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.
