Hello, i have found myself a little stuck on how to format a new character when they are mentioned in dialogue, then eventually shown on screen... I have looked online but haven't found the answer yet...
I.e

AYDEN
No dad. Hailey came home too, I saw
her coming back, she said she had a
headache.

This is the first mention of her character....then in action line

'A family snapshot of James, Joy, Hannah, Ayden and Hailey, 14,'

I want to capitalize in the action line, but its the second mention of her name....

Eventually she IS in an action sequence...

Thank you anyone who can point me in the right direction...

You could put something in parentheticals, but I think that would be overkill.  Just break the dialogue up with an action line.  It looks like short dialogue  so I'd put an action line immediately following Ayden's dialogue.

You want to CAP all Character's when they are first intro'd.  You do this in an action/description line only, not in dialogue.

You don't want a character to speak until after they are intro'd, unless they aren't onscreen, which you'd need to show with an O.S. or V.O. next to their name in dialogue.

Quoted from Dreamscale You want to CAP all Character's when they are first intro'd.  You do this in an action/description line only, not in dialogue. You don't want a character to speak until after they are intro'd, unless they aren't onscreen, which you'd need to show with an O.S. or V.O. next to their name in dialogue.

I agree with Jeff on this. Generally, you wants us to see the character though an intro before they speak. The solution to your problem really depends on the context we are not seeing them. For example, if they are on the other end of a phone call, the can simply be labeled as :

WOMAN'S VOICE (V.O)

and then intro'd in CAPS by name when we first see them, they are in a different room/location, I would go with

WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S).

and then intro'd in CAPS by name when we first see them.

But if they are to be visible in the scene, I can't think of any reason not to describe them/intro them before they speak.  

I generally agree with these comments, as long as these are not considered to be inviolable laws of nature.

Let me try to think of a cheesy example.

Let's say we're in a wedding scene. The preacher asks if anyone in the pews objects to these two getting married. Faces scanned, no one objects.

But right as the preacher is about to continue...

     JACK(O,S)
What the hell, I object.

All eyes turn to the back row. JACK, 30s, the identical twin brother of the groom, sits grinning from ear to ear.

Maybe it's preferable to use MAN IN BACK(O.S) or VOICE FROM BACK. But if I was reading this, why would I have a problem with it written with Jack, with the intro coming right after? I wouldn't. I can't think of any reason to be bothered by that.

And there ARE situations this kind of thing comes up effecting the readability of the script. For example, think of a Sorkin script. His specialty is snappy dialog exchanges. We all try to have some snappy dialog now and then. And breaking up the dialog with action lines can get in the way of it being snappy. Most of the time, you have to do it for the sake of clarity, but sometimes you might look for ways to avoid breaking up the dialog exchange. Similarly, a series of character intros coming all at once can make a script feel difficult to read. And we need to make these scripts as readable as we can. Even if you're hired on assignment, that script will get sent around to very busy people who want to the read to be quick and enjoyable.

Unless it's a shooting draft, scripts are not blueprints. Any trick that makes the script flow better has to be worth at least considering if it's needed in certain situations.

Hi Guys Thankyou!

Okay i think i got it....This character is only 'mentioned' in the dialogue by the person speaking ( Ayden) then in the next scene she's shown in a photo....so from what you guys are saying I leave her name uncapped in the dialogue, (which makes sense)and cap it in the next scene where we see her in a photo and I can introduce her more..
This script might pop up on here tomorrow.

Quoted from Kirsten Hi Guys Thankyou! Okay i think i got it....This character is only 'mentioned' in the dialogue by the person speaking ( Ayden) then in the next scene she's shown in a photo....so from what you guys are saying I leave her name uncapped in the dialogue, (which makes sense)and cap it in the next scene where we see her in a photo and I can introduce her more.. This script might pop up on here tomorrow.

I think I misunderstood your set-up. In your example, I thought you were referring to Ayden. From the above, it seems you are referring to Hailey.  You have this:

Quoted Text AYDEN No dad. Hailey came home too, I saw her coming back, she said she had a headache. A family snapshot of James, Joy, Hannah, Ayden and Hailey, 14

Assuming that James, Joy, Hannah and Ayden have been previously introduced, I would write this as:

AYDEN
No dad. Hailey came home too, I saw
her coming back, she said she had a
headache.

A family snapshot of James, Joy, Hannah, Ayden and HAILEY (14)......'

Quoted from leitskev I generally agree with these comments, as long as these are not considered to be inviolable laws of nature. Let me try to think of a cheesy example. Let's say we're in a wedding scene. The preacher asks if anyone in the pews objects to these two getting married. Faces scanned, no one objects. But right as the preacher is about to continue...      JACK(O,S) What the hell, I object. All eyes turn to the back row. JACK, 30s, the identical twin brother of the groom, sits grinning from ear to ear. Maybe it's preferable to use MAN IN BACK(O.S) or VOICE FROM BACK. But if I was reading this, why would I have a problem with it written with Jack, with the intro coming right after? I wouldn't. I can't think of any reason to be bothered by that. And there ARE situations this kind of thing comes up effecting the readability of the script. For example, think of a Sorkin script. His specialty is snappy dialog exchanges. We all try to have some snappy dialog now and then. And breaking up the dialog with action lines can get in the way of it being snappy. Most of the time, you have to do it for the sake of clarity, but sometimes you might look for ways to avoid breaking up the dialog exchange. Similarly, a series of character intros coming all at once can make a script feel difficult to read. And we need to make these scripts as readable as we can. Even if you're hired on assignment, that script will get sent around to very busy people who want to the read to be quick and enjoyable. Unless it's a shooting draft, scripts are not blueprints. Any trick that makes the script flow better has to be worth at least considering if it's needed in certain situations.

I think your example here is fine.  Jack has not appeared in a scene.

Thanks Dave, your right, there's always that grey area of formatting it correctly and breaking some rules to make it readable, and get the story across.
It's obviously not a biggie to use the name of the character off s
creen or in dialogue, before the person is properly introduced...
Thankyou for helping with this!

my pleasure