Script Tip: Slugline

By Kelly A. Lowe
(originally published online; CMA, October 2009)

This month’s screenplay term is “slugline”. Slugline is another word for scene heading. Appearing at the beginning of a scene, sluglines tell us where the action takes place. For instance:

EXT. LIBRARY - MIDNIGHT

The following three elements make up a slugline:
“INT.” means interior or indoor locations and “EXT.” means exterior or outdoor locations.
The name of the location; LIBRARY is our example.
The time of day or night; this can be a generalization such as “NIGHT” or more specific as in “LATE AFTERNOON”, “SUNSET”, or “6:32a.m.”

Sluglines should always be expressed in ALL CAPS; “INT.” or “EXT.”,
followed by “LOCATION”, a hyphen, then “TIME”. Every once in a while you will need to give a more specific explanation of the location. For this, you may add a sublocation. It should look like this:

EXT. LIBRARY - BASEMENT - MIDNIGHT

Remember, to use a slugline every time your character changes locations.