Proper use of mini slugs

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  • Proper use of mini slugs

    When should mini slugs be used under a shot heading? Are mini slugs only for location or can they be used to indicate a specific shot as in an object? For example which would be correct:

    1.
    INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

    Stepping through the door, Johnâ€TMs face turns white at the site of putrefied bodies. John steps over the bodies and stops at one he recognizes. He checks the coat pocket of the corpse and pulls a small object out.

    ORB of CONTEMPLATION

    glows in the darkness.

    John is awestruck for a moment before he wraps it in a cloth and stuffs it in his pocket.

    or

    2.
    INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

    Stepping through the door, Johnâ€TMs face turns white at the site of putrefied bodies. John steps over the bodies and stops at one he recognizes. He checks the coat pocket of the corpse and pulls a small object out.

    ORB of CONTEMPLATION glows in the darkness.

    John is awestruck for a moment before he wraps it in a cloth and stuffs it in his pocket.

    -- Is the ORB of CONTEMPLATION example a shot, scene heading, or just action? I'm using Final Draft and it can be set as any of these, but it also affects the spacing. Is this just a case where it doesn't really matter? Thanks.

  • #2
    Re: Proper use of mini slugs

    Well, if I read this correctly, what you're implying is that, when he pulls the orb out of the pocket, there's a new camera angle, and we're taking a closer look at the orb in his hand, right?

    That makes ORB OF CONTEMPLATION a shot and the way I've always seen it written that would be alone on a line with the rest of your example on the next line.

    Now notice that, right after that, you seem to be going back to a wider shot of John, which would mean that you'd have to slug that shot too.

    So what you'd end up with is something like this:

    THE ORB OF CONTEMPLATION

    glows eerily in the darkness

    JOHN

    is awestruck for a moment, then wraps it in a cloth and sticks it in his pocket.

    As for spacing and the like, yeah I guess technically it's a Shot, but no one's going to kill you if there's a tenth of an inch more space than should be before the next line.

    john (not that john)

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    • #3
      Re: Proper use of mini slugs

      1.
      INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

      Stepping through the door, Johnâ€TMs face turns white at the site of putrefied bodies. John steps over the bodies and stops at one he recognizes. He checks the coat pocket of the corpse and pulls a small object out.

      ORB of CONTEMPLATION

      glows in the darkness.

      John is awestruck for a moment before he wraps it in a cloth and stuffs it in his pocket.

      or

      2.
      INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

      Stepping through the door, Johnâ€TMs face turns white at the site of putrefied bodies. John steps over the bodies and stops at one he recognizes. He checks the coat pocket of the corpse and pulls a small object out.

      ORB of CONTEMPLATION glows in the darkness.
      Either one is okay. Just don't do it too much. Save it for special occasions.
      They cursed us forever, making us prefer dreams to lives.

      Comment

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