Questions: “Sluglines and Character Intros”
Open forum question from SeeMoreGlass:
I have a question about slug lines.
Let’s say a character — “Howie” — is moving in to a new apartment.
We have him come to see it the first time with the real estate agent. He buys it. Then we have scenes that follow that occur in this apartment.
The first time we see the place, what do we call it? “Manhattan apartment”? Because it’s not his yet? “Howie’s new apartment”? Can we just call it “Howie’s apartment”? I ask because we don’t know that it’s his yet.
I guess my question is also related to a general confusion I have about when you introduce a character as a MAN versus when it is okay to name him for the first time (“This is HOWIE.”)
I am never sure when you are allowed to present your character’s name up front or if you are supposed to wait for someone to refer to him/her by name.
Kind of a 2 part question. I hope I phrased it eloquently enough to be understood.
Thanks so much for this forum. Any help would be much appreciated.
Let me frame my response with this key point:
The distinction between a selling script…
And a “shooting” script.
If we were talking a shooting script…
Per your first question…
We would use HOWIE’S APARTMENT in the slugline when the place is introduced.
Why?
Because the people who are reading a shooting script…
Are the crew members who are actually making the movie.
So in that introductory scene…
It’s important they know that this is Howie’s apartment.
However in a selling script…
It’s not the production crew reading the script…
It’s people involved in the possible acquisition of the script.
In a selling script, your job is not to make clear the logistics of production…
Your job is to…
You know…
SELL THE SCRIPT!
Yes, you want to be clear and not confuse the reader…
But most of all, you want to make it a good read.
So in your selling script…
Howie first approaches the apartment in question…
Your slugline would read:
EXT. APARTMENT — DAY
Not HOWIE’S APARTMENT.
Once he rents the place and he returns there, the slugline can change to:
INT. HOWIE’S APARTMENT — DAY
That makes sense to a reader.
Calling it HOWIE’S APARTMENT before he rents the place…
Not only doesn’t make sense…
It also blows whatever tension you might have for the ensuing scene…
If one question is, “Will Howie rent this apartment”…
And you begin the scene with EXT. HOWIE’S APARTMENT — DAY…
You’ve pretty much ruined the scene.
The second question is a bit more complex.
In general, when it makes sense…
Go ahead and introduce the character by name.
For example, here is how Judd Apatow begins the script for Knocked Up:
BEN STONE, 23, cute in a chunky Jewish guy sort of way, boxes one
of his roommates, MARTIN.
Name the character right up front.
No fuss, no muss.
However there are times you may choose to withhold the character’s proper name.
For example, in the Christopher Nolan & Jonathan Nolan script The Dark Knight…
The Opening Incident with the clown gang robbing the bank…
One of the clowns is identified as BOZO.
That’s the name the script uses for the character up until P. 5.
Then this:
Bozo turns back to the Bank Manager. Crouches over him.
BANK MANAGER
Honor. Respect. What do you
believe, huh? What do you bel -
Joker slides a GRENADE into the man’s mouth. A PURPLE THREAD
is knotted around the pin.
THE JOKER
I believe that what doesn’t kill
you…
Bozo PULLS off his MASK. The Bank Manager GASPS. In the
reflections of the glass DEBRIS behind the Bank Manager we
see GLIMPSES of a SCARRED MOUTH and CLOWN MAKEUP. THE JOKER.
THE JOKER
…simply makes you stranger.
In order to sell the ‘deceit’ of The Joker’s real identity…
The script presents the character as Bozo.
It’s a fitting way to underscore The Joker’s propensity…
To playing jokes on people.
Here’s another case where the script presents a character before naming them.
The Daniel Waters script Heathers:
Elegiac music murmurs as three female and barefoot PAIRS OFLEGS in skirts break from tableau to gently engage in Croquet.A blue mallet hits a blue ball through a wicket, a greenmallet knocks a green ball, and a yellow mallet pushes forwarda yellow ball, all in enticing syncopation.Suddenly a red ball rockets through the dew covered grass andhits the green ball. The LEGS all stop moving as a FOURTH PAIROF LEGS, this one in stylish shoes and stockings, marches tothe red ball and steps on it. A red mallet is brought downhard on the red ball causing the adjacent green ball tothunder out of view. The Pair of Legs manuevering the greenball departs. This process of elimination is grimlyrepeated with the yellow ball and yet again with the blueball.However, when the BLUE MALLETED PLAYER makes her sad exit,the viewer's viewpoint glides along with this particular Pairof Legs. A red ball whizzes by. The Legs stop. Another redball malevolently sails past the Legs. Then yet another redball. A fourth red ball makes brutal contact with the Legscausing the Player to fall to her knees and into the frame. ThePlayer is VERONICA SAWYER.
A case of using objects to present characters…
Then introduce them.
So perhaps we make a distinction:
Between presenting a character…
And introducing a character.
The latter requiring we use their actual name…
In CAPS.
And the former giving us some creative license.
NOTE: For more on character introductions, go here.
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