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Formatting for sign language

question mark Iâ€™m having a little trouble with this current script that I am writing. A character in my story is deaf and uses sign language to communicate. I have no idea what the proper writing format is for that and I was wondering if you can help me. That character also reads lips and I do not know how to incorporate that into my script as well. Please tell me the answer oh great one.

–Donnie Nguyen

Just this week, I encountered a similar challenge, with a mute child who uses sign language to communicate with her parents. In these situations, you really have two problems: how to show it on the page, and how to make sure the audience understands what the deaf/mute/whatever character can and cannot do.

Let’s take the second problem first. You need to set up a situation that makes it clear to the audience what’s up with this character. In John Logan’s The Aviator, Howard Hughes’s partial deafness is first set up at a movie premiere, when the character obviously can’t make out what the presenter is saying. The extent of his hearing impairment is left a little ambiguous, but we get the sense (backed up with a later scene), that the problem only really manifests when many voices are speaking at once.

Since your character reads lips, you should try to make this clear as soon as possible. Here’s one possibility:

CARL SCHWARTZKOPF is looking through the neatly-folded sweaters on the table. A SALESWOMAN comes up behind him.
SALESWOMAN
Can I help you find a size?
Carl doesn’t answer her. In fact, he doesn’t acknowledge her at all. Not certain he heard her, she repeats herself, louder:
SALESWOMAN
Sir, can I help you find a size?
She’s about to tap his shoulder when he turns around. He jumps, startled to see her.
SALESWOMAN
Sorry, I didn’t mean to…
CLOSE ON her lips. We’re in Carl’s POV as she continues to speak, but there’s no sound. He’s reading her lips.
BACK TO SCENE
Carl waves a hand, somewhat dismissively: no, he doesn’t need help. He heads over to the wall of khakis.

In terms of writing out the dialogue that is meant to be sign-language, you have many options. If two deaf characters are carrying on a conversation in sign language, you’re probably going to want to subtitle it. Before the conversation starts, just write, “In sign language, SUBTITLED…” Then write dialogue as usual. The reader will understand.

If one character is speaking aloud (such as William Hurt’s character in Children of a Lesser God), you may want to format the deaf character’s sign language dialogue differently to keep the distinction. In these situations, I often use italics:

SHERYL
Who told you?
CARL
Margaret.
SHERYL
Margaret wasn’t there! She couldn’t have known.

Notice that in these scenes, the speaking character’s dialogue needs to help us understand the lines we’re not hearing.

February 4, 2005 @ 4:02 pm |
Filed under: Formatting, QandA

8 Responses to “Formatting for sign language”

Peter says:
February 4th, 2005 at 9:44 pm
Not sure if this will be of any help, but I know that in the first season of The West Wing there was a character who was deaf. I know that at most book stores they sell the book, “The West Wing Script Book” which contains 6 episodes. Not sure if any of the scripts include her character, but it might be worth checking out.
tim says:
February 7th, 2005 at 9:36 am
How timely. I’m struggling with this exact issue myself, as I have a deaf character in a script that I’m writing, and attempting to translate it onto the page. I’ve been doing what you recommmend — declaring the subtitles and then carrying on with the dialogue — and I think it reads well.
Rob says:
February 7th, 2005 at 3:20 pm
I liked Children of a Lesser God but after a while William Hurt repeating everything Marlee Matlin was saying got kind of annoying. Other than subtitles there wasn’t much choice on screen to show what she was saying, I guess. Subtitles might have been annoying, too (although, obviously, I don’t mind them in foreign films.) As for writing it, you could use parenthetical directions. Either:
```
                         CHARACTER
                     (signing)
              Huh?  I can't hear you.
```
Or:
```
                          CHARACTER (SIGNING)
              What?  Speak up!
```
The latter example I’ve seen in script for Godfather Part II when the characters only spoke in Sicilian (in the old country or before they learned English in the states.)

I suppose the cleverer thing to do would have the hearing characters respond to the deaf characters in such a way that we understand the signing through context but not through repeating what they say.
Piers says:
February 8th, 2005 at 6:10 am
In “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, the protagonist’s brother is deaf, and they use sign-language to communicate with each other. Have a read of that.

Piers
Chris says:
February 10th, 2005 at 5:32 am
I guess pretty soon we’ll be up to our ass in deaf movies.
Maili says:
February 11th, 2005 at 12:15 am
I’m curious - why is this an issue? Sign language is, basically, a ‘foreign’ language as it’s, after all, a language in its own right. Treat it the way one would treat any other foreign languages.
Richard says:
February 15th, 2005 at 10:16 am
The Jodie Foster film “Nell” mainly consists of the main character, not talking throughout the film, but I’m not too sure if she used much sign language.

Jane Campion’s “The Piano” was much on the same level, except the character didn’t speak once throughout the film and only used sign language. That film went onto win 3 Oscars including Best Original Screenplay.

The Piano - 4th Draft: http://www.angelfire.com/movies/closedcaptioned/piano_lesson.html
Alex Epstein says:
February 17th, 2005 at 8:30 am
I don’t like italics for foreign languages because they suggest whispering, or some other form of emphasis. I like to steal Doonesbury’s technique and surround foreign language dialog (which would include ASL) in parentheses:
```
      COMMANDANT
```
(Take him out and shoot him.) My orderly will show you to your quarters.