How to Write a Screenplay Scene Heading: The Basic Formula
A scene heading, also called a slugline, has three components. INT. or EXT., the location, and the time of day. Every heading follows this structure:
INT. LOCATION – DAY or EXT. LOCATION – NIGHT
In practice: INT. COFFEE SHOP – DAY. Or EXT. HIGHWAY 1 – DUSK. The heading is always in ALL CAPS, flush left at the standard 1.5-inch margin, and formatted in Courier 12-point. That format hasn’t changed in decades, and for good reason. Production software like Final Draft, Fade In, and Movie Magic Screenwriter use it to break scripts into scene reports, pull location lists, and generate stripboards. Every word in that heading is data.
So don’t treat it like a throwaway line. Directors of photography use your sluglines to flag day-for-night work. First ADs use them to group scenes for scheduling. Script supervisors track continuity from them. One carelessly written heading creates confusion across four departments.
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INT. vs. EXT.: When the Answer Isn’t Obvious
Interior and exterior seem self-explanatory until they’re not. A car is INT. A parking lot is EXT. But what about a convertible with the top down? Still INT. What about a porch? That’s EXT. The rule is about the production reality, specifically where the camera will physically be shooting. A scene under a tent at an outdoor wedding is EXT. A scene in a greenhouse with glass walls is INT.
The trickier situation is a scene that moves between both. Say your character walks from a kitchen out into the backyard mid-scene. You have two options. You can write two separate sluglines, breaking it into two scenes. Or you can use INT./EXT. to signal a continuous move. Use INT./EXT. sparingly and only when the camera genuinely crosses the threshold as part of the same shot. If the scene just happens near a window, pick one.
Some writers also use I/E for a scene shot inside a vehicle where you can see both the car interior and the world outside, like a conversation filmed partly through the windshield. Final Draft supports this. So does Fade In. But be consistent. If you use INT./EXT. in scene 12, don’t switch to I/E in scene 47.
Location Names: Be Specific Without Overwriting
This is where most beginners go wrong. Too vague and the heading is useless. Too detailed and you’re writing prose, not a slugline.
Bad: INT. BUILDING – DAY
Better: INT. PARKING GARAGE – LEVEL 3 – DAY
Too much: INT. THE OLD ABANDONED PARKING GARAGE ON THE EDGE OF TOWN WHERE NOBODY GOES – DAY
The location name should identify the space clearly and help production track it. If your story returns to the same apartment multiple times, use a consistent name every time: INT. SARA’S APARTMENT – NIGHT, not INT. APARTMENT in one scene and INT. SARA’S PLACE in another. Inconsistency forces the script supervisor and AD to manually reconcile whether those are the same location. They shouldn’t have to do that.
Sub-locations work when you need them. INT. SARA’S APARTMENT – BATHROOM – MORNING is perfectly valid. Just don’t nest more than two levels deep, or you start eating into the readability of the page.
Time of Day: More Options Than You Think
Most writers know DAY and NIGHT. But production uses several others, and they mean specific things.
- DAWN – just before sunrise, magic hour quality, logistically complex to shoot
- DUSK – just after sunset, same logistics problem, different light
- MORNING – signals early day, distinct from midday DAY
- CONTINUOUS – the scene follows directly from the previous one without any time jump
- LATER – time has passed within the same general location
- MOMENTS LATER – a very short gap, same scene geography
CONTINUOUS is the one writers abuse the most. Use it only when the action is literally unbroken. A character walks out of a kitchen and into a hallway, and you’re cutting to the hallway mid-movement. That’s CONTINUOUS. If any time passes, even five minutes, use LATER or just DAY again.
And don’t invent time-of-day markers to set mood. INT. MARCUS’S BEDROOM – A GREY TUESDAY MORNING is not a slugline. That information belongs in the scene description.
Common Mistakes That Flag Amateur Work
Readers at production companies and agencies see hundreds of scripts. Format issues register fast, even subconsciously. Here’s what to avoid.
Using a period after the location or time. Write INT. DINER – NIGHT, not INT. DINER. NIGHT. Only INT. and EXT. get periods because they’re abbreviations.
Lowercase or mixed case. The whole heading is in caps. Always. No exceptions unless you’re doing something stylistically deliberate in a spec script you can defend in a room.
Camera directions inside the heading. INT. CLOSE ON SARAH’S FACE – DAY is not how this works. Camera directions go in action lines if they’re needed at all. Most working writers and the Writers Guild of America would tell you to use them sparingly in a spec anyway.
Missing the separator. The standard separator between location and time is a hyphen with spaces on both sides. Some writers use a long dash, which is technically acceptable in older formats but can cause parsing issues in Final Draft and other software if you’re not careful. Stick with the spaced hyphen: INT. WAREHOUSE – NIGHT.
Scene numbers in spec scripts. Don’t add them. Scene numbers are added during production rewrites. Putting them in a spec signals you don’t know the difference between a shooting script and a spec script, and that’s not a signal you want to send.
If you’re learning the craft and building toward professional work, reading produced scripts through the WGA’s resources or sites like Simply Scripts will show you exactly how working writers format their headings in context. Pattern recognition helps more than rules alone.
Formatting is one part of the package. If you’re ready to put your work in front of real productions, the film industry employment starter pack covers what you actually need beyond the script itself. And if you’re a crew member or director who’s tired of getting badly formatted scripts dropped in your lap, the resources in our filmmaking articles section cover production workflow from multiple angles.
Getting this right matters more than it seems. A script that formats cleanly signals that you understand production, not just storytelling. That matters to everyone reading it, from the script coordinator pulling coverage to the line producer doing a first budget pass. Learn how to write a screenplay scene heading correctly once, and you’ll never think about it again.
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Key Takeaways
Scene headings are functional data, not decorative text, and getting the format right signals production literacy before anyone reads a word of your dialogue.
- Every slugline follows the same structure: INT. or EXT., location name, separator, time of day, all in caps, Courier 12-point.
- Use consistent location names throughout the script so production software and ADs can track scenes without guesswork.
- CONTINUOUS means zero time has passed. LATER, MORNING, DUSK, and DAWN all have specific production implications, so use them accurately.
- Don’t put camera directions, mood language, or scene numbers inside your slugline. Each of those flags a spec that hasn’t been through a professional draft.
- Spec scripts and shooting scripts are formatted differently. Knowing that difference, and writing your spec accordingly, matters to readers.
Clean sluglines won’t get your script bought, but sloppy ones can get it dismissed. Format is the floor, not the ceiling.
FAQs
Do I need a new scene heading every time the camera angle changes?
No. Scene headings mark new locations or significant time jumps, not shot changes. If you’re cutting from a wide to a close-up in the same room, that’s handled in action description, not with a new slugline. Adding a heading for every camera move is a shooting script technique, not a spec script technique.
What’s the difference between a master scene heading and a secondary slugline?
A master slugline establishes the full location: INT. POLICE STATION – NIGHT. A secondary slugline, sometimes written without INT./EXT., narrows the focus within that space, like AT THE FRONT DESK or BREAK ROOM. Secondary sluglines are useful for long scenes that move through a space. Use them when the geography genuinely matters and the reader needs orienting.
Can I write a scene heading for a phone call where both characters are shown?
Yes. If you’re cutting between two physical locations during a phone call, each location gets its own slugline as you cut to it. If you’re showing both people simultaneously in a split-screen style, you can use INTERCUT WITH after establishing both locations, which tells production you’re staying in that back-and-forth pattern without restating both headings every beat.
Does screenwriting software automatically format scene headings for me?
Yes and no. Final Draft, Fade In, and Celtx all recognize when you’re writing a slugline and apply the correct formatting automatically. But they won’t catch a typo in your location name or warn you that you’ve used three different names for the same apartment. The software handles the visual format. The consistency and accuracy are still your job.
Is it okay to write SERIES OF SHOTS or MONTAGE as a scene heading?
It’s an accepted convention, yes. SERIES OF SHOTS and MONTAGE function as their own heading types and don’t follow the INT./EXT. format. They signal a compressed sequence rather than a single scene. Just make sure you clearly end the sequence, usually with END MONTAGE or END SERIES OF SHOTS, so production knows where regular scene structure resumes.
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Ready To Format Your Script With Confidence And Get It In Front Of The Right People?
Scene heading format is one of those things that takes about twenty minutes to learn properly and then just becomes muscle memory. Get the structure right, stay consistent with your location names, use time-of-day markers accurately, and keep everything out of the heading that doesn’t belong there. A clean script tells the reader you know how production works, and that trust carries through every page that follows.
