What do you capitalize in a screenplay

Thus, his or her name is capitalized only that one time. So forget what you learned in university. Leave the caps to Shakespeare. Ken moves towards the dense treeline, holding a survival knife. He quickly kneels down and listens. By not putting every little action in CAPS, you can also extenuate the action that you do feature a little more. Regardless, using CAPS to feature actions should be only used when those actions are significant enough that they change or add to the story, scene, or moment.

When they are overused, they lead to nothing more than distractions as the reader's brain skips otherwise important scene description and focuses on the words in CAPS that stand out the most. Learn the best way to structure your screenplay with this free guide. If the survival knife that Ken is carrying is partial to the story, you can undoubtedly feature it in CAPS. If it is an object that doesn't later play into the story, it's not worth featuring.

If that were the case and you still put that object in CAPS, you're telling the reader that the survival knife is important and may be playing a key role in the scenes to come. If he only uses the knife for basic purposes, you're misleading the reader and wasting their time by featuring it in CAPS — another distraction.

You can also feature objects on their own slugline to call attention to them, which is basically telling the reader to envision a close-up. If Ken had a revolver instead of a survival knife, you can utilize a capitalized slugline as such:. This shows us that Ken is ready to take action. He feels threatened enough that he's ready and willing to shoot whatever threat approaches from within the woods.

Yes, screenwriters can overuse this practice, but it's also very useful in creating a cinematic experience without outright directing the script using camera angles and closeups — something you should never do. This featured object slugline is being used to build tension and inform the reader of an important element to the scene.

Screenwriters have read many production drafts of screenplays. Production drafts have many screenplay elements that should not be featured in a spec script — camera angles, transition, scene numbers, etc. This communicates a visual that will be created with the need for either practical special effects non-digital or rendered computer graphics CG.

That's not your job to dictate that as a screenwriter. Just tell us what we're supposed to be seeing. Screenwriters don't need to dictate what type of filmmaking will go into the design and rendering of that alien creature. On the other hand, particular sound effects can be featured in scene description using CAPS. The reason this sound could be featured is that it continues to build the tension.

Ken has just heard a noise from the woods that has alarmed him. He's now kneeling down and trying to be quiet as he listens for more signs of an approaching threat. But he has to get his weapon ready. When he does, the sound of the revolver's hammer engaging creates a loud enough noise to echo through the woods, which means that whatever or whoever is out there likely heard it as well.

But much like the mistake of putting almost every action in CAPS, you want to avoid making the same mistake of putting every sound effect in CAPS as well. Use the practice only as a tool to support the story and feature only the most important elements of any scene. Screenplay transitions are part of a long, ongoing debate between pundits, screenwriters, and industry insiders.

Pundits and gurus often declare that screenwriters should avoid transitions — or any camera directions — in their screenplays, with no exceptions.

However, the truth is that there is a middle ground. Screenwriters writing on spec should be writing cinematic screenplays that offer readers a cinematic experience. Writing cinematically is very important for the spec scriptwriter.

Most readers are just looking for a great read — plain and simple. Scene headings and slug lines. Character extensions for "voice-over" and "off-screen. A feather floats through the air. The falling feather. Integral sounds, visual effects, or props that need to be captured in a scene. All examples used are from the Forrest Gump screenplay, written by Eric Roth. What are you thoughts on capitalization?

Feel free to share in the comments below! Cheers to writing! Before you dive in, make sure you have a good grasp on the type of phone call you want to have in your scene and the correct way to format it in traditional screenwriting. There are 3 main scenarios for screenplay phone calls: Scenario 1: Only one character is seen and heard. Scenario 2: Both characters are heard, but only one is seen.

Scenario 3: Both characters are seen and heard. For phone conversations where only one of the characters is seen and heard, format the scene the same as How To Format a Phone Call In Traditional Screenwriting: Scenario Two In our last blog post, we introduced the 3 main types of phone calls that you may encounter in a screenplay: Scenario 1: Only one character is seen and heard. Scenario 3: Both characters are heard and seen.