Elements of Dialogue
- Dialogue reveals character.
- A character will talk about himself and other people will talk about him.
* Because we know ourselves best.
- Dialogue establishes relationships between characters.
- Once you have established your main character’s POV, you can use dialogue with other characters to show that they have other attitudes, creating opposite/alternative POVs.
- This helps to create & sustain the element of CONFLICT between characters.
- Good effective dialogue will move the story forward.
- Dialogue communicates faces & information to the audience.
*It conveys essential exposition.
* Characters will talk about what happened, establishing the storyline.
- Dialogue comments on the action.
- Dialogue ties the script together.
* It is one of the devices that YOU as a writer can use to expand & enlarge your characters.
“If you can see it or hear it, don’t write it” – Neville Smith
- Dialogue should be used sparingly.
* It is so cheap that it spoils the whole production if used too much.
- Never tell the audience what they can see or themselves.
<<DIALOGUE IS NO SUBSTITUTION FOR ACTION!>>
In Hollywood when they look at a page and it’s got too much black, too much ink on the paper, they say:
“SHIT! IT’S FREEZE THE CAMERA TIME!”
^ common mistake
- students sometimes never achieve a level of competence as they tend to reproduce conventional spoken language, long statements of “real talking”, and defend their decision by telling us that:
“It’s how the character speaks.”
* Good dialogue is not somebody’s ability to write authentic speech as heard in real life.
Bad dialogue:
* Cheesy
* Unfocused
* Inappropriate tone/language.
- If that was all there is to it, you can just push a button on the tape recorder and the go collect your Oscar.
- You’ve got to know how to edit what people say without losing any of the spirit.
- Common mistake!
# students tend to create radio shows with images.
<<FILM IS A VISUAL MEDIUM>>
A screenplay is a story told in pictures.
The Real Exercise:
- Repeat “The Experiment” but:
*HUSBAND & WIFE ARE YOUR OWN PARENTS.
* Get 2 people to read the dialogue.
