phone conversations

I was more shown this way. (My way is a little longer). Yours saves lots of space so if yours is "allowed" I'd actually perfer yours just because of all the hard-returns it saves.


INT. CHARLES' OFFICE - DAY

CHARLES
(to the phone)
Hey. Where are you?

INTERCUT: INT. HEATHROW AIRPORT - CONTINUOUS

Todd walks through the busy airport terminal, his cell phone to his ear.

Todd
(to his cell phone)
In Heathrow. My plane leaves in an hour.

Charles
What time do you expect to arrive?

Todd
Around 7pm.

CHARLES
Ok. See you then.

Charles hangs up the phone.

avid-dreamer said:

Hmm..thanks for the advice. The way you did it is much better.

Click to expand...

PD's approach, as a rule works better because very often a scene will commence and be underway for awhile before someone picks up the phone -- so it sometimes gets a bit confusing to have two locations referenced at the slugline on Page 23 when the phone conversation may not happen until the middle of Page 24 -- so the reader has to flip back to find out just where that other location is.

NMS

Modifying Plot's example, you could first establish both scenes, then do the intercut.

INT. CHARLES' OFFICE - DAY

CHARLES
(to the phone)
Hey. Where are you?

INT. HEATHROW AIRPORT - CONTINUOUS

Todd walks through the busy airport terminal, his cell phone to his ear.

Todd
(to his cell phone)
In Heathrow. My plane leaves in an hour.

INTERCUT Phone Conversation

Charles
What time do you expect to arrive?

Todd
Around 7pm.

CHARLES
Ok. See you then.

Charles hangs up the phone.

Maybe if there was a sticky thread dealing with this issue then people could see it at a glance as it does seem to be a frequent issue. In fact I am going to be writing a scene like that myself

I think we'd end up with an awful lot of stickied threads if we went down that road. Best bet is to always do a search, I'd wager a great deal of questions have already been asked here in one form or another.

But your point is well taken and a screenwriting FAQ has been nudged back and forth (read: kicked to death) behind the scenes for some time now. Maybe it's time to finish it.

The trial continues.