Scene Description Spotlight: “Network”

Paddy Chayefsky is perhaps most well known for his dialogue, but I’d like to excerpt something from Network to demonstrate one way to convey continuous action that moves from one location to another. This is from the opening sequence to the script:

INT. HOWARD’S APARTMENT HOUSE — LANDING OUTSIDE HIS
DOOR — 8:00 A.M. — TUESDAY, SEPT. 24

— as HOWARD’S HOUSEKEEPER, a middle-aged lady, lets
herself into

INT. HOWARD’S APARTMENT — ENTRANCE FOYER

The HOUSEKEEPER, unbuttoning her coat, is greeted by
the sound of a raucous clock ALARM, relentlessly
BUZZING O.S. She crosses the —

INT. LIVING ROOM

— and opens the blinds letting in an eruption of
daylight. The shrill BUZZING getting louder, she
proceeds into the —

INT. BACK FOYER

— where she pauses to look into the bedroom, the door
being ajar; the BUZZING is coming from here —

HOUSEKEEPER’S P.O.V — HOWARD BEALE,

still wearing the clothes he wore last night, curled
in a position of fetal helplessness on the floor in
the far corner of the room —

HOUSEKEEPER
 (after a moment)
 Are you all right, Mr. Beale?

HOWARD
 (opens one eye)
 I’m fine, thank you, Mrs.
 Merryman —

With some effort, he contrives to get to his feet as
the HOUSEKEEPER crosses to the alarm clock and turns
it off —

The double dashes represent continuous time and convey the Housekeeper in motion. And in this, I can proudly say I use the same approach as Chayefsky. Not that double dashes will get me three — count ’em — three Oscars like the famed writer received, but it’s a start!

The use of primary and secondary sluglines ‘moves’ the action from one location to another. Here I differ in one respect from Chayefsky: I prefer primary sluglines to indicate the beginning of a scene and once the main location has been established secondary sluglines to indicate sub-locations. So:

INT. HOWARD’S APARTMENT — ENTRANCE FOYER

Becomes:

INSIDE APARTMENT — FOYER

And:

INT. LIVING ROOM

Becomes:

LIVING ROOM

To my eye, it also comes across as less ‘scripty’ which is more line with current style sensibilities.

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