Hi, just looking for advice.

In a script I'm writing I want a scene to fade into the background with a new scene playing over the top. Kind of showing his inner thoughts.

How I was thinking of doing it is this; (Just an example, not the actual scene)

He stares blankly ahead

OVERLAP

EXT. GARDEN

A child plays. Runs around and LAUGHS.

BACK TO SCENE

He raises the gun to the side of head.

-------------------------------------------

Does that sound right? I'm really wanting to keep his face in the shot while his thoughts are shown.

Cheers

Ste

I don't know if overlay is what you are looking for in the description and breaking from scene to scene is unnecessary.

WE SEE what John thinks as the images of a child laughing fades up and plays out in the frame beside his face.

or

John's thoughts of a child playing are SUPERIMPOSED in the frame beside his face.

I know that people are uncomfortable with WE but the scene itself is really artificial so it is one of the moments where it is your friend.

Thanks Tierney

So basically, have it all as one scene? I'm wanting the image he's thinking to take up the whole screen but with a faint background of the man's face.

Something like this?

-------
John looks straight forward.

An image of a child is SUPERIMPOSED on top. The child plays and LAUGHS.
--------

The scene he's thinking will be what the film ends on after it fades to black.

If you have a better way of making the same point but with a clearer method, I'm all ears.

Cheers

Ste

My only suggestion would be to make clear that you can still see John's face behind the images of the child.  

The images of a child laughing and playing fades up and is superimposed over John's still visible face.  It seems like some sort of dream.  

Here's another though on this one. I know it's been a couple of days, but I figured I'd chime in another suggestion from what I've seen here and there. Using SUPERIMPOSE would be a good way to go since it adequately describes what you're doing. It rings like an INSERT, so that is likely the best way to treat it.

It's specific enough to let the filmmaker know exactly what you're thinking without getting carried away.

INT. UNSPECIFIED ROOM - DAY

He stares blankly ahead

SUPERIMPOSE: A child runs around, laughing and playing in a garden.

He raises the gun to the side of head.

Thanks George

I've finished the scene that this deals with. It got a little more complex with the scene changing so I'm not too sure if it's very clear. If either of you wouldn't mind me sending the segment over to you by private message, that would be cool. I've gone for the superimpose and I've formatted the description of the scene as dialog.

Ste