Capitalization

Gardenia31 said:

Is it a no, no to capitalize sounds in action sequences?

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At one point it was considered to be standard format to capitalize sound effects throughout a script -- for the simple reason that it simplified the job for the sound department which had to run through screenplays and find out which sounds they needed to pull out of the sound effects library for the next movie coming down the pike -- and why bother going to the trouble of actually reading through the whole script. Much easier if the sound effects were simply capitalized so that one could just pick them out.

Well, that was fine back when every studio was making fifty movies a year. Things are a little different now and that particular element of standard formatting has pretty much fallen by the wayside.

That being said, there isn't any particular rule *against* capitalizing a sound for purposes of emphasis.

But I say this advisedly. Like so many things, it's easy to overdo it and a script or even a sequence that's overflowing with capitalized sounds is going to look clunky and be hard to read and whatever advantage one might gain by capitalizing an occasional sound will be lost if you're doing it ten, fifteen, twenty times a page.

NMS

Personally I always capitalise important sounds, but that's because I've spent years editing low-budget movies so I'm looking at it from the other side.

Frankly, if someone would turn your script down because you did or didn't capitalise sound effects then either they're an idiot or your script isn't very good. The only real issue is, as mentioned above, that too many capitalised words in a script makes it hard to read, and anything that makes the script hard to read reduces the reader's involvement in your story.

I also always capitalize important sounds. Like a gun shot or a scream. That being said the keyword is important. I only have two to three capitalizations a page at most unless I'm introducing characters. It's all about the flow to me.