bell notificationshomepageloginNewPostedit profile

Topic : Re: How Do I Write a News Broadcast Montage in Different Locations in a Screenplay? I want to write a sequence in my screenplay where the same news broadcast continues on different screens in different - selfpublishingguru.com

10% popularity

If it's a spec script and breaking it down into multiple scenes would be unnecessarily burdensome on the reader, you may simply write:

INT/EXT. - MONTAGE

TVs around the world, in bars, homes, and storefronts relay the same news story.

REPORTER

You join me live at Houston Mission
Control where we await contact from
the brave astronauts...

Then relate the story as if it were happening on a single screen.

In a later production draft it might get broken into individual scenes for the sake of scheduling, or it may not. This could be filmed outside the main production schedule, in which case it might have its own documentation and not rely on the script for a clear breakdown.

Expanding a bit now I'm on a proper keyboard:

If you want to add a little more colour into each of your locations, or you want to use any of the cast characters it's safest to break up into different scenes.

INT. BOSTON BAR -- DAY

In a Boston bar, six alcoholics stare at the TV through glassy eyes.

REPORTER

You join me live at Houston Mission
Control...

EXT. HARRODS LONDON -- NIGHT

An old couple hold each other tight watching the same report on a TV in the window.

REPORTER (cont'd)

...where we await contact from the
brave astronauts...

Some scripts will use CONTINUOUS as the tag on the second scene. eg.

EXT. HARRODS LONDON -- CONTINUOUS

But in this example, doing that hides the fact the second scene is at night, which is likely to be far more useful for a reader to know. The fact the scene is continuous should be obvious already.

Note you may need to add the "cont'd" manually to the dialogue since your screenwriting software will not do this automatically across scenes.


Load Full (0)

Login to follow topic

More posts by @Lee1909368

0 Comments

Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best

Back to top