Story Telling Unit-Screen writing L2
Dialogue
Todays lesson was with Steve Cooms. He was set to give us a lecture on both screening dialogue and characterisation.
We began by watching a short film clip from the film Pulp Fiction. It was the watch scene and whilst it was very well performed, it did drag on a bit. This taught us not to have dialogue so long because it loses the audiences attention. In modern films it's difficult to keep the viewers attention when characters stay in the same place for too long or talk for too long. This would only really work in a play. Show the audience, don't tell them!
Also everyone speaks differently even if they are from the same place. That is more natural and realistic because we all speak differently. For my first draft I will read out loud so it's speakable and fluent. However, sometimes it can be equally as boring when it's too real so it's best to remove all the basic "hello how are you" "I'm good thanks, yourself?"
No long speeches unless unavoidable-no more than 3 lines in a row
Subtext- How are you? *smiling
Don't overuse accents- just a touch so if a character was French I would write him as saying "good afternoon Misure"
Characters
Never make a character a mouthpiece for what you're trying to say.
Use jump out words to get the audience attention.
Swear words are the most complex forms of language because they only work in a curtain way, otherwise they wouldn't make sense.e.g. Shit bag would work but bag shit wouldn't. They also need to work in rhythm. If a character swears once they are likely to do it again. Not all characters will, so it's important to think of the character in extreme circumstances. So my protagonist the vicar I feel wouldn't swear, he would replace it with more innocent language like "hells bells" or "bugger"
We learned about this watching a clip from Full Metal Jacket which had the Srgt abuse his authority and he would swear frequently I'm rhythm, it came almost naturally to him and even won him an Oscar.
It's important to know the characters in the script just as well as your friends. Be able to know exactly what they would do in certain situations. They usually have flaws or failures-nobody's perfect. In fact that often makes their characters. They will often fall short of their own estimations.
Tells
Tells are giveaways in the characters. It's a phrase used in poker where usually people give away their poker face with something subconcious and subtle.
Not telling what they are like, showing what they are like in their dialogue and actions.
Melodrama: characters are usually wrong
Drama: All characters are right-point of sympathy is constantly changing.
Make characters relatable
Huberous- their fait or tragic fair
Hubert's Rex play-RESEARCH
Conscious or unconscious tragedy
Exestential dilemma of men would be to be a gangster, psycho or happily married man- most of these take inspiration from film/TV.
Choices define us- choice will therefore define the chatpracter. Different people or events will drag them into different directions similar to a suspension bridge.
-What keeps them tense
-What drives them crazy
Todays lesson was with Steve Cooms. He was set to give us a lecture on both screening dialogue and characterisation.
We began by watching a short film clip from the film Pulp Fiction. It was the watch scene and whilst it was very well performed, it did drag on a bit. This taught us not to have dialogue so long because it loses the audiences attention. In modern films it's difficult to keep the viewers attention when characters stay in the same place for too long or talk for too long. This would only really work in a play. Show the audience, don't tell them!
Also everyone speaks differently even if they are from the same place. That is more natural and realistic because we all speak differently. For my first draft I will read out loud so it's speakable and fluent. However, sometimes it can be equally as boring when it's too real so it's best to remove all the basic "hello how are you" "I'm good thanks, yourself?"
No long speeches unless unavoidable-no more than 3 lines in a row
Subtext- How are you? *smiling
Don't overuse accents- just a touch so if a character was French I would write him as saying "good afternoon Misure"
Characters
Never make a character a mouthpiece for what you're trying to say.
Use jump out words to get the audience attention.
Swear words are the most complex forms of language because they only work in a curtain way, otherwise they wouldn't make sense.e.g. Shit bag would work but bag shit wouldn't. They also need to work in rhythm. If a character swears once they are likely to do it again. Not all characters will, so it's important to think of the character in extreme circumstances. So my protagonist the vicar I feel wouldn't swear, he would replace it with more innocent language like "hells bells" or "bugger"
We learned about this watching a clip from Full Metal Jacket which had the Srgt abuse his authority and he would swear frequently I'm rhythm, it came almost naturally to him and even won him an Oscar.
It's important to know the characters in the script just as well as your friends. Be able to know exactly what they would do in certain situations. They usually have flaws or failures-nobody's perfect. In fact that often makes their characters. They will often fall short of their own estimations.
Tells
Tells are giveaways in the characters. It's a phrase used in poker where usually people give away their poker face with something subconcious and subtle.
Not telling what they are like, showing what they are like in their dialogue and actions.
Melodrama: characters are usually wrong
Drama: All characters are right-point of sympathy is constantly changing.
Make characters relatable
Huberous- their fait or tragic fair
Hubert's Rex play-RESEARCH
Conscious or unconscious tragedy
Exestential dilemma of men would be to be a gangster, psycho or happily married man- most of these take inspiration from film/TV.
Choices define us- choice will therefore define the chatpracter. Different people or events will drag them into different directions similar to a suspension bridge.
-What keeps them tense
-What drives them crazy
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