Since you released “The Variant” independently, how’d you get the nifty cover art?
— Michael
Washington D.C.
The image comes from [stock.xchng](http://www.sxc.hu/), a photo by [Marja Flick-Buijs](http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Zela) of the Netherlands. I did the type myself. The face is Myriad.
Because Amazon scales the artwork incredibly small for some views, I fattened the type used on the Kindle version so that it would remain legible.
Something I have to deal with at least three times in the screenplay I’m currently working on that I have NO idea how to do. A character is handed a postcard, note or reads a list. Cue insert shot for audience to read-along. An example:
Dear Dad – okay, it’s better than I expected.
There have been some interesting developments
but I still miss baseball. I still want to visit you
in Florida.
Love, your son, Nathan.
How on earth do you format something like that in Final Draft? The few screenwriter friends I have are similarly perplexed by this, simple though the answer may be.
— Tim
Brooklyn NY
Pretty much answered here: [Formatting text shown on screen](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2005/formatting-text-shown-on-screen). ((Folks, try the Answer Finder.))
First off, if you’re doing it “at least three times,” you’re doing it too much. Audiences don’t go to movies to read. Limit yourself to once, and keep it short.
If a character reads the note aloud (either on-screen, or in voice-over), just keep the text in his dialogue block. You may want to italicize it for clarity.
If the audience needs to read it, try using dialogue margins with no character name — if your screenwriting software will allow you. Otherwise, break it into lines roughly the width of a dialogue block and center them. Again, italics may help.
A sharp-eyed reader may prove me wrong, but in 30+ scripts, I don’t think I’ve ever had a block of text the audience needed to read. It’s something you can almost always write around.
When writing a sign language conversation, is it better to write the dialogue normally with a scene description specifying the dialogue is signed, or should each signed line be specified in parentheticals? Would the method change if one side of the conversation is signed while the other side is spoken, or spoken and signed?
— Adam
Toronto
I answered almost exactly this question [back in 2005](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2005/formatting-for-sign-language), and I’m happy to see that my suggestion then is still my best answer: consider italics.
MARGIE
(speaking and signing)
These girls are weak. I’m a fifty-year-old woman, yet I can carry a pig two hundred yards.
LUKE
(signing)
You’re so strong.
MARGIE
That’s because I’ve been carrying you for twenty-two years. Seriously, I’ve made you the center of the universe, and when anyone dares challenge that you’re anything less than perfect I regress to Mama Bear mode. It’s amazing more people don’t call us out on this dysfunction.
LUKE
I’m almost a villain, but nobody notices. Because you can only be one thing on a reality show, and I’m the inspiring deaf guy.
If a screenplay has a good amount of foreign words sprinkled throughout, is it OK to attach a glossary of a few pages? Or is that an amateurish way to handle it? These foreign words would appear both in action/description and in dialogue (NOT to be subtitled.)
I just think that it would make for a smoother read to NOT have explanations of each word as it comes up in the screenplay.
— Alejandro
Caracas/Los Angeles
My hunch is that you won’t need it. When you need to use the foreign term in action, put the translation in parentheses right after the word. When you’re using a bit of the language without subtitles, it’s still a good idea to provide a parenthetical to help the reader:
Merry stirs a pot of kholowa (sweet potato leaves), while the children play tag. She fakes a smile as her neighbor NYANDO walks up. He’s fifty and blind in one eye.
MERRY
(how are you?)
Muli bwanji, Nyando?
Have some English-speakers read your script, and if they’re truly perplexed, a glossary might be in order. If there are five really crucial terms, you could put it at the start of the script, right after the title page. If there are more, a glossary at the end might be better. In any case, keep it to less than a page.