(E) (N) (O.L.) tags

Meaning

Korean drama scripts mark how a line is heard with a parenthetical after the name. (E), from Effect, means a voice whose face is not on screen: the other end of a phone call, outside the door, the next room, a loudspeaker. (N) or (Na) is narration, commentary or monologue laid over the scene. (O.L.) is Overlap, a line that starts before the previous speaker has finished. These correspond to V.O. (voice over) and O.S. (off screen) in American format, but Korean practice covers most cases with (E) alone. Also used: (F) for filtered audio (phone, radio) and (monologue) for unspoken thought.

Why it matters

These tags are instructions for sound and editing. A line marked (E) can be recorded without the actor on set, and (N) is usually recorded in a studio on another day. (O.L.) tells the editor to overlap two lines and tells the actor to cut in before the other finishes. Without the tags the crew has to guess the writer's intent, and a wrong guess changes the rhythm of the scene. When adapting a web novel, the temptation to turn all interior narration into (N) is strong, but narration-heavy dramas get described as "reading the novel aloud." Two or three (N) per episode is the ceiling.

Example

S#20. Yuri's studio apartment (N)

Yuri stands at the window holding the bankbook. Her phone rings. She answers.

YURI        Hello.
DOYUN (E)   Where are you.
YURI        Home. Why.
DOYUN (E)   Get away from the window. Close the curtain.
YURI        (O.L.) What are you—
DOYUN (E)   (O.L.) Right now.

Yuri closes the curtain.

YURI (N)    That night I didn't yet know why his voice was shaking.

Doyun is not in the scene, so every one of his lines is (E). The overlapping (O.L.) on both sides builds urgency. The closing (N) is used once, to end the episode.

Common mistakes

• Confusing (E) and (N). A voice on the phone is (E); a character commenting from outside the events is (N).
• Reading the novel through (N). Moving every interior thought into narration produces a recitation, not a drama.
• Marking (O.L.) on only one line. Both overlapping lines need the tag so the editor knows where the overlap starts.