Film: Scene vs. Sequence

These two ideas may be the most confused terms in filmmaking. Part of the reason for this confusion is that the definition of each term changes depending on context.

For simplicity, think of a scene as an event that occurs in one location. It is a smaller unit. A sequence is a series of scenes that when put together create an overarching plot.

Now to get to the more complex. In the early stages of making a film, every location change is listed as a new scene. The location does not have to change drastically. The change could be from inside a house to outside the same house, but each change would be listed as a scene. 
SCENE INT. HOUSE

SCENE EXT. HOUSE

SCENE INT. HOUSE

While filming the above example, you would film all the dialogue or action inside the house at one time and then all the dialogue or action outside the house at another time. To go back and forth between two locations (no matter how close) would mean wasting a lot of time setting up equipment and taking it down. In this case, the scene would probably be considered everything being filmed at one location at one time even if it does not appear chronologically this way in the finished product.

So now that we know how a scene is defined in the script and during filming, how does it change during editing?

Most video editing programs have the ability to find enough changes in imported footage to automatically separate shots into different scenes.

Notice I used the term “shot”. What is that? I thought we were talking about scenes and sequences!

If a scene is the same as a foot and a sequence is a yard, then shots would be inches. A shot is every time there is a different camera setup. So a wide shot of a table would be a different shot than a closeup of an apple on the table and a different shot than an extreme closeup of the stem of the apple. A series of shots make a scene.

Now that we have defined shot and scene, let’s look at what happens when we connect scenes together--we create a sequence.

Most video editing programs call different tabs of footage sequences.

How can we tell when something is a sequence and more than just a scene?

A sequence presents a larger plot structure than just a scene. A sequence may be a long journey. The individual scenes could be a character at the airport, boarding a plane, the plane in the sky, and the plane landing on a runway. As you can see, each one of these would be a separate scene (complete with several shots) but all clearly related in one sequence that furthers the plot.

By varying the length of shots, the number of shots, the length of scenes, and how many scenes make up a sequence, a filmmaker can change the apparent speed of a movie--the pacing.

So, to recap: every different camera setup is a shot, shots combine to make scenes, and scenes combine to make sequences.