Should actions be capitalised just when they should be focused on?  Or when they're important?  Or when they're big?  I tend to end up capitalising most ALL the actions in my scripts.  Help me.

'Samurai

I usually only capitalise names and places.

Here is when I capitalize:

1. First time a characters name appears (ie. The door opens and KATIE SMITH walks in)
2. A sound that is important to the scene (ie. The jar landed with a SMASH)
3. Scene headings  (EXT. HOUSE - EVENING)
4. Or when an object being used is important to an outcome of a scene (ie. Adrian slowly picks up the SHOTGUN as the undead turn away.)

Some may argue point 4, but I like it.

Hope this helps,
MacDuff

I have seen people use them and to be honest it looks like they just at time throw them in randomly and don't at other times, if you're going to do it continuously and if not don't do it at all

Sure int ext and first time a characters name comes up are important but thats a rule of basics, things you need in order to have some type of format but capitalizing actions like picking up a shotgun would begin getting hard if you just want to tell a very compelling story and not want to worry about capilitalization and all that

With writing programs like Final Draft and Movie Magic it's fairly easy to get the hang of format other than captials on actions like picking something up

Basically Macduff is right on the money

I capitalize names AND places, but I sometimes SEE scripts with OTHER THINGS in capitol lettERS.

I just write it my way and whatever it says to change in the end I do, final draft doesn't even know how to spell I it spells it lower case i which is annoiyng as hell because than I have to go all the way back through the script and change every individual I

i've noticed that on some screen plays they have certain words in caps.

"Jennie RAN to the front and JUMPED onto the porch."

i always figured that these were supposed to be used during action but i've also read places that have just them in other ways.  Like...

"Jennie GRABBED the note and held it up to the LIGHT."

something to that effect.

can someone clarify when you are supposed to use caps during descriptions?  thanks.

There is no rule.  Some writers do it.  Some don't.  Its a style thing.  Most often... its used to accent, puncuate, or bring special attention to something.  Action writers sometimes use it to make their writing pop off the page.  But there is no rule.  

thanks.  i knew it could be used for specific and important actions but when it looked like they were accenting random words i didn't quite understand.

I've also noticed that a lot of produced movie scripts use caps for reasons which seem random.  But if you look hard enough in any particular script, you can usually find consistancies in the types of words which that author decides to write in caps.  I only use caps for names of people and places, so hearing that there's "no rule" makes me think that a lot of writers make up their own rules so that their scripts can look more professional to someone who rarely looks at screenplays, so that the screenwriter can have an ego-boost which not only validates what he/she has been doing, but it also makes the script aesthetically pleasing to the eye.  Not a bad thing at all :)

I think Alan summed it up perfectly. I used to use CAPS a fair amount for emphasizing things, now I just use it for names. Really, I don't think you can say there is any definite screenplay format. There's a basic format that everything stems from, but from that point I've never really seen a single formula that every produced screenplay follows. I think it just depends on the writer/producer/etc. As long as the screenplay is basically the standard and, like Alan said, pleasing to the eye it is probably fine.

But then I could be wrong, so don't take what I say too seriously.

Yeah, I use it for names too, having it for more is just a bit distracting, you know.

A rule of thumb I reda once for the use of CAPS. The first time a character appears, his/her name should be capitalized to bring attention to the new character. If a character has an important prop, it should be capitalized, once again, the first time it appears. Do you see the pattern here?

The only other rule of thumb is to capitalize anything that is supposed to POP OUT, so it gets noticed. Your eye immediately goes to words in CAPS over everything else, so only very important things should have capitalization.

So I've read...

I agree with you too, George.  If a writer's going to decide to use caps, he won't draw attention TO unimportant things.  So he'll use caps for IMPORTANT things.  And even if he/she's inconsistant, the FIRST OCCURANCE of that exact important thing will always be IN caps.  

I use caps in sounds, ex: THUNDER, KNOCK, RING, CRASH. So that is okay??

-ONEY