How to Write a TV News Report in a Screenplay
Whether you’re new to screenwriting, or it’s something that you’ve been practicing for a while, there’s a chance that you’ve crossed several paths in which questions have come up about different scenarios and how to write them into your screenplay. For example, do you know how to write a TV news report in a screenplay? What about writing a screenplay that shows characters watching the television news report?
Knowing key details of how to write a TV news report in a screenplay and how to format the dialogue is important for any screenwriter.
To help you understand the process, and how it unfolds in your screenplay writing process, it makes sense to first organize the process into a few basic steps.
Writing that Characters are Watching the News
If you’re writing a screenplay that has your characters actively watching a TV news report during the scene, the process of formatting the news report into the screenplay would go something like this:
INT. LIVING ROOM – CLOSE ANGLE – TV
Following the scene heading, you would then incorporate the dialogue that would be taking place on the television screen and, using parentheticals, you would note that the dialogue was taking place on TV by including (on television) next to the dialogue.
Keep in mind that this example would be how to write a TV news report in a screenplay if the characters would physically be watching the news report during the scene.
But, what if the news were not on at the time and the characters walked into the room and then caught a news report on the TV? It might look something like this next example.
Writing that Characters See the News Come on TV
If you’re writing a screenplay that has your characters entering a room and then seeing the TV news report, you are going to introduce the news slightly differently than in the previous example.
If you want to know how to write a TV news report in a screenplay, such that the characters enter a room and the news ultimately comes onto the TV, it will look like this:
INT. LIVING ROOM – DAY
Alex sits down to watch television.
INSERT – CLOSE ANGLE – TV
A news report comes on tv:
Reporters side by side. One talks.
WOMAN (on tv) Good Evening, in tonight’s breaking news…
Breakdown
As you can see in the example dialogue above, there is an introduction of the scene, there is the note to insert the television scene, and then the dialogue of the news reporter begins.
So, if you’re wondering how to write a TV news report in a screenplay, you have a few options depending on exactly how the screen will play out.
You’ll either introduce the news report immediately, as was shown in the first example, or you can introduce it mid-scene, as was shown in example 2. Either way works well!
