Question: Opening a script before FADE IN
Open forum question from The Douche Guide:
Oh man. Thanks for this. I was going crazy trying to find an answer to this question:
I want to open a screenplay (no fade in, just boom) on a still picture.
How do I properly format that?
Is it an INSERT (even though there’s no location slug line yet)?
Or is it a GRAPHIC:? Or something else entirely?
Thanks!
TDG, no reason to go “crazy” over this…
As it’s actually a pretty simple solution.
Technically you need to start a script with FADE IN:
There’s one exception that I know of…
I’ll post that in a bit.
For your situation…
You would still need to start with FADE IN:
Why?
Because you’re starting with a visual.
You can do that without a primary slugline.
Here’s one version:
FADE IN:
A PHOTOGRAPH
A crude, crime scene flash picture of a MAN’S BODY lying on a
decaying wooden floor, a BLOODY MESS where his head should
be.
That’s scene description from the opening of the movie Memento.
Christopher Nolan, who wrote the script based on a short story…
By his brother Jonathan…
Actually starts his script (title sequence) this way:
FADE IN:
INT. DERELICT HOUSE — DAY
A POLAROID PHOTOGRAPH, clasped between finger and thumb: a crude, crime scene flash picture of a MAN’S BODY lying on a decaying wooden floor, a BLOODY MESS where his head should be.
He starts it with a primary slugline…
Because the scene, played backward…
Pulls out of the close-up of the photograph…
To reveal Leonard and Teddy in the context of the derelict house.
It it’s really important to you…
To start off the script tight on the photograph…
Not revealing the primary location until later…
You could do this:
FADE IN:
A PHOTOGRAPH
A crude, crime scene flash picture of a MAN’S BODY lying on a
decaying wooden floor, a BLOODY MESS where his head should
be.
A HAND fans the photograph… the hand attached to LEONARD.
Droplets of BLOOD dot his face. He BLINKS. Looks around to
reveal he’s —
INT. DECREPIT HOUSE — DAY
Leonard turns. Peers down at the floor —
A HEADLESS BODY sprawled there… a pool of blood.
That’s one way of approaching it.
I mentioned a situation where you can write something before FADE IN:
And that’s when you start the script with an audio event.
A line of dialogue…
A noise…
That might look something like this:
OVER BLACK
Silence.
Then a booming GUNSHOT —
LEONARD (O.S.)
Fuck.
FADE IN:
INT. DECREPIT HOUSE — DAY
LEONARD (mid-30s) stands, holding a PHOTOGRAPH in one hand… and a .357 MAGNUM in the other. He looks completely lost.
Blinks. Peers down at the floor —
A MAN’S BODY. A splatter of brain matter where his head used to be. Blood everywhere.
Leonard squints at the body. At the photograph, then —
LEONARD
Fuuuuccckkk.
The only reason you’d take this approach…
Is because you want to bring the actual shooting into the present…
But instead of showing it, hear it.
Here’s how Nolan handles the shooting in the actual script to Memento:
The camera SUCKS the blank picture up, then the FLASH BURSTS.
The Polaroid camera is lowered, revealing the sweaty, heavy-
breathing face of LEONARD (mid-30's). There are droplets of
blood across his face. Leonard stares, satisfied, at
something on the ground in front of him. There is WET BLOOD
on his BLUE SHIRT and BEIGE SUIT. His hand opens and catches
a HANDGUN which leaps up into his grasp.
Still staring, he crouches down and pulls a BODY off the
floor by the wet hair of its BLOODY HEAD. He slowly inserts
the barrel of the gun into the bloody mess where the mouth
should be.
Leonard FLINCHES. A DEAFENING ROAR as wet red leaps off his
face and suit and head, with a SPASM, reassembles itself
into the face of TEDDY (40’s, moustache) and we-
CUT TO:
His approach, of course, sets up the whole reverse history narrative effect.
Presumably why Nolan wrote it that way.
So to sum up —
If you have any sort of visual to begin the script…
You need to type FADE IN:
To signify that image has emerged on screen.
The only time I know of where you can do something before FADE IN:
Is when you are dealing with an audio event.
If anybody know of other situations like this…
Please post them in comments.
Now, TDG, stop driving yourself crazy…
And finish that script!
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