Tesseract:Style guide/Transcripts

Shortcut:

• TS:TRANSCRIPT

A transcript is an often lengthy manuscript covering dialogue and brief descriptions of actions, although many of them can be used as references for information. This guide covers transcripts.

Templates

If you are working on a transcript you can use the template {{Inuse}} to notify other editors who may edit-conflict you whilst working on a long dialogue. An incomplete dialogue or transcript should be labelled with {{Incomplete|Reasons}} changing reasons to detail what the page is missing.

Transcripts may be transcluded with {{Transcript|Page name}}.

Location

All articles that are transcripts of media should be in the Transcript namespace. Such articles should be titled Transcript:<Subject>.

Formatting

Headers

Film and episode dialogue

All film transcripts should have the template {{dialogue|film}} at the top of the article. All episode transcripts should have the template {{dialogue|episode}} at the top of the article. This adds the transcript page to the correct category and adds attribution to Marvel as the copyright holder.

Next should be the list of notable character that are featured in the film or episode, using the template {{Transcript Character}} at the top of the article below the {{dialogue|film}} or {{dialogue|episode}} template. As a rule of thumb, if they have a unique page describing them as a separate personality/character they should be noted. This list should be in the format:

{{Transcript Character|Character 1| Character 2|Character 3|Character 4}}

This produces:

This transcript involves dialogue with Character 1, Character 2, Character 3, and Character 4.

Ideally these should be listed in alphabetical order by name.

Following this should be the first header ==Header==. Use appropriate names relating to the location of event occurring at that time in the quest. A new header should be used for every change of location, as well as following significant changes in setting or circumstances.

Links

Transcripts should not include any links, except that any transcript a character speaks should contain the template {{Transcript Character}}.

Dialogue box text

Regular dialogue

Dialogue that appears in a dialogue box should be in the following bulleted format.

• Character: Dialogue
• Character: Dialogue

Any misspellings or other typographical errors should be kept in the dialogue transcripts. To indicate clearly that these errors are part of the actual dialogue as it appears in universe, these should be marked with the {{sic}} tag, as in the following example:

• Character: Dialogue with a typo in it.

This should normally be used mainly when there are clear grammatical or spelling errors, and not merely where there is a regional variation (such as American English spelling or floor numbering) or stylistic preference employed.

Character names should appear exactly as shown on-screen. If multiple characters share the same name, then they should be numbered in the order in which they first speak, with the number in parentheses, as in the following case:

• Character (#1): Dialogue.
• Character (#2): More dialogue.
• Character (#1): Even more dialogue.

If a particular speaker is not named, yet it is known who is speaking at that point in the dialogue, then that speaker should be named with the name of the speaker in brackets, as in the following case:

• [Character:] Dialogue.

If multiple characters may speak the same dialogue, and all of these characters fall into the same particular category, then it is acceptable to name that category of characters as the speaker of that particular dialogue, as in the following case:

• Character group: Group dialogue.

Separating dialogue

Dialogue may be combined, unless that dialogue is interrupted by another person's dialogue or an event. For example, this dialogue:

• Character: Dialogue.
• Character: More dialogue.
• Character: Even more dialogue.

May also be written as:

• Character: Dialogue. More dialogue. Even more dialogue.

It is preferable to combine split dialogue in this way.

However, this split dialogue would not be combined due to an interruption:

• Character 1: Dialogue.
• Character 2: More dialogue.
• Character 1: Even more dialogue.

This split dialogue would also not be combined due to an interrpution:

• Character: Dialogue
• Event.
• Character: More dialogue.

Text appearing elsewhere

If relevant text appears elsewhere on screen, then that text may be written in the following format:

• [Text]

Actions

For actions not explicitly described by text in dialogue boxes, such actions may be described in any of the following formats as appropriate.

Major actions

{{Act}} is to be used each time there is a major action or event not stated in a dialogue box which causes a break in the dialogue. This is to make the dialogue easier to follow. Examples of this might include:

• A scene starting.

An example of this in use would be:

• Dialogue
• Dialogue
• Action
• Dialogue
• Dialogue

Any dialogue text that appears after the action should be written after the {{Act}} template.

Minor actions

{{Act}} is not necessary for minor action which do not cause a significant break in the dialogue, particularly when the dialogue quickly and smoothly continues afterward. In such cases, the following format may be used to describe the action:

• Character: Dialogue
• Action
• Character: More dialogue

Fading in & out

Use {{Act}} to indicate where the screen fades out and/or in. If the screen fading out is immediately followed by the screen fading in without interruption, this may be written in the following format:

• Character: Dialogue.
• Screen fades out and then fades in.
• Character: More dialogue.

If the screen fades out to some colour other than black, write to which colour the screen fades within the {{Act}} tag. This may be written in the following format:

• Character: Dialogue.
• Screen fades to white.
• Character: More dialogue.

If some action happens after the screen has faded out and before the screen has faded in, describe this action within the {{Act}} tag. If the scene when the screen fades in is different from the scene when the screen fades out, describe the scene upon fading in. This may be written in the following format:

• Character 1: Dialogue.
• Screen fades out. You hear a loud boom. Screen fades in. Character 1 is no longer in the room.
• Character 2: More dialogue.

If some dialogue happens or some text appears on-screen after the screen has faded out and before the screen has faded in, then that should be written in the following format:

• Character: Dialogue.
• Screen fades out.
• Character: More dialogue.
• Screen fades in.
• Character: Even more dialogue.