Screenwriting : Scene Description by Bryan Blasingame

I go bare bones enough to establish scene and that is it. Let the production crew do their thing/interpretation. EG for Office I'd just write "Small office. Glass partitioning with blinds. A desk hosts a computer, phone and printer." Artwork on wall."

However I will always describe anything i want the viewer to know that is relevant to the plot or character so I can show not tell. EG. If I was describing an office of someone pivotal and want to "show" what this character is like, I might write "small messy office. Out dated decor. Paper and files stacked on desk. Overflowing in tray. Full ashtray on desk next to photos of family and of a younger Bill in military uniform with army buddies"

Or maybe the room is not important to character but to the plot. "Large Office with prestigious wooden desk. Several pot plants adorn room. A window overlooks the river. Next to the window a large filing cabinet safe. The top drawer is slightly open."

But it is funny when you watch the behind the scenes of movies and you see how things like room design is done by a crew once they understand the character or time setting etc. They add their awesome touches which help bring scenes to life or reflect that character.

Write what's important to the action. Set the visuals, it's important but do it so that you use as fewer words as possible. Everything in the scene needs to have a point. If the rooms a mess you need to say so. If it's snowing you need to say so. Intricate details exist to advanced the story. You should always IMHO set the scene when it's new, but you have to do so conservatively. A good way to do it is to write is as you desire then go through it and make each sentence exist with as few words as possible. Then remove what doesn't matter. Hope that helps. It's a personal thing and you develop your own style doing it so don't be afraid to do that. However also consider a page is approximately a minute so if you spend half a page in description you are going to ruin the page count.

Good posts in this thread already. I read a lot of scripts that have non value-added narrative. I read a good script on Monday where the writer had a brief paragraph about a guy sitting at the diner wearing a fedora. It added absolutely no value and did not augment the atmosphere of the scene setup. The person did nothing in the story, so to me it was a total waste of space. Whereas if you tell me there's a room full of 70's kids smoking pot in a candlelit room with clouds of incense smoke that adds to the atmosphere of the narrative without bogging down the story.

I equate writing screenplays to lean manufacturing. If the writing doesn't help to make a better product, get rid of it. I also look at each page of the script as value real estate. So I don't want to waste space on blither-blather that doesn't move the story along.

I'll echo all three above me. Lean is the thing. Use powerful visual words so that you don't have to describe everything in detail. What's important is atmosphere.

I approach it like this, Am I telling the production designer and set designer how to do their job? If so, then it needs to go.

Too much description will burden the script.

Pete and Karen, thanks so much for the tips!

This is your chance to be “writery”. Dialogue is driven by your characters, plot is the outcome of punishing your character. But scene description speaks about you. It is you speaking to the reader.

It is easy to be brief and descriptive. Use metaphor and example.

Her bedroom is dark filled full of teenage angst and emo attitude.

Don't go in too much details, otherwise the production designer won't have enough creativity freedom. It's a collaborative process and your screenplay is supposed to be a blueprint.

I keep it brief as I can and sometimes include it in the action to make it less boring... maybe that's just me.

Unless the location is a key central element of the story, keep it simple, basic, "brief" like Dan Guardino suggested .

Thank you everyone. This helps out a lot.