Also known as slugline · slug line
The line that opens a scene: interior or exterior, location, and time of day — for example, INT. KITCHEN — NIGHT. It orients the reader and anchors production breakdowns.
On the page
Scene heading
INT. KITCHEN — NIGHT
Sluglines are how a script becomes schedulable. A clear heading tells the room where you are and tells a coordinator what to strip for locations and day or night. Fuzzy headings like SOMEWHERE -- LATER slow both storytelling and production because nobody can lock geography or strip a board from them.
A common mistake is minting a new scene heading for every tiny beat inside the same space. If you are still in the same kitchen a minute later, stay in the scene and write action. Extra sluglines inflate page count, fragment rhythm, and create false location moves on a breakdown.
Readers use the heading as orientation before they invest in the paragraph underneath. Keep INT./EXT., a specific location, and a usable time of day consistent across the draft. When production locks numbers later, those stable headings become the units departments quote in sides and schedules.
A scene heading establishes a new location and time unit. Shot headings like CLOSE ON are optional and rarer in specs -- they aim the camera more aggressively. Most development drafts stick to scene headings unless the shot is the joke or the story beat.
If the location or time truly changes, yes. If you are still in the same place moments later, stay in the scene and write action -- extra sluglines inflate page count and confuse breakdowns.
Specific enough that production can schedule it and a reader can picture it -- MAYA'S KITCHEN beats HOUSE. Avoid inventing a new label for the same room every time you return, or breakdowns treat them as different sets.
Use CONTINUOUS or MOMENTS LATER when it clarifies that no story time passed. Do not stamp it on every scene out of habit; empty time labels become noise once readers trust your cut rhythm.
