Posted by Deltron at gso26-136-204.triad.rr.com on February 25, 2004 at 04:18:08:
In Reply to: Re: Can someone read this script for me? posted by mlc on February 24, 2004 at 23:57:27:
:And one last knit-picky thing: you use "beat" to refer to a pause. This is incorrect, yet EVERYONE does it. Technically, a "beat" is an actors term, which essentially means to convey something when dialogue isn't used. So it's the director that orders a beat, not the writer. It happens so much that it's now common, though.:
Using "beat" can mean just that: "convey emotion." If the writer tries to tell the actor what emotion to convey then it can be a problem, but "beat" is better than "pause." A beat is what actually happens when people pause in a conversation, some emotion is conveyed.