What to do when my script takes place in ONE location...

[Gary the Llama]

Hello everyone.

I'm currently writing a 5-page short for a small SCENE CHALLENGE contest. There are a few rules we have to abide be, one of them being that the enter script take place in one location.

Since we won't be changing locations, I don't really have the benefit of scene headings - besides the opening one - and I feel that it doesn't flow well. And it looks funny too.

(Btw, the scene takes place on the top level of a parking garage so I don't have too much to work with.)

Is there any other way I can break the script up? Is there a way I should be using scene headings in my script even though it's all in one place?

Any examples or advice would be great. Thanks in advance!

[Fortean]

EXT. PARKING GARAGE, TOP LEVEL - DAY

EXT. PARKING GARAGE, TOP LEVEL - NIGHT

[Gary the Llama]

Thanks but that's not exactly what I'm looking for. There won't be that much time elapsing since it's only 5 pages. Any other ideas?

[Revisionist]

Five pages of a single location isn't rare for a short. You can have twenty pages and as long as there's enough conflict, character, theme, structure and story... then you'll have an interesting scene.

It's really not that hard a challenge, I would think... there's a lot of wild @#%$ you can do on the top level of a parking garage...

1. A vice cop gets busted by his peers shooting heroin up in an undercover squad car.

2. A huge father comes upon his not so innocent daughter bangin' the ice cream man in his truck.

3. A bunch of alien abductees await the arrival of the mothership.

4. Two opposing gangs meet to settle a score and one reluctant participant is in love with someone on the other side...

The possibilities are endless and if you've found an interesting enough theme and premise you'll find that keeping the scene to five pages is going to be quite a tribulation.

[jimjimgrande]

use mini slugs -

AT THE STAIRWELL DOOR

BY THE CAR

NEAR THE LEDGE

FROM THE RAMP

[Gary the Llama]

Mini slugs... Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

As for the "theme" of it... Let's just say it's about a man who is the world's foremost connoisseur of poop.

I'll leave it at that to get you thinking. :)

[Doug Raine]

To have conflict in your short story... make sure each character has a different agenda, a different goal and the other characters can either help, or hinder attaining that goal.
And, if they help... maybe that could take away from their goal, thus they're forced to make decisions.

Hope that helps-

Doug