continuous shot in order to make a story point. (i.e. in order to show the relative locations/proximity of the two places.)

Similarly, but conversely, (MOMENTS) LATER should be used when story requires a jump forward in time without a (intervening) change in location. e.g. the old joke (Gilligan) where a character says, "I would never do ____." and MOMENTS LATER a shot of the character doing exactly what they said they wouldn't. (Note that the joke wouldn't work as well if there was another scene in the middle.) (Also note that this is technically a "tell"--i.e. you are telling the reader something directly--so you need to be sure to also make it clear to the audience somehow that this is happening "moments later".)

HTH -M
 
Ted, haha, I really am bothered by reading constant caps usage. I already know screenplays are pretty ugly and they are architectural plans, basically, rather than finished works, but at the same time as a traditional writer I have certain style preferences I just won't bend on and that is one of them. Character names get caps, sounds do not. As one screenwriting book said, that's the sound department's problem, not yours, let them read the script and figure it out.

It's going far enough in my opinion to capitalize character names in a spec script because it doesn't really help the reader at all, it helps the 1st A.D. and the casting director and some other people when the thing turns into a production script. But it certainly doesn't make it an easier, nicer read when it's not yet a shooting script.

The sound one just baffles me, or the use of capital letters for virtually any action or object or anything. I see no good reason for that and would never write a screenplay in that fashion no matter what book says what. It looks terrible.
 
El Director said:
I use day and night regardless of the situation because I also have to shoot the films I write and it's nice when scheduling to look at a scene and know what time of day it is without have to read the previous scene. For spec scripts, that might be different, but if you're going to produce it yourself, just stick with day/night
Click to expand...

I should have clarified I was asking about specs.
 
On sound I've done it both ways and usually don't cap sound these days. I was working with (he'd read a screenplay I wrote and brought me out to LA) a fairly well known actor (who also produces) in the mid-nineties and many of the action scripts he was showing me had an abundance of capped sound (it may have just been the genre and the fashion at the time). The use of it was explained that many times a large description of action will just be glanced over and if the reader spends three or four seconds they might get a glimpse of whats gong on. Obviously not ideal and a little insulting but unfortunately many scripts are read this way on the first pass. On a spec action or comedy script I might be more inclined to cap some sound.
 
I don't use CONT. if the action is all in one long flow it is "understood" by the reader that the action is continuous despite any location change. I have a script
where two kids are in their bedrooms, across the street, and I jump from one bedroom to the other but I don't put CONT. because you KNOW the action is all one flow.

Moments later, Minutes Later all depends on your story. Now LATER is like waaaaaay later so if time is specific then DO use Moments Later/Minutes Later.

There are actually only two times of day you need to concern yourself with:

DAY/NIGHT

Morning, Evening, Dusk, Dawn and all those other options still fall under those two options, keep it simple.
 
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