Sound Effects

Sound effects can be capitalized in the Scene Directions (Action).

Do not write 'Sound effect' or 'SFX' -- just put the sound in caps.

Capitalizing sound effects is not always necessary. The most helpful situations are:

If the sound source is on-screen but the sound is not cued visually.

If the sound source is off-screen.

In the following example, the phone is on-screen and the sirens are off-screen.

Jamie's phone RINGS. He answers as POLICE SIRENS drown out the conversation.

Scenes without synchronous sound

MOS (motor only shot, mit out sound...) is a filmmaking term which indicates that the scene was shot without a synchronous audio track.

For example, in an MOS shot, the characters may be walking and talking but we would not hear their footsteps or speech or the environmental sounds (traffic, noise, etc.).

Using phrases like "There is no sound" or "Silence" to describe this type of scene may be misleading since the scene/shot will likely have some sound, for example, music or sfx. It just won't have the synch sound from the shot.

Ali and Ezra walk down the alley, chatting MOS.

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Master Scene Screenwriting Guide