I’m having a little trouble with this current script that I am writing. A character in my story is deaf and uses sign language to communicate. I have no idea what the proper writing format is for that and I was wondering if you can help me. That character also reads lips and I do not know how to incorporate that into my script as well. Please tell me the answer, oh great one.

--Donnie

Just this week, I encountered a similar challenge, with a mute child who uses sign language to communicate with her parents. In these situations, you really have two problems: how to show it on the page, and how to make sure the audience understands what the deaf/mute/whatever character can and cannot do.

Let’s take the second problem first. You need to set up a situation that makes it clear to the audience what’s up with this character. In John Logan’s The Aviator, Howard Hughes’s partial deafness is first set up at a movie premiere, when the character obviously can’t make out what the presenter is saying. The extent of his hearing impairment is left a little ambiguous, but we get the sense (backed up with a later scene), that the problem only really manifests when many voices are speaking at once. Since your character reads lips, you should try to make this clear as soon as possible. Here’s one possibility:

CARL SCHWARTZKOPF is looking through the neatly-folded sweaters on the table. A SALESWOMAN comes up behind him.

SALESWOMAN
Can I help you find a size?

Carl doesn’t answer her. In fact, he doesn’t acknowledge her at all. Not certain he heard her, she repeats herself, louder:

SALESWOMAN
Sir, can I help you find a size?

She’s about to tap his shoulder when he turns around. He jumps, startled to see her.

SALESWOMAN
Sorry, I didn’t mean to…

CLOSE ON her lips. We’re in Carl’s POV as she continues to speak, but there’s no sound. He’s reading her lips.

BACK TO SCENE

Carl waves a hand, somewhat dismissively: no, he doesn’t need help. He heads over to the wall of khakis.

In terms of writing out the dialogue that is meant to be sign-language, you have many options. If two deaf characters are carrying on a conversation in sign language, you’re probably going to want to subtitle it. Before the conversation starts, just write, “In sign language, SUBTITLED…” Then write dialogue as usual. The reader will understand.

If one character is speaking aloud (such as William Hurt’s character in Children of a Lesser God), you may want to format the deaf character’s sign language dialogue differently to keep the distinction. In these situations, I often use italics or parentheses:

SHERYL
Who told you?

CARL
(Margaret.)

SHERYL
Margaret wasn’t there! She couldn’t have known.

Notice that in these scenes, the speaking character’s dialogue needs to help us understand the lines we’re not hearing.

My name is Michelle Chambers. I just wanted to thank you for your work on the Decline of Western Civilization, Part III. My brother Stephan was the young boy who died in the fire. It took me a long time to watch the film, however I hope the impact of these kids lives will make a difference somehow.

My question--Do you plan on making another movie dealing with runaways?

Thank you again for all that you have done.

--Michelle

First of all, let me extend my best wishes to you and your family. Your brother Stevie was a remarkably kind and gentle young man and I am glad that I knew him. I shot the Decline Part III in 1997 and since then, four of the kids in the movie have died. Gutterpunks are a strong but vulnerable breed as living on the streets is really a rough life.

When I first started shooting the movie, I thought it was going to be about a second wave of punk music. Instead, like all good documentaries, it sent me down a totally different path. As you know, the movie is about homeless kids, some who chose to be without a home, but for the most part they were kids who were cast out by their parents. In their naiveté, some of them believe that living in a squat is an exciting adventure and that running with a pack of renegades is their only way of having a family. I know Stevie was not like that as he comes from a very caring and loving family, but I was shocked to learn how many of the other kids are forced to leave home even at the tender age of nine or ten. Unfortunately, the perception is that homeless children are third world problem. I firmly believe that as time goes by, this serious issue will be more and more widespread.

To answer your question, I don't have it in my immediate plans to make another movie about homeless kids, but if the right narrative piece on the subject came along, I would be most interested in it. What happens all too often, is that social and environmental problems have to accelerate to an extreme point before society and government do anything about them. Hopefully the issue of homeless children won't have to wait that long.

You shot Ned Kelly in Australia, in the widescreen 2.35:1 format.

Did you shoot this film in Super 35, and if so, was the ability to get enough anamorphic lenses within Australia a consideration for shooting in this format?

--Simon

Yes. I wanted to shoot this film in anamorphic but a number of factors got in the way of doing so….

The budget was relatively small so anamorphic was perceived by the producers as being more expensive though I personally don’t feel this is the case if you stay away from Panavision.

A lot of the film takes place outside which meant that that last half hour of light at T2 would be usable in Super 35mm but not in anamorphic. The lenses are often T2.8 and don’t look very sharp under T4. Night exteriors require more light level in anamorphic which means bigger lights… this again is a producer perception but there is some truth in it, though I would dispute it takes any longer.

Occasionally we needed multiple cameras: this means hiring more lenses and equipment. With Super 35mm you can trust the lenses to be good “out of the box”: with Anamorphic a lot more time and money goes into testing them to make sure it is OK.

I was quite happy with the result (when you see a bleach by-pass print!).

John August's screenwriting credits include Go, Big Fish, Titan A.E. and both Charlie's Angels movies. His current projects include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tarzan, and Corpse Bride. He also maintains a screenwriting-oriented website at johnaugust.com.

Born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, John earned a degree in journalism from Drake University in Iowa, and an MFA in film production from the Peter Stark program at the University of Southern California. He lives in Los Angeles.

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