Formatting Historical Speeches and Actions

[MasterRegal]

Ok, simple question: how do you format historical speeches while there is action?

[dpaterso]

Not sure if I understand. An example, please?

Do you mean a voice over while we're watching other stuff?

-Derek

[scripter1]

what you see.

OR

What happened.

I would say that for most events we really don't know all the little details of how people stood, or how they held their drinks, or set them down, etc, etc. SO, you have creative license there.

If you are working on a line by line delivery say by, oh Abraham Lincoln.
Then you would just write it out and leave it mostly for the actor/director to figure out.

You'll then maybe want to break it into nice little sections with reasonable crowd actions. Going over to other characters reacting, so forth.

[MasterRegal]

Actually, thanks for the help, but I realized a VO will do just fine.

[scripter1]

You said VO!
ACK!

I'll deal with that in a second.
I've had another thought after I wrote my first post.

Historical or fiction doesn't alter the format demands of dialog and action.

First you determine what is the point of the scene and the focus. I would venture a guess that in MOST of the situations an important character is speaking and other important characters are listening and reacting.
So, you outine what are the most important parts of the speech and make sure you get them in there as dialog. And then you either end (with the common period and a line space) the dialog and create a normal action line.
Then you go back to the speech.

If it is a FAMOUS speech then make sure you start off at the most well known part so the rest of it is in proper context. Or at least set up the moment well enough that we know the historical significance.

Now, regarding VO.
Just make sure that it isn't just an easier way of doing the scene.
The VO has to add something to the scene. The most effective uses of VO I've seen / read is where the VO is opposite what is being shown on the screen. Say, a VO speech about peace when there is war raging on the screen.