Screenwriting : Always CAP characters when you first introduce them? by Rutger Oosterhoff

Wait what? I've never heard of that. Every character that appears for the first time in my scripts gets introduced with capitals.

The Hollywood Standard - 2nd edition

"If a character doesn't have any lines, don't capatalize his name" ( A rare exception is made for a major character who doesn't speak but nevertheless has a significant, ongoing role in the story.)

Rutger, I agree with CJ...I learned right from the start that every character in a script is introduced with capital letters upon introduction (whether they've got dialog or not).

Thanks bunches for asking!

Ten years and I've never heard of this rule, never had any complaints either, but it kinda makes sense when you think about it. You only use capitals to introduce a significant character, and thus readers know who to pay attention to.

I achieve the same with thing the length of the character description. The more prominent the character, the more of a description they get.

I can't see myself changing my ways now as I'm pretty sure the people I work with would find it odd.

Did you read the above Jim? The whole idea is that there are the official rules. But, but, we live in modern times, and 'some' rules have become, let's say 'flexible' , in this case I could imagine that CAPPING CHARACTER NAMES that don't have dialog isn't a sin.

I was told to CAP all actors, whether they have dialogue or not. (No cap... as the kids say)

You should ALL CAP a character's name when they first appear on film. That isn't always the first time their name appears in the script. It does not matter if they have dialogue or not. The reason you do it is so the actor or their representative knows when their character first appears in the movie.

In principle I agree with all, nobody is going to die either way. (see commend above)

Dan, I guess when a spec is taken into production, then in the production script (version) those characters without dialog can be CAPT so actor / actres or their representative knows when their character first appears in the movie.

Let the other writer worry about production drafts.

Rutger, I actually DID read the above. I read your question.

I don't take contributing to posts lightly...I try to do the best I can.

I'll work to be more careful from now on.

Thank you.

Wish we could normalize that these "rules" are "suggested" instead of rules. Anyway, I've read several top scripts that don't always follow "the rules". With that said, if you're started out, keep in mind that reader/producer, etc isn't familiar with your style. You want your script to be an easy read, meaning you don't want them flipping back to see who's-who. So make sure script is clear and clean as possible. You want them reading the whole script.

... Sorry Jim, all good.

After being a paid script analyst for over 2 decades, the CAP rule is flexible.

For my scripts, any character that needs to be cast gets a CAP introduction like police officers and bystanders at a crime scene.

Francisco, Yes, I agree, the CAP rule is flexible. So it seems you can choose. You mention "police officers," and "bystanders" at a crime scene; just two of too many instances I had to CAP while editing a crime script, like "students" "spectators", "girlfriends", "freshman", "librarian", etc, etc, I starded to feel the script got cluttered with capitalized characters that had no dialog. My (personal) motto is CAP, underscore, Italic, bold as little as possible. So when you use one of these tools it has meaning. I realized all of this after I couldn't get through the " Let Me In" script.

Normally you would not all cap extras in a screenplay.

I use CAPS as a “look at this and remember” tool.

If the person has no dialogue and isn’t important I wouldn’t cap them.

The waiter slips between the crowd expertly balancing a tray of drinks. He arrives at RUTGER sitting in a sofa.

... A pina colada, please.

A modern cultural issue we have now is that writing in upper caps instinctively implies shouting. I read a spec script recently where every significant thing, sound, product, and song (yes there were named songs) was in uppercase and it read like the author had Tourette's.