ANOTHER INTERCUT QUESTION

razormoney said:

Here's one for you guys.

I am continuing my intercut scene. It was going well until a minute ago.

Here's my dilemma. Both characters are in their kitchens when they begin their conversation. Therefore, my slug reads something like INTERCUT BLAKE KITCHEN/JOHNSON KITCHEN. However, during the conversation one character asks another character to go to another room to look out the window. Right now I just write what the character does in the action line rather than trying to confuse things with another slug. The only other thing I can think to do is write another slug line which alerts the reader that one intercut location has changed. Seems cleaner to do it the way I have it.

What do my friends on this forum think?

R

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I don't think you need to declare a new scene; we are in the midst of a scene that's specified as being intercut between two locations, hence, if you write an action line that describes one character going into another room it is strongly implied or even indicated that this action will occur while that character is on the screen, as opposed to the other character.

Whomever breaks the script down for production will, however, have to slate an additional camera setup to shoot this action in the room your character goes into, and that's an added cost a producer may not wish to step up to. If he or she doesn't, they'll ask the production manager to find a work-around.

I suppose another way to do this would be to have the character who goes into the other room report that he or she has in fact done this in the course of the conversation ("I'm in the bedroom now and I see what you mean, there is a red car parked across the street"). IOW, make the dialogue carry the weight of the narrative, and let the director decide whether he or she is going to shoot this and put it up on the screen in one of the intercuts, or just leave it to the dialogue.

I think that'd be my tendency anyway.

Keep churning!

Seek simpler solutions, either put the character in the living room instead of the kitchen (my favorite), or expand the scene heading to incorporate both areas, e.g.

INT. JOHNSON KITCHEN

INT. BLAKE KITCHEN / LIVING ROOM - DAY

INTERCUT

-Derek

Buffy's right.

K.I.S.S.

Less is more.

All those little cliches about not over complicating the thing? They are cliches 'cos they are almost always thrown out and almost always right.