All screenplays on the simplyscripts.com and simplyscripts.net domain are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. This screenplaymay not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.
JOHN Hi. How are you? (Mary sighs and drinks her beer) Yeah. I'm good.
I've seen that done a few times. I dunno what to think of it.
Using a semi-colon is a new thing for me too. But I hardly know when to use it. JOHN Hi. Would I like a beer? (considers it; laughs) Yes I would.
Oh and sotto.
JOHN (sotto) Beer time.
Another thing is using a beat straight away. Didn't know we could do that.
JOHN (beat) Yep.
I'm worried you're way overthinking all this. The times any of this should come up in a feature script is very, very few...possibly never. If you find you're using any of the above often, you're overdoing it.
I strongly recommend never using semicolons in a script. They have no place there.
If I can't fit it on a single line wrylie, generally don't do it. But that's just my preference.
So something like this?
EXT. CITY STREET - DAY
Paula walks, carefully avoiding the various messes one finds on a city sidewalk, and rummages through her handbag.
She pulls out a letter just as she reaches a mailbox.
PAULA And here we go. (Paula open the mailbox, notices the pick-up time sticker, checks her phone, realizes that the final pick-up of the day has passed, scans the area for a post office or other mailbox, finds no alternative) Oh well. (She drops the letter in the box) You'll get it eventually.
Paula walks, carefully avoiding the various messes one finds on a city sidewalk, and rummages through her handbag.
She pulls out a letter just as she reaches a mailbox.
PAULA And here we go. (Paula open the mailbox, notices the pick-up time sticker, checks her phone, realizes that the final pick-up of the day has passed, scans the area for a post office or other mailbox, finds no alternative) Oh well. (She drops the letter in the box) You'll get it eventually.
As Scott Myers says, there are no rules. If your scripts are doing well in competitions, getting optioned, produced and good feedback from directors then keep doing whatever you are doing.
If not, try and figure out why.
For more of my scripts, stories, produced movies and the ocassional blog, check out my new website. CLICK
why not? you can use it as many times as you want. Some writers use "A moment" instead and sometimes, they use both. So any of them will be good for you, depending on how comfortable you are with a particular choice. And I also think you should consider reading successful screenplays and know how these have been used.