[I posted this in the Genre lounge but no one seems to be reading the forums....hoping someone is checking in here at Realism...]

...what would you call that place, in the EXT and INT sluglines?

My MC is a homicide detective investigating a serial killer so he's back and forth a lot to the venue, i.e. his "office" -- only it's never called that....

I've looked at a lot of different scripts, and there doesn't seem to be a standard usage...I don't want anything to long or cumbersome ....

EXT
Police Department
Police Headquarters

INT
Squad room [too general? i.e. all the cops, uniforms and 'tecs, would be in a squad room?]
Homicide Department
Homicide

______ ? any ideas, suggestions, much welcomed!

Thanks :D

How about precinct? I like watching the Law & Order series becaues they always put the name of where they are before a scene. This might me a good place to see what names they use for where a dectives works. You might want to just put the department they are working at....behavioral unit, sex crimes unit...etc.etc.

Well good luck hope this helps.

Precinct might work -- it refers to the building and the area, i.e. "24th Precinct" -- I *think* it's used more in northeastern cities, but that would be fine b/c that's where this story is set. I'll check for Law & Order scripts (I've only seen transcripts so far)

Thanks for responding!

A precinct is an open area defined usually by buildings and/or roads. The police building is, I think, more correctly a 'precinct house'.

It needs to be unique and reasonably descriptive so the reader gets an immediate idea of what they are supposed to be imagining.

INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY

would be my fave. POLICE HQ could be anywhere in the building. SQUAD ROOM is the room where this squad works out of and is pretty much by definition in the precinct house/police headquarters/whatever you call it.

Ian

I'm looking for EXT and INT -- i.e.

EXT. POLICE HEADQUARTERS - DAY [or PRECINCT, or _____?]

DETECTIVE MC shoves through a crowd of TV REPORTERS to get into the building.

INT. HOMICIDE UNIT - DAY [or SQUAD ROOM, or ___?]

MC ignores the curious stares of the other detectives. His phone rings just as he reaches his desk. He grabs it.

=========
Wondering if Squad Room is more re: the general area where uniform and plainclothes cops converge, the Sergent on duty sends visitors to different departments, civilians waiting on benches to talk to someone, etc.

Thanks for the input!

The scene header describes the scene (obviously) so if the building has more than one room inside, you need to be more specific with the INT than the EXT.

The point of the slugline is so a) the reader knows where the action is and b) so the film crew know what to set up for (hence DAY/NIGHT as well) and c) so the producer can decide to shoot all the EXT. SHED - DAY scenes and then set up for all the INT. SHED - DAY scenes then change the lighting and do all the INT. SHED - NIGHT scenes.

INT. SHED is fine with EXT. SHED - because one is the interior of the whole thing and the other the exterior of the whole thing.

You can have EXT. POLICE HEADQUARTERS because it is a building you can see the outside of, but INT. POLICE HEADQUARTERS could be any of 250+ rooms.

It's a scene heading, you have to have the actual scene name in it somewhere. If your protag gets hauled into the captain's office then INT. CAPTAIN'S OFFICE, POLICE HEADQUARTERS - DAY but why not just INT. CAPTAIN'S OFFICE - DAY? Where else is the captain's office going to be?

Same with the squad room. The production crew need something more specific than INT. POLICE HEADQUARTERS - DAY because otherwise they don't know if it's the captain's office, the hallway, the vestibule, the men's room, the second-floor kitchen, the basement evidence room or WTF you mean.

INT. CAPTAIN'S OFFICE- DAY

Everyone knows it's in the police station. Same with SQUAD ROOM - where else is it going to be?

INT. FRED'S APARTMENT - DAY

What are you imagining? Living room? Kitchen? Bedroom? Actually we're in the coat cupboard in the hallway - but how do you know unless I tell you?

Unless there is only one room in the place (shed/garage/greenhouse/car/sentry box/toll booth/etc), you can't have the INT scene matching the EXT scene name for the simple reason that inside, you don't know which room you are in.

OK. You are in charge of setting up the scenes for this film, you see:

INT. HOTEL - DAY

...what do you set up on the sound stage?>

Take a step back and ask yourself what the slugline is for.

Ian

Yes, of course, I'm aware of all that Screenwriting 101 stuff, and I know to differentiate between the locations with the overall location. Obviously CAPTAIN'S OFFICE, INTERROGATION ROOM, SQUAD ROOM, etc. will be inside the police station. When the scene is zeroed in on my MC, the slug line says MC'S DESK.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough in my original question...what I'm trying to determine is what to call that particular area where the homicide detectives work -- like the bull pen in a newsroom.

If this were another type of profession I'd refer to it as MC'S OFFICE, but my understanding is that detectives do not generally have their own individual offices.

I'll probably just give it a long official name the first time [e.g., INT. NORTHSIDE PRECINCT or CITY NAME POLICE HEADQUARTERS - HOMICIDE UNIT or DEPT.] and after that just refer to it as HOMICIDE.

I wasn't intending to insult your intelligence. Sorry if I did, but it is not always easy to know what level people are at.

Personally, I wouldn't worry *too* much so long as people know what you are referring to. I can't imagine readers imagining anything other that you intend if you were to use SQUAD ROOM. In the UK it's known as the CID General Office.

How many romances have the bride walking through the porch of a church and up the aisle when in fact they enter through the narthex and walk up the nave.

I would (again speaking just personally from my own experience) use the name of the room and not a piece of furniture. My limited but not entirely theoretical experience of directors is that they would prefer STUDY so they can set up a study rather than DAVE'S DESK and DAVE'S ARMCHAIR and STUDY DOOR and BAY WINDOW which are all actually in the same scene.

It's just my opinion - feel free to ignore it.

If you are really worried about the technical name of the place where detectives work, you could do worse than to turn up at your local police station and tell them you are a writer and are looking for information to help you write realistically.

You will not go away without a useful experience. You may find what you need, but at worst you will find out how an innocent person is treated when they ask unusual questions.

I used to work for a voluntary organisation. One of the people there worked as a dog-handler for the drug section of Customs and Excise. I asked him about a smuggling method I'd come up with for a screenplay. He seemed very interested in my screenplay, especially the bit about smuggling (it was an idea he had never come across in 15 years with C&E). I ended up being investigated by the drug squad. It was very educational.

Ian

"I used to work for a voluntary organisation. One of the people there worked as a dog-handler for the drug section of Customs and Excise. I asked him about a smuggling method I'd come up with for a screenplay. He seemed very interested in my screenplay, especially the bit about smuggling (it was an idea he had never come across in 15 years with C&E). I ended up being investigated by the drug squad. It was very educational."

!!!! lol, and yikes! that's a screenplay right there...!

Thanks for your help,

DMac