I have a script with a few battlescenes. One of them includes a naval battle and I want to show what is happening here and there. Do I use a series of shots formatting?

For example a sub fires up a torpedo against a destroyer.

I have a 'description' of the launch, the torpedo view until it hits the target, the blast of the destroyer.

Considering that most of the scene headings would be something like INT./EXT. all the time for the destroyer/sub etc, can I just use (is it better/the correct method) something like this ?:

Scene heading- ext. north atlantic-day
....

THE SUB
...

THE DEEP
...

THE DESTROYER
...

THE SUB
...

Or can I use a single action block for everything that occurs till the torpedo hits the mark, without constantly changing scene headings from the sub to the destroyer and vice versa?

Hey Gerasimos,

I've never written a battlescene myself but I remembered there's a similar battle sequence at the script of Game of Thrones for the "Battle of the Bastards".

It's written by the series showrunners David Benioff & D. B. Weiss and it starts with a battle sequence involving two armadas of ships, dragons and  people on mainland.

You can take a look here:  

Emmys website

They simply use a series of scenes and cut between them. I think it's easier and cleaner and you can combine it with mini-slugs, as you suggested, so it keeps the focus on the action.

Hope it helps.

This doesn't feel 'right' in my case.

I went through various famous movie scripts with battles and I came to the conclusion that both styles of montage/series of shots are both 'correct', or at least not false.

Just finished my script, I used the one-scene action block for the small battle scenes, the other SHOTS approach for the big one.

I think it's gonna be even more clear for someone to check the scenes on the actual script and give me his opinion about the formatting.

Love for you to email me the scene so I can look at it and see what you came up with: tjalex01@gmail.com