Screenwriting : Trivial question on (V.0.) by Peter Roach

I would say it depends on how many phone conversations you have in your script, and are any of them pivotal. Important news or comedic conversations should be Intercut. It depends I think on how frequent and the nature.

Actually it's (O.C.) or (O.S.). (V.O.) is for narration.

Limit your dialogue on the phone to just the most important interactions between the characters. Cut out everything else. If you need to indicate that the conversation is lengthy, insert an action line (ex. Willie Writer turns on the speaker and lays the phone on the table), use "LATER" one the next line, and then add another action line (ex. Willie Writer picks up the phone, turns off the speaker, and holds it to his ear). Keep the actual dialogue short and sweet (or sad as this case may be).

Thanks guys. I had the sneaky feeling that scene was too one dimensional. I noticed it also in a Korean series. There were so many scenes with one sided phone conversations that it became slightly annoying. Great tip Patricia !!!

https://johnaugust.com/2005/welcome-to-the-oc-bitch

Read scripts. The best writers today keep it simple. Their pages are clean, un-interrupted dialogue breaks. Just do your job. Actors and director will figure the action block. Better yet, work on a production, see how folks shoot a phone conversation. Usually it is the script supervisor reading the lines to actor on camera.

A clean intercut can be done.

It depends IMHO. Are the two people talking on the phone both people who appear in other scenes? If so then generally you'll see an intercut. If the person on the other end is the equivalent of an extra "voice actor" then many times you don't even see them. You just hear their voice OC/OS/VO THROUGH PHONE and we experience the conversation from one perspective. If the information in the call isn't even giving good information from the unseen side of the conversation, OR you want to built a little bit of mystery, sometimes you never even hear the other side of the conversation.

IMHO the question you are asking is really a POV question (not P.O.V. as in first person, etc. but in how you are choosing to provide the scene).

So you need to first decide how you are intending to present that conversation. Is the Point of View from BOTH ends? If so then intercut or split screen is the way to go. Is the Point of View from just ONE end of the conversation? Then you only show the conversation from the one end of the conversation. Is the information in the conversation something you don't want the audience to hear but you want the actor's reactions to inform us? Then it's even MORE one sided point of view and we don't even hear the other side of the conversation.

Lot's of examples of all kinds.

The famous one from Taken from ONE point of view but providing both sides of the conversation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZOywn1qArI

Many times a phone call is the inciting event to the next scene and some times thusly: Scene plays out, at the end Character on screen's phone rings, they pick it up, we don't hear the conversation but they say "What!?" or they collapse or their face looks shocked. Cut to the Hospital or the actual play out of what they were just informed of on the phone that we never heard.

Nelson. (V.O.) means voice over film and the voice is normally add to the film after the scene had already been shot. (O.S.) could be used if the voice is coming over the phone while shooting but that is very rare. (O.C.) would never be used for a phone conversation.

Dan pretty much told you the way it is. Usually I use intercuts for phone conversations but depending on the scene's purpose & intent; I sometimes use a split screen.

I use intercut.