What Do you Do When - character introduced in photo

[Mona Mars]

...a character is first introduced in a photo? Do you capitalize the name then or do you wait until the character makes his/her first live appearance in the story? I've been surveying and it's been about 50/50 for each option. Anyone have the definitive answer? Thanks, Mona

[Deus Ex Machine]

Capitalize when the character is first physically present in the story. A photo or video tape or being the subject of a conversation is not the first time the character is physically present in the story.

[Revisionist]

That is... Unless you're one of those writers who CAPITALIZES words within the BODY of the action to draw the DIRECTOR'S attention to it. Like having MEL GIBSON in a PHOTOGRAPH two seconds before...

MEL GIBSON, a fab actor, strides in knawing on a Danish... Actress... :D

Personally I find the habit irritating... Like CRASH goes the BANG as it RATTLES through my head. Hate that sh!t. Hard to read.

[PeteRodgersuk]

What about when a character appears in the first scene, but i dont want the reader to know who he is just yet.

This is actually the case in my current script.

I describe him, but don't reveal his name until i really need to.

is this ok?

[Deus Ex Machine]

If the mystery is integral to the story than I don't see a problem with not revealing the character's name so the reader has the same experience as the audience. But if we see the character and the mystery of his identity isn't integral to the story than there is no need to conceal it from the reader.

My 2 cents.

[JakeSchuster aka Ostroff]

I did that in a script I finished last summer. A character, already named and known, has to appear pretending to be someone else. Instead of naming him I called him MAN, let him do his dialogue, then, when he turned, I identified him as someone we knew. It strung out the tension and worked effectively for my readers. Do whatever you think will keep people turning the pages.