Screenwriting : Acronyms in Film and Screenplay Text by Mike Childress

There is so much happening in this post, trying to decipher it...

First of all, read a GOOD script from a movie that has utilised this kind of language, because they would not expect the reader (nor should they) to be able to understand everything.

Second, don't think so far ahead about what the director and technical consultants are thinking. You aren't even close to worrying about that cos the movie isn't getting made. That's fruit before the tree.

But if I'm a reader and have no idea what your acronyms mean and why you are using so many of them, I'm thinking WTF and then I'll GTFO ;)

Lukas Strautins Only curious about the on-set goings-on based on what I have seen/heard as a film fanatic. Basically just wondering if there are set rules in general, not just in the script text, regarding acronym, etc. usage. If you are having actors sleep, eat, and train say like WWII infantry and then speak like a civilian in dialogue it's a bit weird to me. If Keanu goes through all this training for Wick movies and then uses the word "clips" all the combat realism goes out the window for me.

Mike Childress An actor's job is to act. A dentist's job is working on teeth. Is there a confusion on why an actor is not a killing machine?

Do actors not PLAY 'killing machines?...Pretty sure John Wick qualifies, and a host of other characters as well. The WHOLE POINT is if the realism aspect goes for the visuals then why not for the dialogue? Succinct. If you're flip-flopping between lexicon-legitimate language and sanitized speak it obviously breaks continuity of dialogue.

It's show "business". If you alienate an audience, who's gonna buy tickets?

Not sure how many people are walking out of theaters or stopping streaming application plays based on dialogue wording? Listen, I am not fronting a scorched earth campaign to make film dialogue uber-realistic. I started writing in the screenplay format in March of this year, and the lion's share of my queries are out of genuine curiosity and/or my desire to become as technically-proficient at the craft as possible. I am a film fanatic morphing into a screenwriter, not vice-versa.

Chill man, one step at a time :)

Read more professional scripts. It can take years to figure out if screenwriting is even right for someone. Not everyone is so hopped up on wowee sauce when it comes the intricates of English language and literature with dashes of psychology and history.

Not sure what a screenwriter morphing into a film fanatic means as an alternative, but ok....

Hi Mike Childress - my best response would be to not overthink it. You're probably writing a spec screenplay, so (I've learned) it's fine to use the acronym (defined if needs be) for the remainder, even in dialogue. In dialogue, however, you might use "Q-R-F" instead of QRF, like you would in the action lines. Anything that doesn't slow down the reader is worth considering :-)

You're probably reading production scripts than true original screenplays. Tv writers on assignment/tv series dont need to explain the world like a 5th grader than writers writing spec scripts & world-building from scratch.

Matthew Kelcourse THANK YOU. I also figure there are ways to work explanations of terms/acronyms via visuals into the script absent a narrator, e.g. after a character uses "QRF" a monitor in the shot shows the location of the forces and has "Quick Reaction Force Delta" or something of the like. I reference The Fermi Paradox in script#2, but it was light work having a character explain the theory to a layman. Just trying to lure the script reader into my lair with utterly confusing her/him...

Dan Guardino I definitely don't delude myself re: spec script production chances. WGA states it gets FIFTY THOUSAND work registrations per annum, and that is not including Library of Congress regs and the IP of those writers who chose not to register with any entity, of course. My goal is to attempt to mitigate the alienation of script readers as much as possible. I like to think my screenplays win in the originality category, but obviously there are a LOT of other original ideas out there. I used to rail against the perpetual rebooting of all the old stuff, but it makes absolute sense from a business perspective. Especially those reboots that will draw people in purely for the nostalgia aspect, e.g. "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F". Production companies are drinking from a firehose, but I want to be the script firehose myself. "Look on my works, YE MIGHTY, and DESPAIR (kidding...kind of...)!"

Pretend someone in the audience is watching your movie, will they understand the acronym? In the written script, and as you've pointed out, you write out what it is. This is good for someone reading the script, but not for a "viewer watching a movie". Many times in a movie someone will say something, and from that point on use an acronym. I knew some writers that wrote a military script, and they had acronyms all over the place. They were very proud of this as it was accurate. So I told them you will loose the exec and audience. They countered with they'll be giving the exec a cheat sheet to look up each acronym. I blunty said, "The exec will not waste their time going from script to cheat sheet and back. You get one shot with the exec, so don't f--- it up. If it does get made what are you going to do, pass out cheat sheets to the audience?" They got the point.

When you write a war/military/action the audience wants a sense that you know what you're writing about. That you;re sharing a lived experience. In my scripts (three which revolve around Vietnam) I've used such acronyms as R,I.F., B.O.Q, FNG, LURP and expressions like "twink", "cherry", 365-wake up, etc. Incidentally FUBAR means "Fucked Up Beyond all Recognition" and SNAFU " SItuation Normal, All Fucked Up" Keep it as real as possible. It's what an audience expects,

Lindbergh E Hollingsworth Awesome. I imagine most people reading any type of work wouldn't want to be going back and forth from the work to an acronym key! It's like the first time I read "Dune" and Herbert's tossing out all these terms he made up and I am running to the glossary to see what the frak he means...

Michael Elliott It does seem like realism is better suited for visuals than dialogue in war-based productions. I suppose in a Vietnam War flick you could have an FNG, who is baffled by some language the combat vets are using, get an explanation of say LERP like, "Hey [X] what the hell is a 'LERP'?" "Long-range reconnaissance patrol...Cherry..." I did this with Cherenkov Radiation because how many people, off-hand, are going to know what the dickens that is?

Hi Mike Childress - I'm leaning on the side of Dan Guardino (assuming this is a spec military film). I would think about minimal unfamiliar acronyms that are easily defined (once) and remembered by the reader or you'll risk a "pass" because the reader(s) just couldn't understand the military encoded dialogue.

I agree it's great to demonstrate you know the material and have realistic dialogue, but we all need to keep in mind who we're writing specs for: ourselves and the first reader that may, or may not, forward your project onto the next step, and this reader might not have the patience, desire, or ability to decipher heaps of acronyms. The audience doesn't come until many steps and rewrites later. Cheer :-)

Matthew Kelcourse Hi Matthew. Good stuff, thanks. Script #2 is military-heavy, but managed not to inundate it with mil-speak. #4 involves a deep-space craft so finding it easier to avoid potentially confusing jargon for would-be readers. Your comment reminded me of one of the best classes I took in undergrad, Rhetoric 101, and the cardinal rule of that particular art of persuasion is "KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE".

If you look at your scene and ask if the audience can piece the important information together from context, then you may not need to have a character explain it. If a character is explaining something to another character that would already know the abbreviation's meaning, it is obvious to the audience that it is only being explained for their benefit. If two pilots are trying to pass unnoticed and suddenly they are alerted to enemy planes heading for them, they can say it must be the enemy QRF. The audience doesn't need to know exaclt what it means, but from context they know it means trouble. Shows like Battlestar Galactica and ER used context well to allow the audience ot understand whats going on in complex and fast moving situations.

Another thing to consider is how much you want the audience to understand at a given moment. If you want them to be on the back foot in the same way you want a rookie character on-screen to feel, then have other characters bowl them over with jargon that everyone else clearly understands but won't take the time to explain to anyone else. The first episode of ER wastes no time explaining anythig to the audience and throws them in the deep end of what moment-to-moment life (and death) is like in an emergency room, but from context the audience always knows whats at stake.

Ewan Dunbar Thanks for the valuable input! BSG (original and reboot) are two of my favorites. I THINK I am decent at contextualizing sans straight out explanations, but if I am not I will definitely be more cognizant of it after this thread! Writing in the screenplay format is still a little strange to me as I am essentially trying to think like the writer, the script reader, and (to a lesser degree admittedly) the film viewer!

Unfamiliar terms should be explained during dialogue. But many terms can be obvious through use. I was not familiar with the term "outside the wire" the first time I heard it on screen, but the context made its meaning obvious, Also, many terms are in common usage. Someone may not know exactly what FUBAR stands for but they know that it means everything went to hell.

Thom Reese Thanks! I THINK the first military term I heard in a movie that I was unfamiliar with was FRAGGING in some movie when I was a kid. Pretty sure a character got fragged and then I was like, "OH, that's what that means..."

As someone who used to work in an office where I was the only person who was not a combat veteran, I can assure you the military folks speak in acronyms all day and just assume everyone knows what they are talking about. "English, please" was said at least once a day. So if you are looking for authenticity, then I would just fire them off with reckless abandon. If you want to help your audience out, insert a character not in the know who asks for an explanation.

Tom Lapke Oh yes! The worst is when the same acronym will be used by multiple services...with different meanings... One great thing about writing my traditional fantasy script was I could just make stuff up! I have employed the useful layman character and like that device to contextualize.