Silence

Depends. The way I see it, a screenplay's focus is on the drama -- WHAT HAPPENS? WHAT DO THE CHARACTERS SAY? -- while a director's focus is how that is realized -- HOW DOES IT LOOK? HOW DO THE ACTORS SAY THE LINES and HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?

So, the decision as to whether to include the information should depend on whether the information is important dramatically -- whether it influences the flow of the story -- or whether it's just a dressing. Your job is to write the meat; the director's job is to do the dressing. So, the important question to ask is: is the silence required in the film part of the meat of the story, or just the dressing?

Now, obviously, that shouldn't be taken literally. Screenwriters write the mood of the scene all the time. If you followed the rule of thumb to the letter, it would forbid you from writing "A dark, dank alleyway" or "A creepy old house" for fear of stealing the directors job. You would be forced to only write about everything in an objective manner. Obviously, that would be terrible ! Still, it's a good rule of thumb, because for a beginner (me included!) it is vital to know how to write dramatically. Not just how to spice up descriptions and dialogues and such, but actually write EVENTS that are INTRINSICALLY dramatic. Relying too much on gimmicks would give you a false sense of security, because they would make scenes that aren't intrinsically dramatic more dramatic than they seem.

So, to sum up my rant, I have no clue. I'm just a beginner too .

If you see the scene playing in total silence there is nothing wrong with making that clear in your description.

Now the director may prefer to use sound effects, music etc. and ultimately the choice lies with him - but there's nothing wrong with writing it the way you see and hear it.

Making your vision clear is not directing from the page, it's writing from the page.

Is this a scene that just doesn't have dialogue or is this a scene that you envision as an M.O.S. scene?

Well, sure. Why not? Save your time and don't look up the medical jargon, lol. Not worth it. Silence will work fine.

M.O.S. in this situation will put us more in the experience of the protangonist. The protangonist point of view or sensation. Is that what you are after?

Yep. M.O.S. may be good.

elppirc0 said:

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do. It’s a traumatic experience, that explains earlier events and has an effect on the character’s actions later.

I want the audience to experience the event along with the character, as closely as possible, because in this case it’s critical in developing sympathy for an otherwise detestable protagonist. I don’t want the sounds of a bustling ER room to be a distraction in achieving that goal.

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Sounds awesome. Maybe you want to focus on the character's breathing? Breathing with the help of a medical machine could be kinda creepy/scary/dramatic. Maybe the sounds of the ER are distant and muffled, as if underwater.

Best of luck with it!

elppirc0 said:

I wrote a scene that I envisioned being silent, although it would work with sound, I really think it would be more dramatic without.

This feels like a directorial decision, but I have no intention of directing. Would I be imposing with this “suggestion” in a spec script?

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I don't think so. It's part of your screenplay. Just because it doesn't have words that doesn't mean it's unimportant to the story.