Ask Dr. Format: GIVE ME A SIGN
DAVE TROTTIER sold or optioned ten screenplays (three produced) and helped hundreds of writers break into the writing business. He was an award-winning teacher and script consultant, author of The Screenwriter’s Bible. Read more tips on the Ask Dr. Format page.
GIVE ME A SIGN
QUESTION
How is sign language indicated in a screenplay?
ANSWER
The real question is this: How do I indicate sign language (or signing) so that the audience will understand what is being signed. In other words, how is the sign “language” communicated to the audience?
General audiences, as a whole, are not familiar with signing, so usually (in a movie) the mute person’s meaning is communicated to the audience in one of four ways: orally, through an interpreter, through subtitles, or with italics. Let's look at all four methods.
1. Orally. If the mute person speaks as she signs, then simply write the words she says as dialogue:
DALLIN
(while signing)
Do you understand what I said?
If the mute person is a major character, then indicate once in the narrative description that the mute person signs whenever he/she talks; that way, you won’t need to include a parenthetical for each block of dialogue.
2. Through an interpreter. I doubt this would work very well except on a limited basis, but you could have a speaking character interpret what the mute character signs. The speaking character's words would appear as dialogue.
3. Through subtitles. If you want the meaning of the sign language written out in subtitles across the screen, then write out that meaning using the same format used in #1 above, except use the following parenthetical:
DALLIN
(signing; with subtitles)
Do you understand what I signed?
The above method assumes that at least one other character in the scene can understand Dallin's sign language.
If there is a lot of signing in a scene, then it is okay to write a note in narrative description that "the following conversation is signed without any words spoken; the meaning appears as SUBTITLES and is written below as dialogue." Be careful not to confuse the reader. As always in spec writing, your goal is to be as clear and unobtrusive as you can.
4. With italics. The following method should only be used if it doesn’t matter that the audience may not understand, since there are no subtitles, so this method would be used rarely:
DALLIN (SIGNS)
Do you understand what I signed?
Signing is seldom used in movies, but a recent successful movie did: A Quiet Place. Notice how subtitles were handled there, and keep writing!