Quoted from Dreamscale Steve did walk into another room...but that room is attached to the living room, and there aren't any doors separating them.

True, but the camera stays on the others while he's fartsing around.  He's not in view.

As soon as everyone agrees with me, we'll have dessert.


Phil

Exactly, he's offscreen...just offscreen. He could return onscreen at any given second.

No dessert for you today, Phil. Go sit in the corner now!

I would use (V.O.) for narration and instances where the dialogue is being spoken from another scene, like in a flashback or montage for instance. Like JB said, if they are present within the current movie time then always (O.S.), in this example then always (O.S.).  

I would never use it for a phone call either, most scripts I read will just say...

                 MARVIN (on the phone)
        I'm on the phone.


Or even better, I really like the lazy way of letting the director decide, this seems to becoming more standard. If you have a phone conversation then start the scene with a note to the reader that makes it clear the following is a phone conversation and just format the slugs as normal, and cut in-between the two as needed. Simple.

    

Quoted from Dreamscale Exactly, he's offscreen...just offscreen. He could return onscreen at any given second. No dessert for you today, Phil. Go sit in the corner now!

I WILL CRUSH YOU!!!
creatively speaking, of course.


When he does return onscreen, then he's back.  Whatever his dialog will be when he's in the next room will probably be recorded elsewhere and added in so it sounds right.


Phil

Don't hurt me, Phil.  Just a friendly discussion going on.

You keep talking about recording the voice or whatever. I don't think that's the issue here.  We're talking about proper formatting, and it's much m ore than simply how and when the recording will take place.  Obviously, many piece of shit, zero budget movies are recorded live as they go, with a single boom.  Also, many lower budget flicks are shot in actual locations, meaning the camera and boom could easily be set up in the living room (in this example), and the camera and sound could continue when Steve leaves the room momentarily.

Right?

As far as I know, and have read, (O.S.) means that the character (sound, dialogue, whatever), is just offscreen, in the vicinity of the scene, and can talk, hear, and interact with the character in the onscreen scene.

(V.O.) means that character (sound, dialogue, whatever) is not in the vicinity of the scene that is onscreen.  Narration, non vocalized thoughts, and conversation on the phone, 2 way radio, etc are examples of this.

What are you disagreeing with, exactly?

I would use O.S. since he's still in the scene, just off screen.

Doing it in V.O. so it sounds right?  Like it's slightly lower, maybe muffled, because he's in the other room?

It may be true that the director would have to record those off screen lines in post production, but that's a technical decision on the director's part.  In this case, the (O.S.) is for clarity of what's going on in the scene.  He's in the kitchen, he's still a part of the scene, and he can still hear and react to the people in the other room.

Quoted from Shelton Doing it in V.O. so it sounds right?  Like it's slightly lower, maybe muffled, because he's in the other room?

A director doesn't want to shoot a scene over and over because a character shouting, "I'm alright!  I'm alright." isn't perfectly clear.


Phil

V.O. always seems like a narrative of a character, or a character in which we don't ever see.  An O.S. is a character we will see eventually or has been on screen and has left.

OK, cool.  I feel better now.

Thank you Shelton, Ryan, and Balt.

Quoted from dogglebe A director doesn't want to shoot a scene over and over because a character shouting, "I'm alright!  I'm alright." isn't perfectly clear. Phil

And a sound guy doesn't want to dick around with making recorded audio sound like it's coming from another room, when the audio could actually be recorded from another room.

Quoted from Ryan1 It may be true that the director would have to record those off screen lines in post production, but that's a technical decision on the director's part.  In this case, the (O.S.) is for clarity of what's going on in the scene.  He's in the kitchen, he's still a part of the scene, and he can still hear and react to the people in the other room.

You have a point here.

I surrender.


Phil

I noticed this while reading Frankincense Phil, and was gonna mention it in my review.

But looking at the context of how you do it, I can see your point of view about it.

When you do the V.O, you show another scene, so its almost like a flashback, or flashforward but not, if you get my drift.

Quoted from stevie I noticed this while reading Frankincense Phil, and was gonna mention it in my review. But looking at the context of how you do it, I can see your point of view about it. When you do the V.O, you show another scene, so its almost like a flashback, or flashforward but not, if you get my drift.

I'll be giving Frankincense a look-over and probable rewrite next week, Stevie.  I hope to finish the first draft another script by then and will use the 'clear my head' time to work on Frankincense and another script.

Look forward to your comments.


Phil