INT/EXT when in a car?

Usher

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I have a scene in a car. Would it be an internal or external shot? I suspect external because the car is outside.
 

dpaterso

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I have a scene in a car. Would it be an internal or external shot? I suspect external because the car is outside.
Just my opinion, I'd go with INT. CAR - DAY (MOVING) or similar and let the director figure it out. With the high quality/super small camera equipment available these days, filming inside a moving car can't be too hard. Especially when said car is probably mounted on a trailer anyway. And if the director wants to do one of those car interior with background screen shots, it's still INT.

-Derek
 

mbuhmann

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Where is the action happening? If in the car then it would be INT.

Example:

EXT. COUNTY ROAD - DAY

A red Ford straddles the center line of a two lane road. Corn fields surround them.

INT. FORD - CONTINUOUS

GALE is in the drivers seat while DALE, her husband, sits shotgun. Dale is red in the face.
 

Usher

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In the car. It's somewhere between the police station and the crime scene.

So INT. JOE'S CAR (MOVING). DAY

Would be OK?
 

Maryn

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This came up at another screenwriting forum I occasionally visit. Paraphrasing what was said there:

There are lots of situations where the characters are not inside yet are not really outside, either. Consider the open-sided multi-story parking structure, the covered patio or deck, or a car with its sun roof open.

One guideline is whether the sun can light the shot. If it can, use EXT. This applies even if additional lighting is required due to foliage or nearby buildings or cliffs throwing shadows. In general, scenes in manmade structures with a roof cannot be lit by sunlight and are therefore INT. If your scene is on the top level of that parking structure, which has no roof, it is EXT. If your character enters the stairwell, you're back to INT.

Other considerations on whether INT. or EXT. is appropriate include camera placement. Employees in their underwear are packaging heroin in a room. That's INT. A group of rival drug dealers size up the operation as they prepare to rob it. Use the location of the camera to determine INT. or EXT. Is the camera outside, looking at the rivals or in through the window? EXT. Do we see the rivals outside through the window, although none of the characters has yet noticed them? Then use INT. A single scene which alternates viewpoints may use both INT. and EXT.

So if the camera is inside the car, use INT. If we see the driver and any passenger(s) from outside the car, through the window or windshield, use EXT.
 

mbuhmann

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One guideline is whether the sun can light the shot. If it can, use EXT. This applies even if additional lighting is required due to foliage or nearby buildings or cliffs throwing shadows. In general, scenes in manmade structures with a roof cannot be lit by sunlight and are therefore INT. If your scene is on the top level of that parking structure, which has no roof, it is EXT. If your character enters the stairwell, you're back to INT.

Other considerations on whether INT. or EXT. is appropriate include camera placement. Employees in their underwear are packaging heroin in a room. That's INT. A group of rival drug dealers size up the operation as they prepare to rob it. Use the location of the camera to determine INT. or EXT. Is the camera outside, looking at the rivals or in through the window? EXT. Do we see the rivals outside through the window, although none of the characters has yet noticed them? Then use INT. A single scene which alternates viewpoints may use both INT. and EXT.

So if the camera is inside the car, use INT. If we see the driver and any passenger(s) from outside the car, through the window or windshield, use EXT.

No disrespect but I think you're over thinking it. :)

One thing the OP needs to ask himself: "Am I writing this for me to direct or someone else?" If you're not directing then don't direct the scene via your writing unless absolutely necessary. It's a screenplay, not a shot list, and the director will ultimately make the final call on how your story will be shot.
 

Usher

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One thing the OP needs to ask himself: "Am I writing this for me to direct or someone else?" If you're not directing then don't direct the scene via your writing unless absolutely necessary. It's a screenplay, not a shot list, and the director will ultimately make the final call on how your story will be shot.

No I won't be directing it. It's for a competition with BBC/ITV/Tiger Aspect.

I won a place on a similar BBC course but for comedy.

To be honest the BBC's priority with scriptwriters seems to be can they understand it so I suspect it doesn't actually matter. Like you say this isn't the final shooting script and they're not going to reject a script if that's all they don't like.

Writing a sit-com on a tight budget I've never written an external shot before.
 
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odocoileus

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https://indiegroundfilms.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/hot-fuzz.pdf (scroll to page 34.)

EXT/INT. SQUAD CAR - DAY

ANGEL and DANNY sit in the parked squad car; ANGEL is on theradio, watching with disdain as DANNY retrieves ketchupsachets from his top pocket and squirts them onto a pasty.

ANGEL
Oscar four zero, over.

RADIO VOICE
Oscar four zero go ahead, over.

ANGEL
Just checking...

Pretty much the answer to every format question is, Read some scripts and see how it's done.

Along those same lines, I will point out that it's routine for pro writers to direct on the page, by calling specific shots, and by using language to direct focus. Both are okay if done well. Feel free to use all the tools the pros do. You want their job, after all. No reason to artificially limit yourself based on misinformation.
 

Usher

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Along those same lines, I will point out that it's routine for pro writers to direct on the page, by calling specific shots, and by using language to direct focus. Both are okay if done well. Feel free to use all the tools the pros do. You want their job, after all. No reason to artificially limit yourself based on misinformation.

I wouldn't exactly call a BBC producer a bad source of information. I got confirmation it was just fine ;)

The competition is for anyone and everyone so they're looking for talent as much as skill.
 
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odocoileus

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I wouldn't exactly call a BBC producer a bad source of information. I got confirmation it was just fine ;)

The competition is for anyone and everyone so they're looking for talent as much as skill.

Sorry. I should have been more clear. No objections to anything you or your BBC colleague have said. Your formatting approach is fine.

I was referring to the "never direct from the page" statement that gets passed around as conventional wisdom. It's not true. Pros direct from the page all the time.
 

nmstevens

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I have a scene in a car. Would it be an internal or external shot? I suspect external because the car is outside.

This is always an open question because it's really very much a production issue. Whether a shot is listed as INT or EXT depends on where the the physical action of the scene takes place.

An interior, say an apartment or a house or a mine -- may take place in a real house or a real apartment or a real mine -- or it may be a set.

An exterior generally presumes that you're actually going to go to some place outside. So "EXT., CAR ON HIGHWAY -- means that you're packing up the crew and the talent and taking them, along with the car, to a highway somewhere.

Now, you may put the camera on the hood of the car, or mount it on the side of the car and shoot in through a window -- but it's all still an Exterior because you're all still outside.

Now, what if they shove the camera from outside the window inside the car, or if you're covering action sometimes from outside -- the car turns sharply and dodges another car, while inside, the driver is fumbling around for something in the glove compartment.

For that matter, what if you're shooting inside a house and the actors walk from inside the house out into the back yard?

Well, then you'd do what I often do in scenes like this, which is to simply write: INT./EXT. THE CAR ON THE HIGHWAY

And leave it to production to figure out just what aspects of the scene are going to shot where, when, and how.

In a larger sense, they may just put the car on a set wrapped around with a green screen and do it all as an effect, but that could be true of almost anything. And at a certain point, it goes beyond what you have to worry about.

If you never go inside the car, just use EXT.

If you never go outside of the car, just use INT.

If, as is most often the case, you tend to move from the inside to the outside of the car over the course of the scene, use, INT./EXT.

NMS
 

Clairels

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At the same time, isn't it kind of risky for a first-timer to try use a bunch of advanced techniques they may not have any experience with, just to try to "be like the pros?" Chances are they'll get a bunch of things wrong and end up looking like even more of an amateur. I read scripts for competitions, and I've encountered this a lot.

When in doubt, I think you can never go wrong focusing on the story and leaving the direction to the directors.
 

Usher

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Ultimately, if a producer likes your script and wants to work with it it will not be rejected because of minor errors. It'll be because it's a major disaster, or it's not their thing, or they can't make money from it. If you look at the final shooting scripts on the BBC Writers Room website they are so varied in their layout.

When the BBC picked me up to go on the Room to Write forum it was on the basis of the first two sketches/scripts I had ever written (which is why I feel so out of my depth, sometimes). One was a transvestite with a spinning conical bra dancing to "Do it Like a Dude" and the other was a couple of adult schoolboys eating ice cream and discussing God, Satan, Boys Brigade and Minecraft. I'm sure those first two scripts are riddled with mistakes.
 

Gateway

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I have a scene in a car. Would it be an internal or external shot? I suspect external because the car is outside.

EXT.

Because you're basically shooting outside.

That's how I do it anyhow.

Read some road movie scripts and mirror that method.
 

gp101

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If the characters are talking or doing something pertinent to the plot (ie, changing disguises, pulling up their Glocks, banging, ignoring each other for some reason) then INT. If the car (already established as their car) is just moving along without anything relevant occurring inside the car, then EXT. If it's a INT. then put in a MOVING if the car is traveling, otherwise maybe a PARKED if not. Alternate between the INT/EXT if there are relevant things going on BOTH inside and outside of the car. If not, then keep it to either INT. or EXT. If you have a VO going on then that's a different animal--but then you also have to ask yourself, is the VO necessary?
 
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Phoenix_Writer

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Well, both techniques are ok. You must decide it what’s the best for the scene. And what you want to show is very important, too.
What do your character do? Is he/she driving? Is he/she talking to another person? Etc.

If she/he was driving, then I would use this one:

Int./Ext. Ethan’s car – day (moving)

Ethan drives his car. He is very focused. Don’t make any mistake.

Or if he/she is talk to another person:

Int./Ext. Ethan’s car – day (moving)

Ethan drives his car. He is very focused. Don’t make any mistake now.

He stops his car at the crossroad. Damn! Red light.

Ethan looks around.

Ext. sidewalk near crossroad – continuous

STELLA walks the sidewalk along. She stops.

She recognizes the red car. Wait a minute. Is this Ethan’s car.

Stella goes to the car’s direction.

CUT TO:

Int./Ext. Ethan’s car – later

Ethan reads newspaper. Man! The red light needs a lot time to change to green. He doesn’t notice Stella.

She is next to the car’s window and knock at it.

Ethan is scared and looks to the sound directions.

Stella
(while she waves her hand)
Hey. What’s up?

Ethan sighs with relief and put the newspaper away.