Quoted from mcornetto You can do either of these two -- like so.         SHADOWY FIGURE And now your time has come? The Shadowy Figure steps forward into the light.  It's ANN (her description goes here).                  ANN I'm going to say my first line after my reveal.

To me this one is very helpful, so thanks for asking this question!

I wonder what it would be if the character is just a "Male Voice" (I have it at Male Voice (filtered) ) at the beginning. Then another character calls him "Commander". Do I change my "Male Voice" to a "Commander" then?

Sorry to highjack your thread, but the questions are so alike, that I thought it would be helpful to both of us

Quoted from Dreamscale OK, so you haven't written anything, nor have you really conceived exactly what's going to happen, correct? So, I have to assume that Ann is indeed a main character, and her alter ego, as Shadowy Figure, is the Antag?  If that's indeed the case, then, yeah, don't reveal who this shadowy g=figure is until you're ready for the shocking reveal. Hopefully, we'll forget this when you post your script, otherwise, it won't be a very shocking reveal.     best of luck - make sure you have some big character arcs, a deep story, and some themes floating around...right Kevin?

Right, I am still in the concept/planning/outlining mode. I may even drop the whole dark shadowy figure idea. Still trying to figure out what works best to move the story along.

And thanks for the good luck.

OK, here is a question that does go with what I asked before. Is it acceptable to, when writing your action/description, to do something like this (and remember this is just an example, not something from an actual script or one I am writing):

A dark alley. Trash cans line the walkway, overflowing with garbage. Piles of trash build up along the walls. A cat jumps off a fire escape . A SHADOWY FIGURE (later known as ANN) appears from behind a carbdoard box.

Would adding (later known as ANN) be a good move or bad move?

A bad move, IMO.

If you want to conceal a character's identity, just do it, but understand you cannot have them talk or be seen (in a filmed version) clearly.

Why would you have 'later known as Ann'? The whole reason for using 'shadowy figure' is that you want the reader to experience the same sense of mystery as the audience in the film would. And nothing wrong with that. If you go that route, just make sure things are clear.

But if you don't want the mystery, just introduce Ann and describe how she is dressed.

There are 2 issues: clarity, and having the reader experience the story the way you want them too. Just use whatever helps you achieve what you want in regard to those issues. Don't worry about rules. Rules are there to help. If rules hinder your ability to be clear, or have the reader experience the story the way you want, then don't follow them. Make up your own.

Thanks for your opinions. The only reason I ask was, on another fan site I am on, one of the members was discussion a script he wrote. No, it isn't another script writing site like this. He asked if anyone wanted to read it so I said yes. I enjoy reading other scripts to see different styles and try to pick up things to learn. Anyway, he had a character that wasn't revealed until the end. However, the character's name was used throughout the story and he even apeared, but called something else, sort of like how I describe the Shadowy Figure. The first time the character was introduced as the "disguise" the writer of the script used (LATER KNOWN AS _______). Since I have never seen this before, I figured I come here and ask.