What is the proper style:

If the characters converse in French, how is the English translation written?

In a spec script, you keep in simple.


              JOHN
         (in French)
   Do you want to see it?

              MIKE
         (in French)
   I've seen boners before.  What
   is so special about yours?

              JOHN
          (in French)
   Take a look.

              MIKE
          (in French)
   That is a beautiful knife.  You
   must bone a lot of fish with it?

John looks around, confused.

              JOHN
          (in French)
   Do you hear groaning?




Phil

Thanks, Phil.  I guess I can skip trying to translate everything.

You have to keep in mind that, with spec scripts, everything has to be as easy as possible to read.  Writing any foreign language into a spec script is a high hurdle that readers don't want to jump.  Bad analogy, I know....


Phil

what if a character says just one line in french,  would still do as above or write the english as a subtitle if that is how it would appear on screen?

I'd do as above.  Let the director decide if it has enough meaning to deserve a subtitle.  Usually you wouldn't need it though. The audience can figure out one line just by the actors body language and what they are responding to.

I only ask this cos I have a priest and he reads a single prayer in Romanian.  At the moment I have it written in Romanian with the subtitle, is this wrong then?
I thought this just fitted the scene and atmosphere well.

Again, for the spec script, you should keep it as simple as possible.  Include [i](in Romanian)/i] before the dialogue.

If the prayer is a small point in the script, you could even just describe him as saying a prayer in Romanian.


Phil

OK cheers Phil.