Teenage girls and gay men

questionmark I have a quick question in regard to my current screenplay. I have a scene set at a concert and it contains the line:

The enthusiastic AUDIENCE is made up mostly of teenage girls and gay men.

Should I just capitalize “audience” (as I have at the moment) or should I also capitalize “teenage girls” and “gay men”? Or should I keep audience in lowercase and just capitalize teenage girls and gay men?

– Mason Fox
Long Island, NY

While it’s certainly not a make-or-break decision, I vote for your third option:

The enthusiastic audience is made up mostly of TEENAGE GIRLS and GAY MEN.

The reason screenplays capitalize groups of extras is to help the assistant director and casting coordinators figure out what types of people they’ll need for a given scene. In this case, you need TEENAGE GIRLS and GAY MEN.

In general, if I break a bigger group down into specific categories, I only capitalize the categories. But I’m sure that if you read through other scripts I’ve written, you’ll see counter-examples.

May 5, 2005 @ 8:50 am | Comments (13)
Filed under: Formatting, QandA

13 Responses to “Teenage girls and gay men”

john quinn
May 5th, 2005 at 9:08 am
this sounds like an interesting concert, what are you writing, Spiceworld 2? :)
Kas
May 5th, 2005 at 11:28 am
Myself, I only capitalise characters who have dialogue, and only the first time we read their name.

I find any unnecessary capitalisation quite distracting when I’m reading – and capitalising of groups of extras is only really necessary for a shooting script (though I guess it may help the producer work out the budget).

So I wouldn’t capitalise any of your groups of people -

The enthusiastic audience is made up mostly of teenage girls and gay men.
- I feel this will make for a smoother read, but that’s just me… everyone has their own style of screenplay format – some people seem to capitalise every other word…
Alex Epstein
May 6th, 2005 at 12:13 pm
Not to mention you might want to specify how exactly we know they’re GAY MEN. Are we talking leathermen? Or the mustache-and-trimmed-beard crowd? What do we actually SEE?
Claude
May 6th, 2005 at 4:47 pm
Good question.

Related…

When you refer back to TEENAGE GIRLS or, in my case, BARTENDER, do you capitalize the first letter as if it’s a proper name?

As in:

INT. BAR – NIGHT

A BARTENDER takes drink orders. Blah Blah.

The Bartender returns with a drink.

thanks…
Claude
May 6th, 2005 at 4:51 pm
Good Question

Related… When you refer back to TEENAGE GIRLS or, in my case, BARTENDER, do you capitalize the first letter as if it’s a proper name? Which of the following 3 “Bartender returns” is more correct?

INT. BAR – NIGHT

A BARTENDER takes drink orders. Blah blah.

Bartender returns with a drink. The Bartender returns with a drink. The bartender returns with a drink.

THANKS
Doug
May 7th, 2005 at 2:29 am
Jeez, Alex. You missed a perfectly good opportunity to use “mustachioed.”
kas
May 7th, 2005 at 7:31 am
on Claude’s point, I’d love to know what people think about this…

Personally I’d go with ‘the Bartender’ as it seems more correct – you have essentially made the word ‘bartender’ into that character’s name and names should always have the first letter capitalised… (though if it is his name then why would you need ‘the’, but it feels like you do.)

I don’t like capitalising these guys – I think it looks clunky and weird. I’d much rather read ‘the bartender’ so maybe I’ll stop doing it.

What does everyone else think?
Anonymous
May 10th, 2005 at 11:15 am
That’s an interesting one. And if The Bartender then has lines, is it BARTENDER or THE BARTENDER? At that point, I’d be annoyed enough by the whole issue to give him a name.

INT. BAR – NIGHT

A tough looking bartender, MICK, takes drink orders. Blah blah.

Mick returns with a drink, then nods at John to order.
```
                JOHN
      I'll have a wine cooler.

                MICK
      Look around you, pal.  You 
      think we serve wine coolers
      in here?
```
Etc, etc.
Vlad
May 10th, 2005 at 11:17 am
Whoops. I accidentally left my name off of that one. That was me. Not that any of you know me. Long time reader, first time poster.
Trev
May 10th, 2005 at 2:51 pm
I always capitalize extras (TOWNSPEOPLE, TEENAGERS, etc). I also always capitalize a speaking character’s full name (if they have one) the first time they appear in the script and capitalize their name the first time they appear in the action in any subsequent scene. Helps me keep track of who is where.
kas
May 11th, 2005 at 2:26 am
But by giving him a name, you make him seem more important than he is…
Vlad
May 13th, 2005 at 9:14 am
If he’s going to appear often enough that I have to worry about the whole thing, then he’s probably important enough to have a name. Especially if giving him a name simplifies my job. On another positive note; the actor playing Mick would probably like the writer better than the actor playing “The Bartender.”
Scotty
July 12th, 2006 at 7:59 am
Wow…just found this place. Hello to all.

I have a similar dilemma: if you’re introducing a character but its not the point of the story where we find out their name, do you simply use something like ” a YOUNG, RED-HAIRED WOMAN lies on the floor of the cattle car, barely breathing” at first, since that’s all the reader should know to unfold the story, and then identify her later, like “DEVINIA CANNING, 29, whose recovery has returned her complimentary, apple cheeked beauty”?

I never liked getting all the info about a new character before the main character did.