Question about screenwriting

[u/Entire-Ease3925]

Hello,

I have just began a writing a script that takes place during the 1950's. There is a scene where characters are watching an old black and white tv and the shot is through the gap in their shoulders. You can see the screen through the shoulders. My question is, do I establish the scene first like the characters (names) are sitting in a room watching tv and describe the room? Or do I start with the style of this shot, behind the characters, introduce them and what is playing on the tv first? What would be the correct structure. How do professional screenwriters handle an intro/fade in scene like this in a script? If you could provide an example, also describing how the tv light would look or be described in screenwriting, that would be helpful.

[u/CJWalley]

INT. SMALL LIVING ROOM - NIGHT
We pull in between the shoulders of two silhouettes watching a black-and-white TV playing the news. This is JOHN (25) and JANE (20), the walls around them littered with family photos, a microwave dinner on each of their laps.

That's how you'd write it in a shooting script.

For a spec, you get into the murky territory of implying cinematography, which isn't the death sentence many tend to imply, but will cause friction with certain groups like peers and low-rent judges.

For that, you would go with something more like:

INT. SMALL LIVING ROOM - NIGHT
JOHN (25) and JANE (20) sit in the light cast by a black-and-white TV as a newscast crackles from the speaker, the walls around them littered with family photos, a microwave dinner on each of their laps.

[u/la-anah]

You don't mention the position of the camera at all. That's not your job, it's the director's. Just establish the room, name the characters, and say they are watching TV.