This is a running tab of formatting inconsistencies/uncertainties/oddities I run into while going through transcripts. This is meant to be part consistency tracker for my own personal use and part public feedback forum since some of these items are a bit debatable.
I review transcripts every day as part of a personal language routine; however, I only work with older episodes, which tend to have outdated/non-standardized formatting. My intent has been to standardize them per what appears to be the most common formatting choices, though I have avoided any large-scale overhauls.
- Two functions seem to inform what is included in transcripts: 1. document all noteworthy dialogue and sounds in the episode, and 2. present such in an easily readable format that includes contextually relevant actions.
- Generally, concision and readability are the primary guiding factors. If it uses fewer characters, achieves the same effect, and is no less easy to read, it’s likely a good change.
- Em-dashes, not hyphens or en-dashes, are used for interjections and sentence cut-offs.
- -For sentence interjections, no spaces are used between the words and the dash
- For showing actions, nameplates are usually preferred to stand-alone brackets unless the agent is highly generalized.
- Ex. Cutie Mark Crusaders: [laughing] -instead of- [Cutie Mark Crusaders laughing]
- Ex. [ponies cheering] -instead of- Ponies: [cheering]
- Stand-alone bracketed actions (those without a nameplate) should be as simple as possible, only including as much information as is necessary to understand the context of a sound.
- Ex. [muffin squawks] -instead of- [flying muffin squawks]
- -In cases where the agent is unknown or unconfirmed, the agent should be omitted as well. For example, in A Bird in the Hoof, Philomena is not yet revealed when she first coughs, so no nameplate is given for the cough.
- Most bracketed onomatopoeia are changed to a brief description without punctuation.
- Ex. [explosion] -instead of- [boom!]
- Ex. [knocking] -instead of- [knock knock knock knock]
- -To avoid "over-documentation", sounds should only be written out if they are 1. real (reasonably caused by an actual source in the scene as opposed to existing purely for comedic emphasis) and 2. audibly or narratively prominent.
- When a group murmur has multiple standout comments that indicate narratively relevant tone, they should be written in brackets after the nameplate.
- Ex. Pegasi: [Oooh. Ok, yeah.]
- Consecutive nameplates for the same agent are combined.
- When appropriate, common collective nameplates should be used instead of listing each individual character.
- Ex. Main cast, Rest of main cast, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Power Ponies, etc.
- -When necessary, “sans” to be used in place of “except”
- -Most common collective nameplates to be used, e.g. Rest of main cast -instead of- Twilight’s friends
- -Group nameplates should be entirely in bold font
- “Alright” vs “all right”
- -According to my online research, several reputable sources consider “all right” to be more correct than “alright” across the board. In my personal experience, “alright” is by far the more common expression as an interjection and has a clear distinction from “all right” as a modifier. My outlook thus far, both from a stylistic and consistency point of view, has been to always use “alright” as an interjection (ex. “alright, enough is enough”) and as a modifier as necessary, i.e. when something is “just ok” as opposed to “completely fine”.
- Scene changes, marked by a double line break in the transcript, are generally defined by distinct jumps in time and/or space accompanied by a sudden, discontinuous camera change.
- Lines read or quoted by a character are in italics, between quotes, and/or preceded with "[reading]", depending mostly on length and scene context.
- Use of italic text
- -I largely leave this alone but inconsistencies sometimes come up. Most common use seems to be when words are either shouted, read/quoted, or emphasized by intonation or syntax. Ideally, italics of emphasis should be infrequent enough to not diminish the emphatic effect and should generally be limited to single words. Italicizing of punctuation is also a bit inconsistent; my general approach is to include punctuation as appropriate to fit the emotion of the line.
- Song formatting
- -Nameplates for lines sung, or "lyric nameplates", are enclosed in brackets with all letters and punctuation bolded without indentation (preceding colon). Nameplates for spoken lines are in standard format.
- Ex. [Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo]
- -When the #lst lyric template is used in episode transcripts, it should be preceded by a colon and placed two lines down from the previous line. Additionally:
- 1. When the song begins with a lyric template and is the first line of a scene, add <br /> between the colon and the template. This is to show both the scene change space and the pre-lyric nameplate space.
- 2. When the song begins with something other than a lyric nameplate and isn't the first line of a scene, place the lyric template only one line down.
- -In the case where lyrics are written directly into the episode transcript, lyric nameplates have a line break before them to give them spacing. This is the same formatting used in song pages.
- -Nameplates for lines sung, or "lyric nameplates", are enclosed in brackets with all letters and punctuation bolded without indentation (preceding colon). Nameplates for spoken lines are in standard format.
- Lines that begin with an ellipsis should have their first letter capitalized except when they mean to continue a previous unfinished line.
- Ex. Rarity: I waited all my life... Fluttershy: ...for this moment!
- Ex. Spike: ...Of course.
- -The same rule goes for words that follow ellipses in the same line.
- Ex. Spike: I guess I know what that feels like... [gasp] Wait.
- Ex. Spike: You gotta... help stop the... tornado from destroying the city!
Things I ignore:
- A lot of stylized speech seems a bit inconsistently transcribed, such as with AJ’s accent, and in most cases I have no interest in trying to make an argument for one way over another. It’s usually pretty agreeable.
- “[beat]”, referring to a brief pause for comedic emphasis, is rarely used in seasons 1-3, appears occasionally in season 4, and is ubiquitous in season 5 onward. Since it isn't a "real" effect or sound, my personal opinion is that it serves the same limited function as "[reading]" or "[to (character)]" in that it gives context to otherwise sudden and unexplained changes in tone. For example, during the B.B.B.F.F. / P.F.F. explanations in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1, "[beat]" stands in for confused looks and gives context to why the initialisms are spelled out with a question mark and why characters say "ohhh!" right afterward. Given this function, though the writing in later seasons does feature far more punchline-emphasizing pauses, I think the degree to which it appears in the transcripts constitutes overuse; regardless, it’s something I don’t intend to standardize one way or another.
- Starting in season 4, transcripts no longer include [music] before [credits] at the end. I proposed this as a potential bot function a while back but the situation remains the same.
- Oxford comma placement in nameplates with three or more individual characters is inconsistent. I personally advocate its usage, but I think the effort to standardize it outweighs the benefit.
- Bracketed actions such as "[gasps]" and "[laughing]" vary frequently in what part of speech they take (most often verb, participle, or noun form). I think it should be consistent locally, perhaps even no broader than within a single piece of dialogue, but I don't think it's practical or necessary to standardize it globally.
- Later episode transcripts include far more bracketed sound effects—and with exclamation points—than earlier ones and tend to use onomatopoeia rather than brief descriptions of sounds. I'm partially inclined to consider this difference appropriate for the shift in the show's tone (without saying one format is better or worse) and intend to continue working toward a more chronologically local standard (earlier seasons vs later).
- In songs, if one character speaks and then sings a line, a lyric nameplate is sometimes inserted before the lyrics and other times not, such as in Find A Pet Song. In some cases the added nameplate is simply a matter of imported lyrics that are unable to account for prior text, while in others, such as Generosity (song) and Raise This Barn, it appears deliberate. In the foreign transcripts I do not insert a lyric nameplate; however, because it is somewhat common here and I could see a stylistic argument for it depending on the context, I haven't been changing it.
- -Interestingly, it appears as though the lyrics pages for the songs in A Canterlot Wedding place the beginning of the songs after the initial nameplates, such as with B.B.B.F.F. and This Day Aria, Part 2, except in the case where there is an apparent scene change, such as in This Day Aria, Part 1. This makes the lyrics in the transcript appear without an extra nameplate, suggesting that at one point that was considered correct formatting. All other songs that I've seen (which is not every song) begin at the first nameplate or bracketed action. This would make the lyrics more universally portable, since the relevant context of nameplates would carry over should the lyric template be used outside of the transcript. Although I prefer the visual of not having an added nameplate in transcripts, I think consistency is probably more important, and as such I would begrudgingly advocate for "fixing" the lyric pages in A Canterlot Wedding by moving <section begin="song" /> to the first line of the song.
Notable Exceptions:
- In Magical Mystery Cure, as the song "A True, True Friend" begins, Twilight Sparkle has two consecutive nameplates that cannot be reduced because the second nameplate is (appropriately) generated as part of the lyrics template and thus cannot be removed in the episode transcript.