Introduce Yourself : Write or WRONG by Julie Merrick

Probably best discussed in the Screenwriting forum, but my understanding is that doors CREAK as cues for the foley artist, whereas a guy who hits his thumb with a hammer merely yelps. Diff is human vs. inanimate or (sometimes) offscreen sounds.

I saw this technique in one of S32 member CJ Walley's screenplays and really liked it. He does it well. It creates a great punch-effect for certain words. Gunfire POPS. Engines ROAR. However, it seems like one of those "gimmicks" that might fall out of favor at any time. I liked it and felt it the first time I read it. I don't know if readers get sick of it when they have to read hundreds of screenplays. Seems like the kind of thing one might get sensitized to with continued over-exposure, especially to the many many people who are going to use the technique in the worst way possible. Sparing and judicious applications do seem merited, however.

I've read many script readers' blogs and several books (e.g. Your Screenplay SUCKS!) and have not seen consistent--well, any, really-- complaints over how sounds are represented in action. I think readers are more upset with bad formatting, typos, poor grammar, overdescription, novelistic or purple prose, clunky dialog. The issue of formatting sound effects seems to be way down their list.

Thank you for the feedback. Best

Like Mike said, use judiciously when merited. In 15+ years in Hollywood, I've never seen this question come up, which is in line with what Alex wrote. With anything you write in a script, whether it's a sound, a prop, lighting, direction, etc., you are asking for the reader's mental energy. We have only finite mental energy. Don't "cry wolf." If you ask for your attention too often, especially when it's not merited, you'll burn all our energy and faith. We won't have the mental energy left to notice the important stuff when you're not "crying wolf." Think of your a reader approaching your script like a parent approaches a babbling toddler. A toddler may babble for an hour and none of what he says is important. If your script contains too much "babble," we tune out, and you may lose our attention before we read the touches you put in that really do count.

All that said, I helped sell a pitch to New Regency a while back. When the script came in, the writer wrote "BLAM BLAM" for gunshots. It's been 7 years, and I still remember those BLAMS. So judiciously when merited.

Julie: it's possible the reader has stage training. In a STAGE PLAY, all SOUNDS are capitalized. And that's because the Sound Designer must create a special track fir these. I saw such a fabulous world premiere last night in NYC!! Still under the spell.

I defer to "Your CUT TO: is Showing" by TJ Alex for sceenplay format questions. TJ Alex says that sounds that originate from actors onscreen are not capitalized. Sounds that originate from inanimate objects should always be capitalized. Sounds originating from actors off screen should also always be capitalized. This makes sense to me and I'd really hate to try to decide if a sound was important enough to merit capitalization.

I think I got it - does this work? EXT. THEME PARK - DAY JULIE shifts her weight from foot to foot as she nears the entrance for the MINEBUSTER rollercoaster ride. A crow's dropping SPLATTERS Julie's arm. She frowns, forfeiting her place in line. Heads straight to the exit. INT. BATHROOM - DAY With a mixture of disgust and relief, Julie scrubs her arm for the fifth time in a row. Washes her red hands one more time. CRASH - a rollercoaster car collapses the left part of the ceiling. A BODY lands on a fluorescent lightbulb tube. Blood SPLASHES across Julie's face. Julie blinks repeatedly - the body spasms. A crow CAWS as it perches itself on a piece of rebar. It's head tilts, assessing Julie. Julie's knees release. Her head hits the tiles with a sickening THUD. SIRENS blare as firefighter, SOFIA, athletic and attractive, bends over Julie. Her eyebrow raises in recognition. Sofia wipes Julie's face before effortless hoisting her onto a stretcher. SOFIA (softly) Don't worry - I got this.

Hard to judge out of context, but given what I can see, I would not highlight any of those cues, except maybe the rollercoaster crash, and only if that crash is a big event. Here's a good example: if you're writing Final Destination, and you want to show the important events in a chain reaction that cause a death, you might want to highlight those individual events by capitalizing. But you may not need to.

CAPS are used to indicate the focus of a shot, but you do not need to capitalize JULIE in your first shot because it's obvious that the camera needs to focus on her. (Or were you trying to introduce her as a character? Is so, she needs a bit more description and an age.) The crow's dropping don't need to be capitalized unless you actually want a folly noise for that. A lot of bird dropping I've experienced in real life were quite silent, so I don't think you really need a folly noise unless you're going for a gross out / comedic situation. You did use CAPS correctly in all lines in the INT. Bathroom scene. So, as my mother used to say, "I think she's got it."

I think (correct me if I'm wrong) scripts these days are written to be read first. So I wouldn't worry about any sort of direction to the tech crew. It's more a matter of taste and what you want to emphasize. I just read the thriller script PRISONERS and it had a lot of these CAPS, and they really helped to keep me jumpy and on the edge of my seat. Genre matters in this, too.