Is it necessary to constantly use Parenthetical in phone conversation. I'll give you an example. John (V.O) (over phone, filtered) Yes! Mark (into phone) I can't find it! Are you sure it's here? John (V.O) (over phone, filtered) It's there. Keep looking! Let's say I used Intercut between John and Mark. Do I have to use Parenthetical through entire conversation ( in this case "into phone") because (V.O) and (over phone, filtered) is no longer necessary, or do I have to use it only once for each character. And while we're at it, another example. Boris (in Russian - subtitled) What did I say about guns? No guns near the school... never! So, 2 Russian guys are speaking in Russian, they exchange 5-6 sentences each,... Do I have to use (in Russian - subtitled) all the time or just once for each character.
Screenwriting : Parenthetical Usage. by Niksa Maric
Parenthetical Usage.
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Hi Niksa, you can find some good guidelines in general for this topic at http://screenwriting.io/how-do-you-format-a-telephone-conversation-in-a-... You can also search on John August's site for parentheticals. For the last example you give, set up the fact that they are conversing in Russian in the action lines. Then there is no longer a need to repeat it throughout (unless they switch to another language).
Just use "intercut." Like this: INT. HOUSE John picks up phone and calls Sally INT. SALLY'S HOUSE Sally runs into the room and picks up phone. SALLY Hello? INTERCUT JOHN/SALLY ON PHONE JOHN Hey Sal! SALLY John, hi! And so on and so forth, with regular dialogue formatting through the rest of the conversation. HTH!
Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen, it does help. So, if there's no time to mention that person is Russian, just use (in Russian - subtitled) once and keep going. As for PHONE conversation, I think I'll also go with the USE ONLY ONCE option and Intercut. Ralph. The reason I asked all this was to get things clearer. You know there are hundreds of web sites and blogs and each one will tell you something similar or slightly different. Compare the advice from this link with one you posted. http://storysense.com/format/telephone.htm. Thank you again. I haven't seen much responses to other treads in recent weeks. I guess this means the vacation time is over.
Thank you, Oliver. I know about usage of intercut between different locations, I just wasn't sure for how long I had to use Parenthetical in the scene.