Hi all,

This is confusing me.

So, say you have a scene where you are in an enclosed village, as in, enclosed with a wall or fence.

If the scene takes place in the village but outside, so not in someone's house, would it be INT or EXT. It's inside the village but still technically outside. Gets more confusing when a scene is happening just outside the village.

Seem like it should be so simple but I just can't wrap my head around this one.

Any help would be appreciated.

I'd definitely use EXT. because you're physically outside of a room or something. Sure there are walls or a fence but still, it's in the open air.

I agree that it's EXT as well.

That's reassuring, I currently have it written as EXT.

So what about scenes that happen literally just outside the village walls.

I feel it would still be EXT. VILLAGE - DAY, but there lies the main confusion because inside the village walls, but in the open air is written the exact same way.

I've been pointing it out in my action that it is taking place outside the walls. Not sure it's the most effect way to be doing it.

Thanks for the advise.

Why don't you just write

EXT. ENCLOSED VILLAGE - DAY

and

EXT. OUTSIDE THE ENCLOSED VILLAGE - DAY

I don't see why this shouldn't work. Probably not the best solution but still...

The area surrounding the village would be the location. So, if there's a forest on one side of the village and a desert on the other, the location would be either DESERT or FOREST.

Establish the scene if necessary.

Thanks, I think I have enough to make it work now.

Actually good questions, Warren.

INT and EXT refer to being inside or outside of some kind of enclosed "thing" or entity.  I'd like to make it really simple and say it refers to necessary lighting in filming, as many "think", but that's not 100% correct.

There are several locations that can be confusing and will be argued over again and again.

Think about a baseball/football stadium, with an open "infield", receiving natural light.  Then think about fans watching from the stands, many of which will be underneath some kind of covering...or back "inside" the stadium where you buy concessions, still open on 1 side, but completely closed and covered on the other 5 sides (4 walls, 1 floor, 1 ceiling - 6 possible sides in all right angle structures).

In the above, you would need multiple Slugs as you moved from area to area and you'd have to make decisions about whether or not you're INT or EXT.

Think about a scene in a car.  Obviously, we use INT when we're inside the car, as that's where the camera is.  But, what about when we have a convertible with the top down?  Are we still INT?  Yeah, we are, because we're inside this "thing", which is or can be moving.  So, even though we have natural light and an open top, we're still INT...unless we want the shot to include the outside of the car, as in the camera being on the outside of the car - but then, we'd be directing the shot, right?  

Your questions about the walled village or the like are another different animal.  If you're referring to action outside the walls of the village, as Dustin said, you could use "EXT FOREST" or the like, but, you could also use something like, "EXT. OUTSIDE VILLAGE WALL".

Make sense?

Thanks for the thorough explanation, Dreamscale.

Yes definitely makes sense.

I don't mean to necro a thread, but this caught my interest.

One simple solution for this is to simply use "INT/EXT." when you have a scene in a convertible or Humvee. I've seen it done many times in professional and non-professional screenplays alike. Purists might hate it, but it's not at all unconventional.

Personally, though, I try to just stick to INT. or EXT., mostly because I hate sluglines such as EXT. BEYOND VILLAGE WALL/OUTSIDE OF VILLAGE, etc. and would much rather describe the actual exterior fauna or landscape beyond it. Is the village nestled in a forest? Use EXT. FOREST. In plains? Use EXT. PLAINS. You can describe the village's proximity to these wide exteriors using simple descriptions in your action lines.

For vehicles: if someone's in a seat, the location is INT. and I leave it at that.

--Julio