Great Scene Headings! How to Format a Screenplay Like Avengers: Endgame for Beginners!
How do screenwriters write and format great scene headings? Let's take a look at the Avengers: Endgame screenplay to see how the pros format great scene headings. I'll walk through the screenplay and point out the keys to great scene headings for beginners!

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MORE VIDEOS IN THIS SERIES:
- How to Format a Screenplay for Beginners: Action & Description: https://youtu.be/pbo41KV5sB0
- How to Format a Screenplay for Beginners: Dialogue: https://youtu.be/jbBa7-HO07Y
- How to Format a Screenplay for Beginners: Series of Shots | Montages | Flashbacks: https://youtu.be/T-Ybt1FBRAo

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CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro - How to Format a Screenplay for Beginners: Scene Headings Intro
01:05 - Basic Scene Headings - How to Format a Screenplay for Beginners
02:20 - Location Options in Scene Headings - How to Format a Screenplay for Beginners
04:45 - Time of Day in Scene Headings - How to Format a Screenplay for Beginners
06:18 - Scene Headings from Avengers: Endgame - How to Format a Screenplay for Beginners
0:13:44 - Scene Headings from Joker - How to Format a Screenplay for Beginners


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TRANSCRIPT HIGHLIGHTS:
How to Format Great Scene Headings in Your Screenplay for Beginners

The most difficult part of formatting scene headings is… keeping it simple.
Here’s the basic formula for a good scene heading:

[EXTERIOR/INTERIOR]. [LOCATION] - [TIME]

Some screenwriters will also add a more specific sub-location, like a particular room of a house:

[EXTERIOR/INTERIOR]. [LOCATION] - [SUB-LOCATION] - [TIME]
If your scene immediately transitions from an interior to the exterior--or vice versa--you would use: INT./EXT.

The LOCATION is purely that, nothing more.

EXT. DESERT

But, some scenarios can be a bit more complex than that. Let’s look at some variations of the location portion of the scene heading.

Sometimes, as is the case with stories that take place inside homes, it’s necessary to specify where in the home a scene takes place.

Keep it as simple as possible.

Our first scene takes place inside the DRAWING ROOM. Two ways we COULD showcase that:

One… INT. DUSKFINDER SAFE HOUSE - DRAWING ROOM - [TIME]

Two… INT. DUSKFINDER DRAWING ROOM - [TIME]

Let’s say that the next scene moves to a different room of the house. Here are the ways you could handle that:

INT. DUSKFINDER SAFE HOUSE - INFIRMARY - [TIME]

...or… INT. DUSKFINDER INFIRMARY - [TIME]

...or, my personal favorite… INFIRMARY

Which one is the absolute best? It depends. Let’s say that each scene plays out sequentially--one right after the other--in a continuous manner. If that’s the case, I would probably use:

INT. DUSKFINDER SAFE HOUSE - DRAWING ROOM - [TIME]

...then… INFIRMARY

...then… DRAWING ROOM

It makes the screenplay really easy to read, AND it flows well.

If we had to break up the flow of those scenes--let’s say we went to an entirely different location, for example. Then we’d be back to the longer format. Like this:

INT. DUSKFINDER SAFE HOUSE - DRAWING ROOM - [TIME]

...then… EXT. JERICHO JAIL - [TIME]

...then… INT. DUSKFINDER SAFE HOUSE - INFIRMARY - [TIME]

The objectives are: 1) Don’t confuse the reader, and 2) Make the story flow as easily as possible.

In regards to the TIME function, it just defines the time of day.

Options include DAY, NIGHT, DUSK, and DAWN.

Writers will also occasionally use:
CONTINUOUS, which indicates that one scene flows directly into the next--
MOMENTS LATER, which indicates that a very short period of time has passed between scenes.
LATER, which indicates that a longer timeframe has passed between scenes.
And… SIMULTANEOUS or SAME, which means that the location has changed, but the scene is occurring in the same timeframe as the previous scene.

We’ve got a scene inside the saloon, but the scene continues outside the saloon on the porch. It’s CONTINUOUS.

I’ve heard different opinions on how frequently and when to use LATER or MOMENTS LATER.

And finally, SIMULTANEOUS or SAME means that the scene takes place in the approximate time period represented by the previous scene. That’s useful when you have two major events happening at once that will eventually be brought into the same timeline.