Reader Question: Do I HAVE to use INT/EXT — LOCATION — DAY/NIGHT in scene headings?

Wherein we consider selling scripts, shooting scripts, conventional wisdom, and writing whatever the hell we want.

This question arose from an interview I did in 2016 with screenwriter Andrew Friehof: “Do I have to use INT./EXT. — LOCATION — DAY/NIGHT in scene headings?

To answer this question, let’s distinguish between a selling script and a shooting script. The latter, also known as a production draft, needs INT. and EXT. and LOCATION and DAY and NIGHT. Why? Because the team of people involved in producing the movie require that information to do their jobs.

They need it for location scouting.
They need it for budgeting.
They need it for scheduling.
They need it for the production designer.
They need it for the art department.

They just need it, okay?

But a shooting script is a different creature than a selling script. When you write a spec script or a script on assignment, your most fundamental goal is this: Entertain the reader.

That reader can be a studio executive, producer, director, actor, or even a lowly intern or assistant. Whoever it is, you want to grab their attention and keep it from FADE IN to FADE OUT.

While your plot, characters, dialogue, scenes, themes, and so on are all important, there’s another aspect you need to pay attention to and that is this: READABILITY.

You want your spec / selling script to be a good read.

What has evolved with screenplays over the last half-century, as the spec script market has grown into its own and scripts have become more than just blueprints to make a movie, is a transformation of style and form away from directing lingo and ‘scripty’ language to a more literary approach to telling a story.

Again, we are talking about selling scripts.

With that as my preamble, the answer to your question is this: No, you do not need to use the nomenclature of scene headings.

Consider the script “Great Falls” written by Andy Friedhof, the subject of my interview with him…