asides and language

Are asides used separately, oor can they be attached to action?

EX:

Margo only speaks French, subtitled, with her mother. English with all other characters.

or

Margo speaks with her mother, always in FRENCH, SUBTITLES, then turns to her father. She speaks ENGLISH.

A burning questions.

Thanks

Thanks for th reply.


This story is told via flashbacks. In the flashbacks the character is 12 and deaf. She speaks sigh language to only one, and with her eyes to the rest.

As an old woman telling the the story she speaks French when talking to a character, the rest is V.O. in English ( I tried to think of a way to make this even more convoluted, but ran out of steam).

So, finally the question ...

Can I, through clever asides attached to action lines explain that ...

Old Amelia turns off the hose, then SIGNS to Buddy using ASL (American sign language), with SUBTITLES. She doesn’t speak when signing to Buddy.

OLD AMELIA
Let’s take our tea!

She sits at a small table set with linens and silver. There are also TWO LEATHERBOUND PHOTO ALBUMS.

Old Amelia lifts the lid from one dish, looks at Buddy.

OLD AMELIA (CONT’D)
Bisquit?

THIBBY, a late-forties, finishing-school man dressed in a crisp chef’s jacket, flaunts his impeccable manners as he strides toward Amelia with a silver tea service. They CONVERSE IN FRENCH, SUBTITLES.

THIBBY
Morning, Madamme. Master Budddy.

OLD AMELIA
Good morning, dear! Oh, This is lovely. Lovely!


Then later ...


She goes from sign language, to speaking English (I use this to prepare the audience to hear her voice speaking English in V.O.), to V.O.


Old Amelia pensively runs her hands over one photo album. Budy watches.

OLD AMELIA (CONT’D)
The crossing of destinies. Seems like a good place to begin today.

Amelia cracks open the book, the still unseen pages emit a ray of rosy light. AMELIA SPEAKS (English).

OLD AMELIA (CONT’D)
Every soul has a destiny, Buddy. Even yours. Bound together by a silver cord. You. Me ... even Amy.

DISSOLVE TO

EXT. SKIES OVER FRANCE – EPHEMERAL DAWN

SUPER: ‘’France – 2006’’

Silence. Endless cottonball clouds are soaked amber and red by a radiant dawn.

OLD AMELIA (V.O.)
Course, finding these destinies is not so easy. Maggie’s destiny was woven in the letters of Vincent. I still remember her favorite passage. He wrote ...


Any thoughts on how to best handle this are appreciated.

My concern is using up a lot of lines to say what language is being spoken every time.

Ok

Goodwrite, thanks. I know it was commented o n, but for some reason i am still unsure. Mostly it is a space issue. Guess I'll avoid the asides and just use parentheticals each time (about 50).

Dpat, as you suggested is how I had it, with a parenthetical under each character ... but crap there are so many.

A for the future thing, my take on future clips is that not all things change.

First, she has had a bionic ear put in, but the story starts out in 1890 and goes to 2114. Amelia had spoken sign language all her childhood and well into her adult years, so partly it is habit. Machines dont fix that.

Also, she is shown with her feet in the past while living in the future.

Thanks again,

P

tahnx

Thanx Ice.

I am going back and re-writing all the (in French) stuff.

A

as in ...

JOE
(in German; subtitles)
Ok, but how do you indicate asides?

FORUM
(in Whatever, subtitles)

Not trivial, but ...

Boo_Radley said:

To borrow a line from dpat...

Trivial, but...you may want to bone up some on what's called "deaf culture." We've had a few deaf clients come in through the shelter where I'm a case worker. The first one I ever had got really offended that I didn't sign or understand what his smaller gestures represented. So, I took it upon myself to learn and there is so much more to communicating with a deaf person than merely sign language. It really is a culture -- not just spelling out words with your fingers.

Equally trivial, but just a for-instance: when you character removes the lid from the jar and signs "Biscuit?"...more than likely, were this really happening, she'd simply just tip the jar forward to offer. Deaf people are deaf -- not redundant.

Again, yes, I know it sounds trivial but, if you're going for realism, may as well go for the whole enchilada.

Click to expand...

For this character I learned sign language and spent time with deaf people, as well as working with teachers who spend their lives in this environment.

In addition, my character is a little odd in some respects, and so I borrowed a few things I observed at a mental heath hospital where the deaf also are.

I watched them eat and sign, work and sigh, etc. There is a ''spoken'' form of sign differnt than the textbook sigh we see, and two people who know each other well will use a short form or even ''idioms'.

I feel the charater is realisitc.

Appreciate the input.

P

Don't get it

Goodwriterguy said:

Indeed, but it's less "realism" I think than creating something that's beliveable.

May be the same thing.

Keep things above the level of verisimilitude.

Click to expand...

Wish I understood this.

OP

Not the words, but what you mean. Can't make heads or tails of it.

A