BY Darrell J. Banks Copyright 2003 All Rights Reserved
From “New York, NY” to the “Hulk” characters speak words that, at the minimum , remain clear. Characters grimace, mangle and destroy the English language, but if their words have meaning to the audience, the dialogue is effective. Does your character speak with an accent, a lisp, or in short technical language? Think about this, if you have done your work, then you know what your character will speak.. How and when he speaks is the focus of this article.
Dialogue is heard everyday. You hear a conversation on the street, in a coffee shop. Can you use it, perhaps? But dialogue is not talking heads or idle conversation. When your characters speak they exchange information to advance plot and story. Without effective dialogue your plot will not advance.
Example Character A knows something but is not willing to reveal that information to Character B. Character B knows Character A has specific information and desperately wants it. As a writer you present dialogue that actors can interpret and utilize to entertain movie goers. This l elevates the tension within your movie. Tension is essential to establish plot points, which in turn creates your story. If you have read Robert Mckee’s “Story” we are in the same consciousness.
Each day, as a writer, you have positive and negative emotions. Sometimes you are angry, and blow up. Sometimes you must show restraint. In writing, in every dramatic situation, a character will have a dominant moment. Your audience demands entertainment, they want an expansion of their daily lives. For the trivial day to day of life they watch a soap opera. For major entertainment they want a movie
In the above example Character B must navigate through a virtual emotional minefield to obtain the information he wants. If Character B’s dialogue is not expository, explains, yet moves the story, you have done your job.
EXAMPLE: BOB: Hey Jim, got anything planned for Friday
JIM: I don’t think that far in advance. But anything may come up, depends on Mary. Need anything.
BOB: Not much, just had a meeting and they added more shit to the pile.
JIM: Typical.
BOB: Yeah, it is, how’s your pile moving. Jim picks up a stack of paper and sets it down on the desk in dramatic fashion.
BOB: Exactly , see you at lunch. This dialogue reflects a typical office situation. Let’s put it in a movie, Bob and Jim are competing for the same account. Make their job dependent on the sale and you have “Glengarry Glen Ross ”, “ Death of a Salesmen.” Make the conversation about a woman you have “ In the Company of Men”, money “ Wall Street”. Movies are big, big concepts even if its about a writer named Virginia Wolf in the “Hours”.
