Slow Motion Format

[fedorable1]

How do you format "slow motion" into your screenplay, or is it one of those things left up to the Director [of Photography]?

[nmstevens]

How do you format "slow motion" into your screenplay, or is it one of those things left up to the Director [of Photography]?

Things like slow motion are generally considered to be the director's area -- as they should be, unless there's some really good reason (and that means a reason having to do with the story) for you to be using something like that in your script.

That is, sometimes what is usually a matter of style -- which is up to the director -- is sometimes a matter of story. The same is true for performance. Sometimes the way in which a line is delivered is simply a matter of nuance -- and that's up to the actor. But sometimes a critical story point may hinge on the way in which a line is delivered, or on whether something is seen in slow motion or not.

In that case, it isn't "directing" on the page. It's doing what we're supposed to be doing -- which is simply telling the story on the page.

If you think about (and you really should think about it) and come to the conclusion that you're not simply including it because you've imagined the scene in a certain way and you're just desperate to describe the scene on the page they way you've seen it in your head, including that neat moment when the bad guy's been shot and falls to the ground in super-slo-mo -- but rather there is really and truly a good *story* reason for including your slow motion moment, then it's really easy to do it.

Just describe it that way.

As George watches the gun come up, everything suddenly begins to move in SLOW MOTION.

NMS

[Plot Device]

I think probably one of the most allowable instances for a writer to be permitted to stipulate slow motion would be in a comedy script where the usage of slow motion is meant as a comical cliche. I can't count how many times I have seen a spoof in various comedy films of the following now-hackneyed film moments:

1) The oft overdone Arnold/Sylvester/Bruce moment of slow motion running toward to camera (often in a state of physical disarray--ripped clothes, bruised/bleeding face, maybe a hint of a limp) from an impending mega-explosion that will take place behind him, and which will then cause him to summersault forward in the air toward the camera. (I think even Homer on "The Simpson's" did that once!)

2) The scene from "The Right Stuff" where about a dozen astronauts are walking:
-- side-by-side
-- in slow motion
-- in their space suits
-- toward the camera

3) In THIS example, there are several variations on the context of what it is that the Protagonist is actually trying to prevent, but the shout of "Noooo!" and the forward scrambling with arms outstretched is always the same ......... Some valuable object is falling from a precarious height, and the hero sees it's about to fall, and he leaps forward in slow motion with both hands extended, trying to catch it while, shouting "Noooooooooooooooooooo!"

4) A man and a woman start out at opposite ends of a sunlit meadow that flits with butterflies and is adorned with wild flowers. And then, arms outstretched, they begin to run toward each other in slow motion.

5) Running slow motion on the beach (or sometimes slow motion running anywhere, really, no matter what the comedy film is) with THAT monumentally famous music playing from the film "Chariots of Fire."


Surely ALL of the above were written right into those many comedy scripts with the blatant stipulation of "slow motion" unmistakable inserted by the writer directly into the action paragraphs.

[Plot Device]

Oh! I almost forgot!


6) Matrix-style fighting (currently labeled by the MPAA as "scenes of stylized combat") especially the 360-camera work. And then Matrix-style bullets spiralling toward their target(s).

[Plot Device]

7) This one isn't done too much anymore as a comical cliche because the defunct 1970's TV shows The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman are totally off the radar for today's generation of youth. But those two shows (quite brilliantly, in my estimation) set the standard that is still used to this day (in a serious way as opposed to a comical way) in many fantasy/sci-fi works for using slow motion to suggest super-speed.

[javili]

I just say like

Rubio turns in slow motion, blocks the blow.

Continuing slow motion, Cruz draws a gun.

Returning to normal speed, Cruz fires.

A longer sequence
SLOW MOTION

RETURN TO NORMAL SPEED

Seems to work all right.

[icerose]

Not neccessarily, plot. You have directors, cinemographers, and choreographers who do that.

The matrix example was a combination. They did something that had never been done before. The writers probably did their best, and they got to be part of the directing and such, so that changes things, but all in all find examples in the spec writing. Chances are, the writer delivers the mood, the director and such decide how to present it.

[NikeeGoddess]

This one isn't done too much anymore as a comical cliche because the defunct 1970's TV shows The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman are totally off the radar for today's generation of youth.
well, the (dated) bionic woman will be back this fall starring a brit soap opera (eastenders) actor. most tv shows have gone to the big screen ie Beverly Hill Billies or Charlie's Angels but some just turn into remakes.

you can suggest slo mo if it's vital to the story. but you'd have to justify the necessity of it in some way. you can suggest slo mo in a back door way like "she stumbled through the room in a fog"

[javili]

(dated) bionic woman

Somebody dated the bionic woman? Wow, there's a guy with some machote going for him.