What is a dialogue?- A conversation between two or more people.
Functions of dialogue
- Effective dialogue moves the story forward
- Dialogue communicates facts and information to the audience
~It conveys essential exposition
~Character will talk about what happened, establishing the storyline
- Dialogue reveals character
~ A character will talk aout himself and other people will talk about him.
- Dialogue establishes relationship between characters.
~Once your main character POV is established, use his dialogue with other characters to show their differing attitudes on the same subject matter.
- This dialogue exchange creates varied and alternative POVs.
- Differing POVs in turn, sustain the element of conflict between characters.
- Dialogue comments on the action on screen.
- Dialogue is used to tie various elements in the script( It is one of the devices that you as a writer can use to expand and enlarge your characters.)
Dialogue writing tips!
- Dialogue should be used sparingly.
- Never tell the audience what they can see for themselves!
( “If you can see it or hear it, don’t write it.”-Neville Smith)
- MOST IMPORTANT: DIALOGUE IS NO SUBSTITUDE FOR ACTION!
WRITING TIP
1) Eavesdropping- pay attention to the expression that people use in daily conversation. It is helpful to get a sense of ‘authentic’ dialogue.
2) Genuinely fake- In writing dialogue, remove words ( that may seem realistic) that don’t contribute to the plot in some way.
3) Reveal information sparingly- Don’t tell the audience everything upfront. Trust them to remember details from the earlier points in the story.
4) Punctuated dialogue with action- For ease of comprehension, long periods of dialogue should be broken with action and vice versa.
5) Avoid stereotypes, profanity and slang as there elements may distract or alienate your viewers.
~Cliché stereotyping (Widely fixed but oversimplified view)
~Profanity (Vulgarities/obscene language)
~Slang (informal phrases/words e.g blur like sotong)
6) Read(script) widely- Think about at which point you taken out of the story’s action? Or when did you stop believing in a character? Does the character seem larger than life and how did dialogue help accomplish that?
7) Punctuate dialogue correctly- Take time to learn the basics. Viewer/readers should feel the impact of your words, nt feel lost trying to follow your dialogue.
Importance of punctuation!
- An English professor wrote a sentence on the chalkboard and asked his student to punctuate it correctly- “ A woman without her man is nothing”
All the males in the class wrote: ‘ A woman, without her man, is nothing.’
All females wrote: ‘ A woman: without her, man is nothing.’
ELEMENTS OF DIALOGUE.
- Good dialogue is the illusion of reality
- You’ve got to know how to edit what people say without losing any of the spirit.
- “A good story was”life, with the dull parts taken out.”
- Common mistake: Students tend to create radio shows with images. <<Film is a visual medium>>- A screenplay is a story told in pictures.
