Chapter 6 Dialogue Creating Dialogue Is the Last Step in the Screenwriting Process. Dialogue Writing Should Not Be Attempted
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Chapter 6 Dialogue Creating dialogue is the last step in the screenwriting process. Dialogue writing should not be attempted until the story outline, and the character studies have been thoroughly completed. Writers who attempt dialogue before the story has been planned in detail usually find that the act of writing dialogue is such a pleasant diversion from the nitty-gritty of character study that they forget that the story, not the dialogue is the major issue, and find that the characters take of the story and dictate the terms of play to the writer. It is easy to spot this in a script – writer finds himself boxed into a corner by their unruly characters, and in order to compensate for their behaviour, the writer simply adds a new character in a desperate attempt to drag the story back on course. This new character normally arrives at about page thirty, with the additional pressure to pull off one of those Mckee ‘plot points’. This never works, and the script is ultimately doomed to oblivion (assuming the writer has had the fortitude to complete it). Writing instructors and screenwriting books are filled with ironies when discussing dialogue. One thing everyone agrees on, is that the best dialogue is minimal dialogue. Here is the ultimate irony. As we discussed in the last chapter, agent and producers don’t read the descriptive passages – just the dialogue, unless they are confused about what is going on – in which case they read back up the page a few lines until the descriptive passages clarify the story, and then they head back into the dialogue. A picture is worth a thousand words. Think of it, By reason, the best dialogue would be no dialogue at all. Movies are a series of pictures with sounds. The sound is composed of three elements: music, effects and dialogue. Listening to a movie with solely the dialogue playing would render the experience quite differently, would it not? Yet agents and producers, those two types of professionals with chequebooks, do just that when they read your script. The next irony is the common adage `Don’t talk about doing something, do it’; or `Actions speak louder than words’. Again, no dialogue seems to be the way to go. People love to watch a story. A story consists of a person with a plan. It doesn’t need to be a good plan or a clever plan, but audiences love to watch to see if they can learn something new by how this particular plan unfolds. These are just a few examples of the paradoxes facing a screenwriter embarking on writing dialogue. When approaching a scene in preparation for dialogue writing, you should have the following available to you: - The character studies for each of the characters in your head. If the characters cannot speak to you, outside of the scene, or if you cannot ask them a question and actually hear (or feel) their responses, then you have not adequately got to know your characters. - Scene outlines along with clear in and out point (Chapter 5). - Any twist or reversal you might have for the scene. - A list of which characters are in the scene. At this point try and see if there might be better way to tell the story or make the point of the scene. Often a new idea will spring to mind, or you may recast the scene with different characters from your cast list (don’t make up any new characters!) Dialogue Tracks When you are ready to proceed, imagine yourself in a recording studio. You will write dialogue as if and your characters are in a recording studio. - by laying down tracks. Write dialogue for the entire script, once for each track. Take your time, be patient, and create clear tracks for story and moral argument. You may not have key words or moral argument for ach scene. Later, when your dialogue writing session is complete, you will be able to mix (edit) the tracks to create powerful and satisfying dialogue. Write these tracks – story dialogue; moral argument; key words. 1. Story dialogue The talk about what is happening in a scene. SWEET-FACED WOMAN I’m just going to get some flowers, Dear. I’ll be back in twenty minutes. It’s tulip season today. I’m so happy. (Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks, As Good As It Gets) Hint Write story dialogue for the entire script, without worrying how it sounds at this stage. You will be mixing it later. It may be helpful to construct a simple chart to track the following in each scene: Goal Figure out which character’s goal is driving the scene, and that character’s goal will be the spine of the scene. Conflict Who opposes the character’s goal? Plan The character with the goal now comes up with the plan that may call for either direct or indirect action. The plan refers to how the character will reach the plan within the scene, not within the story. Twist Scenes with twists are more exciting than scenes without. Endpoint A firm statement or a completed action or a surprising revelation makes good endpoints. Figure 6.1 Story Dialogue Chart 2. Moral argument Describes what is worthwhile or not in life, along with what is right or wrong, both with in the context of the morality you have created for the world of your story. Values Allow your characters to speak openly about their values and what they like or dislike. This allows you to compare different versions of how to live. LOUISE Just for the future, when a woman’s hollering like that, she’s not having any fun. (Callie Khourie, Thelma and Louise) Moral argument Two or more characters come into conflict about what s right or wrong on the grounds that a particular course of action will hurt someone. MELVIN (to Simon) What I know is that as long as You keep your work zipped up around me, I don’t give a fuck what or where You shove your show. Are we done Being neighbours for now? SIMON (to Frank) Do you still think I was exaggerating? Frank can only smile. FRANK Definitely a package you don’t want To open or touch MELVIN Hope you find him. I love that dog. Simon, terminally non-confrontational, still finds Himself compelled to turn back toward Melvin SIMON You don’t love anything Mr Udall. Simon closes the door leaving Melvin alone. MELVIN I love throwing you dog down the garbage chute. (Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks, As Good As It Gets) 3. Key word and catch phrase Words that carry certain meanings that may mean something else to the audience and give a different meaning. When embedded in a story, key words provide the zap, crackle and pop. You may want to repeat a key word or catch phrase several times over the course of a story, with each situation casting a new meaning and new shading to the words. Famous key words that have leapt from the screen to popular culture include: ‘Show me the money’; ‘A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do’; ‘Make my day punk’; ‘Yada Yada Yada’. 4. The final mix Now it is a simple matter of taking the three different tracks you have created, and like a sound engineer in a music studio, mixing them down into one track. Some scenes will need mainly story dialogue, in them you will raise the level of the moral argument, and every now and then your sound engineer will spike in some key words. The Fifteen Tricks and Traps of Dialogue 1. Keep it simple No confusing words or difficult names. If your script has an African character name or is a sci-fi picture with technical jargon, remember that your script is being written for a reader. Try to keep it simple. A good screenplay is written in high school essay style and vocabulary. Aside Writing dialogue becomes fun and simple when you know your characters really well – through your character essays. When you achieve this, your characters will actually ‘speak’ to you. End aside 2. Keep it short There is always a better way, a shorter way, and a more direct way to express your thoughts in each and every scene. There is a marvellous moment in Escape from Alcatraz when the child psychologist, a fellow prisoner of Clint Eastwood asks how his childhood was. ‘Short’, was the terse reply. No one actually speaks like this, but in this moment, we find volumes about Clint Eastwood’s character. 3. Make each character speak with an individual voice Each character should have their own individual way of speaking. Often a writer, so accustomed to writing each character, as they themselves would speak, forgets that each individual in the world speaks a little differently. Each of the characters will say the same sort of thing in reaction to the main event of the scene This flaw is actually the easiest, and the most fun to correct. Deciding the individual voices of the characters, and then doing a dialogue rewrite is amusing and entertaining. 4. Forget dialect A script written in a dialect will be considered a script by a rank amateur first timer. If you write such a script – you will be considered, at best, a talented amateur. I had to read a script written in a heavy West Yorkshire accent. It was almost impossible to understand the colloquialisms. I even asked some vintage Brits in the office to translate, and they found it difficult.