Day 12: Transition Scenes with Meaning

[Elliott Williams]

Subject: Elliott Williams, Dramatic Scene Transitions

“What I learned from doing this assignment is…?”
The six transitions that we can use to transition, but you must be economical with all except one.

ASSIGNMENT

BEFORE

APRIL
turns, realizes that she’s spinning her wheels. She stops for a moment… sees something shining from the curio behind Jake’s desk.
A gold clock atop the dusty shelf. Trace sees the etched words reading… “for twenty years of government service”… then the words “National Discovery & Research Command… Fort Belvoir”…
She picks up the retirement gift and realizes…
EXT. FORT BELVOIR MILITARY BASE – ESTABLISHING
Airy. Sunny. A massive collection of drab looking government buildings overtake this installation forty miles south of Washington, DC.
EXT. GATE ENTRANCE – DAY
April is waiting in her car at the guard’s booth.
A soldier comes to her car.
GATE SOLDIER
Ma’am. There’s no Brent Dent inside.
She shows him a picture.

AFTER

April turns, realizes that she’s spinning her wheels. She stops for a moment… sees something shining from the curio behind Jake’s desk.
A gold clock atop the dusty shelf. April sees the etched words reading… “for twenty years of government service”… then the words “National Discovery & Research Command… Fort Belvoir”…
She picks up the retirement gift and realizes…

EXT. FT. BELVOIR – GATE ENTRANCE – DAY
April is waiting in her car at the guard’s booth.
A soldier comes to her car.
GATE SOLDIER
Ma’am. There’s no Brent Dent inside.
She shows him a picture.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by  Elliott Williams.

[Mary Chamberlin]

Mary and Rich’s Dramatic Scene Transitions

What I learned from doing this assignment is that changing a few transitions help keep things interesting, not just all sequential and linear, so the reader asks questions about this protagonist and furthers emotional attachments.

Your job on this assignment is to use this process and experience a success with it.

1. Using your script, skip through it, looking only at the transitions between the scenes.

2. Make a note of every scene transition that could benefit from one of the transitions listed in #3.

INT. – DINER – NIGHT

Finally, the two start to outline, dismally. Jax has to keep explaining things to Morty. Jax bargains with Morty, says he will get him a hot date (via social media) and in return Morty will commit 100% to wormhole aliens, and forget Shakespeare vs Hitler. They’ll continue the outline in the morning, this time at Morty’s place.

INT – MORTY’S HOUSE – THE NEXT DAY

Jax shows up at Noon, teases Morty about his place.

Chose The Question and Answer Transition.

Before and After on the transition between them.

BEFORE

MORTY

Stop. Which app is Bella on?

JAX

I don’t know. How about this? You like coffee, Morty.

On Screen App: “Coffee and A Roll”

MORTY

I never drink coffee in bed.

JAX

Wait a minute. She’s ex-air force.

On Screen App: “Air Forced”

JAX

Or how about Curvy Waves, BadAss or Cat’s Meow.

The Apps pop up filling the screen.

MORTY

OMG! Too much, kid!

JAX

I knew I’d get a ka-ching.

MORTY

Let’s get to work. We left off with the aliens landing in Germany, right?

JAX

It’s gonna be a long day.

—————————————————————————————————————————-

AFTER

JAX

Or how about Curvy Waves, BadAss or Cat’s Meow.

The Apps pop up filling the screen.

MORTY

OMG! Too much, kid!

JAX

I knew I’d get a ka-ching.

MORTY

Enough of this! I just want to find a way to date Bella. Is that so hard?

JAX

When she’s your teacher, yes.

MORTY

How can I solve the riddle of the Sphinx?

INT – SCHOOL CLASSROOM – DAY

Bella googles Morty, as even though she blew him off she’s intrigued. He obviously

had worn a uniform at one point, his personality screamed it, and well she hadn’t been

dating much recently. She giggles at some of his online info, he’s humorous and manly

in a respectful way that appeals to her. Before she closes the browser, she saves his

search info on favorites bookmark for later use. Then she gets back to work on a video

game she just started – called Shakespeare vs. Hitler, a nerdy mashup of action and drama.