Doin' rewrites and had a couple of quick short questions

1) CONTINUOUS in slugline. If a) people inside a building act then people outside - is that continuous.

2) use of int/ext in slugs. - If I'm in a building and see something outside or something happens out is the window that's described is that INT/EXT - same for riding in car?

And 3) I just read on three sites (Trottier and August included) that INT/EXT does not have a period after it like EXT. or INT.  Anybody else go by this.

Thanks ahead of time.

John

As far as I know, your use of Continuous and inside/outside shots seems to be correct.

I use Final Draft and the format just uses I/E for inside/outside shorts

example...

I/E JOHN'S CAR - NIGHT

John, to be honest I try to avoid Continuous cause I often get it wrong.

The main thing is absolutely no interruption to time.

Below is a quote from the glossary I listed at the end of this post.

CONTINUOUS
     Sometimes, instead of DAY or NIGHT at the end of a SLUGLINE/Location Description, you'll see CONTINUOUS.

Basically, continuous refers to action that moves from one location to another without any interruptions in time. For example, in an action movie, the hero may run from the airport terminal into a parking garage. The sequence may include cuts, but the audience would perceive the action as a continuous sequence of events from the terminal to the lobby to the street to the garage to the second floor to a car etc. CONTINUOUS is generally optional in writing and can be dropped altogether.

For Example:

INT. AIRPORT LOBBY - DAY

JANET looks over her shoulder. The MEN IN BLACK are still after her, toppling innocent passersby and sending luggage flying across the linoleum floor. Janet faces forward again and nearly runs smack into a nun. She apologizes and pushes through the glass doors.

EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS

Janet stumbles to the curb, stopping short of the honking traffic. As a bus flies by, blasting her with wind, she steps out into traffic. A car SWERVES to avoid her! She GASPS, looks back. The men in black are there.

...

I don't know that there's a hard and fast rule with INT/EXT.

...And for scenes that take place in a moving car, I often note it as

INT./EXT. RONNA’S CAR – NIGHT [DRIVING]

to indicate that we’re both inside and outside of the car during the scene.
https://johnaugust.com/2003/int-and-ext

I wouldn't be concerned about the period.
INT./EXT. Both periods looks weird to me, but maybe that's the correct way...

Here's a glossary, but be wary of taking everything as gospel. Trends in screenwriting and right and wrong methods change all the time.

http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/a-glossary-of-screenwriting-terms-and-filmmaking-definitions.html#I

Stick to Industry Standard when writing a Spec.
A word on that ( not my own) but I agree:

https://www.keepwriting.com/tsc/industry.htm

I second Libby on the continuous in the example below:
"INT. AIRPORT LOBBY - DAY

JANET looks over her shoulder. The MEN IN BLACK are still after her, toppling innocent passersby and sending luggage flying across the linoleum floor. Janet faces forward again and nearly runs smack into a nun. She apologizes and pushes through the glass doors.

EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS

Janet stumbles to the curb, stopping short of the honking traffic. As a bus flies by, blasting her with wind, she steps out into traffic. A car SWERVES to avoid her! She GASPS, looks back. The men in black are there."

I would do CONTINUOUS here as well. Basically it's a continuation of a previous scene. In some cases it's arbitrary - what if your character was inside then some time passes before he got outside. And I'll still do continuous in this case as well - to show that there's no changes to the way your character looks and his state of mind in that scene.

Thanks

I second what's been said above, and note that it is supposed to be INT/EXT. or EXT/INT. if the camera is going to be moving from one location to another, or there are a mix of locations in a montage. The reality is that writers use it to clarify complicated scenes like looking through a window.

I've gotten pushback for using Final Draft's I/E. and E/I.

CONTINUOUS is basically optional but can make it clearer to a reader that no time has passed between scenes. The people who need to see CONTINUOUS are the ones in charge of props, costumes, continuity, etc. because it's unlikely that those two scenes will be physically shot on the same day, let alone one right after the other.

I'd suggest taking it easy on your crew and see if your men can be clean-shaven (or fully bearded) during these sequences and that the positions of the Sun and Moon aren't important :)

CONTINUOUS is one of those things that annoy me for no apparent reason. I'm guessing it's because the first time I saw it I didn't know what it meant. So - I guess I break the technical rule by using something like MOMENTS LATER - SECONDS LATER - etc, instead. Somehow to me it just reads clearer that way.

It does. Seem ambiguous as does its use