INTerior and EXTerior :).

I think these books (among others) are quite good:

?url="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060391685/qid=1114218828/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-6105238-3991368?v=glance&s=books&n=507846"?Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting?/url?

?url="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0240803558/qid=1114218933/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-6105238-3991368"?Vale's Technique of Screen and Television Writing?/url?

?url="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809005271/qid=1114218858/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-6105238-3991368"?Aristotle's Poetics?/url?

EXT means exterior.

INT means interior.

Usually the usage is obvious but sometimes it's not. For example for a scene that takes place in a car out in the desert is that INT or EXT. If you go back to the original usage of the term I think it's about deciding which shots to shoot first (EXT while the weather is good INT as a backup if the weather is bad). A car sitting in the desert would qualify as an Exterior because the same factors that would screw up that shot applies. If that same car is sitting in a garage it would be INT. If that car was suppossed to be in the desert in the middle of the night where it could be filmed in the garage and nobody would notice then you can flip a coin.

Fact is if you are planning to direct this yourself you can't go to far off.

But is it interior if you have the camera inside the car in the desert? And then exterior if shot through the window?

Ross
Marshfield MA, USA

That's how I would look at it. However, the INT/EXT thing is really just a guide in situations like that... as mentioned, it's mostly telling you whether it's going to be a scene you can shoot any time or a scene where you have to rely on good weather to get the shot.