Action, transition and shot

In one line: how to write the three lines that aren't dialogue — action, transition and shot — including what each of the eleven shot types is for.

Action

Action (tagged AC in the editor) is what happens in front of the camera.

Belongs here: what characters do, how they hold themselves, what their faces do; and what the place does — light, sound, objects in motion.
Doesn't belong here: what a character is thinking. An audience can't see a thought; it has to be played through a line or a gesture.

Sundown. The shopfront. Gu Sui locks an ink cake into the cabinet and weighs the key in his palm.

Shen Yan waits on the customer side of the counter, ink on her cuff.

Outside, the booksellers' street takes its shutters down one board at a time.

The Taiwan format prints a △ in front of every action line. That's the Taiwanese convention; turn it off in format settings if you don't want it. Hollywood has no prefix.

An empty action line never prints a lone △, so using blank lines for rhythm is safe.

Transition

A transition is how one scene joins the next. It behaves unlike the other elements: there's exactly one per scene, and it's pinned to the foot of that scene.

Ordinarily that slot is a line of grey placeholder text. To use it:

Do this	You get
Click the placeholder	An empty transition to type into
Click the ▾ beside it	The common-transitions list; pick one and it's filled in
Click ▾ again once filled	Swap it for another, or choose No transition to clear it

The list depends on your format:

Format	List
Hollywood	CUT TO:, FADE OUT., FADE IN:, DISSOLVE TO:, MATCH CUT TO:, SMASH CUT TO:, TIME CUT:, INTERCUT:, JUMP CUT TO:
Taiwan	CUT TO:, FADE OUT., DISSOLVE TO:

The list is only quick-insert; the text itself is free, so type whatever you need.

Enter on a transition that has text starts a new scene — the old scene ends and the caret lands on the first line of the new one. This is not the same as splitting a scene: that cuts one scene into two; this writes naturally on into the next.

An unfilled transition slot doesn't take a line — neither the preview nor the export shows it.

Shot

A shot is structured: a type plus some content. Type / on an empty line and pick Shot, or press Ctrl + 5, and a two-part line appears:

• On the left, a type button. Click it for a dropdown of the eleven types. Each row also shows the other format's wording, so you can read across.
• On the right, a content field for what the shot is on. It can be left empty.

Printed: Hollywood gives CLOSE ON — three words on a sheet of scrap; Taiwan gives ▲ 特寫：three words on a sheet of scrap. The Taiwan ▲ prefix can be turned off, like action's △.

The eleven shot types

Hollywood label	Taiwan label	When to reach for it
INSERT	插景	Cut in to an object or a detail
CLOSE ON	特寫	Push in on something or someone
ANGLE ON	角度	The same thing from another angle
POV	主觀鏡頭	Seen through a character's eyes
MEDIUM SHOT	中景	Waist-up: the person and the room
WIDE SHOT	遠景	The whole tableau
EXTREME CLOSE UP	大特寫	So close only a fragment is left
BACK TO SCENE	回場景	Back to the scene after an inserted image
TRACKING SHOT	追蹤鏡頭	The camera travels with the movement
SERIES OF SHOTS	連續鏡頭	A run of short shots
MONTAGE	蒙太奇	A montage: time passing, feeling accruing

The list is a fixed eleven; you can't add to it. The label follows the format while the data stays put — so the same line reads 特寫 in the Taiwan format and CLOSE ON in Hollywood.

INSERT is one of those eleven, not a separate element type. Its job is to cut in on an object:

INT. YOU'AN SCRIPTORIUM - NIGHT (the copying room upstairs)

Shen Yan sets the page she has finished to one side.

INSERT — the oilcloth bundle, the ends of the cord turned out.

She frowns.

Related

• Docs: The script element types
• Docs: Enter and Tab: the element flow
• Docs: Scene heading
• Docs: Flashback and special scenes
• Docs: Format switch: Taiwan and Hollywood