Hi All

Please advice on the correct format to: In a scene- go into a T.V scene, and back out.
I wrote the following below:

INT. NEW YORK - HOUSE - DAY.

Steven sitting in his study watching TV - CNN news channel.

ZOOM INTO T.V- TO SHOW:

INT. KENYA - HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT

                      SAME FEMALE REPORTER
          ...from fraudulent Priest to African sungorma
          to child killer! You heard correct, in that thi...

He switch's the T.V off. Leans back in his chair in deep thought.

INT. SOUTH BEACH - DAY

A clear sun... Blaa... Blaa...

Thanks.

When in doubt, keep it simple. Instead of thinking in terms of shots, think in terms of just telling us what's happening. For instance...

INT. CHRIS' HOUSE (NEW YORK) - STUDY - DAY (1)

Chris watches a REPORTER on TV reporting from a hotel room in Kenya (2).

REPORTER
Dialogue, words, verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc.

Chris turns the TV off and leans back, pensive.

(1) Watch your slug lines. In your slug you say New York, House. Then in the scene, you further indicate we're in a study. That's all information you can indicate in the master slug.

(2) This is what I mean by just telling us what's happening instead of trying to write specific shots. That kind of thing gets really old, really quick. It's a distraction and more often than not only serves to impede the reader getting into the story.

You'll get varying opinions on this. Some folks will say it's perfectly fine to write in terms of shots. I'm not opposed to it myself, except when it's used to distract from the writer's weak grasp of storytelling (not saying that applies to you, just generalizing).

Tell us what happens. Let the director worry about how it plays out on the screen.

Good luck. Keep writing.

It depends. The way you’ve written it, the camera zooms in then the scene changes. So we’re not seeing what’s on the TV but we are where the reporter is.

If you just want to show what Steven is watching something simple like -

INT. NEW YORK - HOUSE - DAY.

Steven sits in his study watching TV - CNN news channel.

ON TV: A female reporter stands in a Kenyan hotel room.


                             REPORTER
          ...from fraudulent Priest to African sungorma
          to child killer! You heard correct, in that thi...

Steven switch's the T.V off. Leans back in his chair in deep thought.

INT. NEW YORK - HOUSE - DAY.

Steven watches a news broadcast on TELEVISION (capitalize to indicate a prop)

ON TV:(shot transition)

INT. KENYA - HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT (no need to write this, until you want the shot to actually transit to Kenya, as in the real place Kenya. Incorporate the location 'Kenya' in the Reporter's dialog as in the actual reporting.)

                     SAME FEMALE REPORTER
(it will be fine not to write 'SAME', continuity will be taken care of in the production)
          ...from fraudulent Priest to African sungorma
          to child killer! You heard correct, in that thi...

ON STEVEN: Leans back in his chair in deep thought.

OR

You can simply cut the chase and do this-

INT. NEW YORK - HOUSE - DAY.

Steven sits in his study, watches news on TELEVISION.

FEMALE REPORTER(V.O.)

In Kenya........

This way no need to bother about writing scene transitions. Plus, cost-effective from the production point of view.

If it's really important to have the TV mostly or completely fill the screen (and it probably isn't), you'd use:

INT. NEW YORK - HOUSE - STUDY - DAY.

Steven sits watching TV.

INSERT: TV tuned to CNN.

The show is reporting live from a hotel room in Kenya where it is night.

                        FEMALE REPORTER
          ...from fraudulent Priest to African sungorma
          to child killer! You heard correct, in that thi...

BACK TO SCENE

Steven switches the T.V. off. Leans back in his chair in deep thought.

INT. SOUTH BEACH - DAY

A clear sun... Blaa... Blaa...

If you just care that the audience can see the TV screen, use FOCUS: instead of INSERT:, and in that case there's no BACK TO SCENE because you never really left.

Thanks ALL for commenting / advice.

One can't but notice how many different ways there to write it. hereto 4, if 10 people posted hereto we'd have 10 different ways? Anon, yours is very smooth on the read.

Quoted from BarryJohn Thanks ALL for commenting / advice. One can't but notice how many different ways there to write it. hereto 4, if 10 people posted hereto we'd have 10 different ways? Anon, yours is very smooth on the read.

Honestly, I will bend the 'correct' format if I think it's an easier/better read. I try to write it so even someone reading their first script wouldn't get confused.