I call these Professional, Personal and Private the three “P’s” that you can reveal using spoken dialogue and action. Let’s go back to the beginning – the four colors. So you are reducing what you have in your novel to fit into your screenplay but you are also adding new dimensions. Selecting elements of your characters to highlight and underscore through spoken words and action within their universe.
A character’s universe is the world they live within. This could include the time period, the geography, the time of year, the time of day, the cultural framework as well as the character’s place within that universe.
If your character lives in Victorian England are they rich or poor? If they are rich, they would talk and have a certain physicality – if they were poor it would be another. The Victorian period as a whole would be more formal than let’s say the 1960’s in the way people spoke to one another. It doesn’t have to be a time period change – it can be contemporary.
I remember one episode of a television show I was working on when they asked me to write a scene for two doctors talking while they were doing a routine surgery on a patient. At first I thought about writing a highly technical scene and have them talk within a framework of medical terms. But then, I thought that more than likely they would talk about other things like sports, the stock market what they did over the weekend and that dialogue would be peppered with medical terms. I called the hospital for a consult and I was correct. So their universe (the two surgeons) even though they were performing surgery was much more informal than one might think. Dialogue can also be influence by plot.
What’s the situation? Is it a blind date, a funeral a job interview? Just think of the times you might have gone on a job interview or important meeting. Did you have a specific kind of physicality and way you spoke? Did you use different kinds of words? Some analysts and sales consultants teach their sales personal to “mimic” their prospect. Essentially, after speaking for a few moments – very slowly – the sales person begins to mimic the physical state, vocal quality and way of speaking of someone they want to sell to. I guess the idea is that people like to buy things from other people that are just like them. The same can be said of creating “opposites” by creating a physical state, dialogue that is direct opposition to the character they are speaking.
So, dialogue can be your way to further your story and develop your character in your screenplay.
How much time do we have left?
(Administrator: “Five minutes.”)
50
OTHER QUALITIES OF DIALOGUE
Writing Great Dialogue
OKAY. I WANT you to think about how your characters sound when they speak. Now you may think, doesn’t that depend upon the actor saying those lines? Yes and no. I want you to create an auditory signature in your brain that sets up in your mind and eventually your reader’s mind how your character dispenses the dialogue they speak.
Do any of you remember the movie And Justice for All (1979) with Al Pacino?
(Almost all of the audience members raise their hands)
If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out.
Remember that famous scene where Al Pacino says:
“You’re out of order! You’re out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They’re out of order! That man, that sick, crazy, depraved man, raped and beat that woman there, and he’d like to do it again! He *told* me so! It’s just a show! It’s a show! It’s “Let’s Make A Deal”! “Let’s Make A Deal”! Hey Frank, you wanna “Make A Deal”? I got an insane judge who likes to beat the shit out of women! Whaddya wanna gimme Frank, 3 weeks probation?”
or when Don Corleone as the Godfather (1972) speaks in his graveled voice:
(Catalano does Godfather voice)
“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
(Audience laughter)
Thank you. I will be doing film impressions today at 4:00 PM in the Lido Room!
(Audience laughter)
There really isn’t a Lido Room is there? I didn’t think so.
Each of these characters has their own vocal quality and sound that makes them unique.
This next point is a bit tricky. But I start it with a question. When your character speaks, do they talk in a presentational manner – in elevated tones like they are are on stage?
Some characters relish every word they speak as it they were spun of gold. I’m thinking of Sherlock Holmes and more specifically Basil Rathbone’s creation of the character.
“It seemed to me that a careful examination of the room and the lawn might possibly reveal some traces of this mysterious individual. You know my methods, Watson. There was not one of them which I did not apply to the inquiry. And it ended by my discovering traces, but very different ones from those which I had expected.”
This is a presentational type of quality. If this is a quality your character possesses – illustrate it with presentational dialogue. These types of characters are always presenting themselves to the world. They are talking to another character but they are also at the same time talking to everyone else. The other type of character dialogue is representational where the spoken words are much more intimate and personal.
When a representational type of speaker talks to another character it is much more intimate and you get a sense of who they are and where they come from. They are not “on” when they speak – they speak and convey emotions and intellectual ideas directly with no concern of their presentation.
What about dialect? When you convey dialect it’s probably best to write it actually as you want it spoken. There may be other opinions about this but from my perspective I would like to have the utmost control over how my character speaks. Now if you write it this way and they cast an actor who doesn’t want or can’t do that way, they will change it. Think about Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939) – Clark Gable just spoke the way he normally did. Now he didn’t do a southern dialect by made up for it with physicality, action and a larger than life personality. One other thing about dialect, if you write it phonetically make sure it is understandable on the page when its read. You don’t want your reader dwelling upon a phrase because they don’t know what it means.
I know I’m almost out of time – but I also wanted to mention dialogue rhythm. Does your character speak in a certain rhythm or repeat phrases? Do they use malapropisms when trying to identify an idea or person?
I’m thinking of films like Gone with the Wind when Scarlett says:
As God is my witness,
as God is my witness they’re not going to lick me.
I’m going to live through this and when it’s all over,
I’ll never be hungry again.
No, nor any of my folk.
If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill.
As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.
Or the motion picture Goodfellas (1990)
(Catalano does an imitation of Joe Pesci)
What do you mean, you mean the way I talk?
What? You mean, let me understand this cause, ya’ know maybe it’s me,
I’m funny how, I mean funny like I’m a clown,
I amuse you? I make you laugh?
I’m here to amuse you?
What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?
(Audience applause)
I took out the dirty words… but I just wanted to give you an idea of rhythm.
Also create a sound for your character – just as a violin and a tuba (which both play music) might sound. Each instrument achieves that differently. Every character’s voice has a certain sound and shape.
We are out of time.
In conclusion… and I know you all want to do a really great job in converting your novel to a screenplay. If you undertake this just write from the heart. Forget about everything we talked about today.
(Audience laughter)
Don’t worry about the page count… just write from the heart. Don’t worry about labels l
ike EXTERIOR, INTERIOR, FADE OUT, and FADE IN – just write it! Visualize your novel from the heart and once you get it all down on paper – you can edit it to make it all fit. What a lot of writers to is edit as they write – trying to get it all done on the first draft. What happens? They never get done because they are always fixing one thing or another. It will never get completed and sit in your drawer like a jacked up Chevy in the garage doomed to incompletion.
Just write it! Thank you very much if there are any questions I am available outside in the hotel lobby.
(Audience applause)
Thank you and have a great rest of the day!
Book to Screen Page 22