DIALOGUE part 4 (ADDRESS AND EXPLAIN)

This is related to “address and dismiss” but serves a different function. The best example is in the first Star Wars, when Luke Skywalker sees the Millennium Falcon for the first time. After it was revealed, a hush came over the audience as they took in the magnificent ship. Then Luke exclaims, “What a piece of junk!”The crowed erupted with laughter, because that’s not at all what we were

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DIALOGUE part 3 (ADDRESS AND DISMISS)

The first time I noticed this technique, I was watching John Carpenter’s The Thing. In the film, an alien creature with the ability to assume any form terrorizes a group of men in an isolated research base.In this particular scene, the alien has assumed the shape of one of the men, but then begins to distort. The neck stretches impossibly and tendons snap. The head detaches from the rest of the

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DIALOGUE part 2 (SOUNDING NATURAL)

Over the last few years, I have noticed that every character I read, or see in the movies or on television, sounds like another movie or television show. Real people don’t talk like movie people. Listen to how people speak. They didn’t all grow up in your neighborhood, nor do they all have your educational background.Because I’ve worked in both animation and comic books, I know a lot of

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DIALOGUE part 1

My barber wants to make a film. He wants to write a screenplay, so he wants to know the format. He figures that once he knows the format, he’s set. There is nothing else to know, right? As he said to me, “I already know what I want people to say.”Most people are under the impression that scriptwriting is coming up with dialogue. Most critics seem to think this as well. They will go on and

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