Film 210: Week 5

Setting and Action Descriptions

This lesson covers:

  • Setting descriptions
  • Action description
  • Combining all elements on the page

We’ll continue exploring description, focusing on settings and objects, and standard writing practices. Then we’ll explore how to combine all description elements on the page.

Settings

At the introduction of new locations, tell us where your scene takes place. Do not convey this in the slug-line. Slug-lines should be simple and minimal.

Add a short line of description, similar to how you would describe characters. Focus on capturing the essence of the place. Brevity is a strength.

Even if it's a place we might know—for example, the suburbs—a good description can communicate tone, mood, and context:

Main Street, USA. Beneath the Fourth of July parades, high school football glory, and blue-ribbon apple pies at the county fair lies the heart of the real American Dream.

However, if it were something like this, it becomes a different story:

Main Street, USA. Despite the Fourth of July parades, high school football glory, and blue-ribbon apple pies at the county fair, whispers of foreclosures and shuttered factories linger on the outskirts of town.

Specifying the month can convey mood. New York in October is different than New York in July.

A story not set in the present may need more description, especially if it is unfamiliar to modern culture.

1350s. Medieval Europe. The Black Death ravages the continent; castles evolve, the Hundred Years' War rages on.

It often helps to assign a specific year, especially if it isn’t set in our time. It prepares a reader for the changes that are described.

If it’s set in an obscure or unique location, briefly describe the scene so that a reader can visualize it clearly.

Only show details if they impact the characters. A radical new political system isn’t vital to a character that’s lost in the desert.

Location Do’s

  • Introduce new locations with a brief description
  • Capture the essence of the place concisely.
  • Use description to convey tone, mood, and context.

Tips

  • Specify the month to convey mood
  • Assign a specific year for non-contemporary settings
  • Describe unique or obscure locations briefly but vividly
  • Focus on details that impact characters

Objects

When showing unique objects, it helps to describe them. However, the danger is not to over-describe an object.

Give the essence of what the object is explained in a sentence.

Focus on what it might look like in our world—a gun, a camera, a car. Use character interaction to describe its purpose. Sounds can also be useful.

Gary grabs the Optithon, a weaponized telescope that fits in the palm of his hand. He aims—WHOOSH— a laser shoots out, and Paul is vaporized into dust.

Object Do’s

  • Describe unique objects concisely
  • Focus on real-world comparisons
  • Use character interactions to show purpose
  • Incorporate sounds when relevant

Putting it all together

The goal is not to create holes in your story that your readers will fill in on their own. Descriptions help fill in enough details so that on a later page, you don't tell us a detail you never clarified that pulls us out of the story and we have to go back and figure out what we missed.

Introduce your places, objects, and characters only as they appear in the story. You don't need to put them in all at the start.

A simple method of using descriptions is:

  1. SLUGLINE
  2. Intro location with description.
  3. Intro character with description and place them in action.
  4. Intro second character (if needed).
  5. Move into the story.
Another example of introducing a location and characters.

Remember

  • Brevity and vividness are your allies in description
  • Focus on the essence of what you're describing
  • Introduce elements as they appear in the story
  • Don't over-direct; allow room for cast and crew creativity