Hi all! I was just wondering about changing minor character names within the script. For example, a BANK TELLER has a few speaking lines but then someone calls her by her name, ANNA. Would I then continue with her lines under Bank Teller or Anna? Thanks for the advice :-)
Screenwriting : Character name changes by Amelia Fergusson
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If she's only there for a brief scene I'd probably label her as BANK TELLER (ANNA). But as Dan says, there's no strict rule that I know of. Clarity/readability is key.
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I'd keep the name the same throughout - BANK TELLER. Otherwise it suggests to the reader that she is someone worth remembering. And changing it midway would be confusing I think.
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Thank you for clearing that up for me. Much appreciated :-)
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I'd keep it the same. When the script goes into production the scheduling programs like MM and Gorilla go through the script and pick up the character names and then spit out what scenes those characters are in and how much they are in each scenes. If you give the same character two names, it sees them as two different characters. Though that may not matter much on a sales draft, I don't see much point in making them different just so that later you can go back and make them the same. Maybe I'm just lazy. There may be times when the story requires you to use different names for the same character (if there's a reveal, for instance) and often in that case RON becomes RON/RHONDA (so that the program lists the two names one after the other and it's easy to see that it's the same character).
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Thank you William :-)
Thank you Dan :-)