Story-telling unit: 03/10/2016 Editing workshop/Character and Dialogue Lecture

Editing workshop with Ferg

During the morning we had a workshop covering the basics of editing with premier pro, after learning about where we could access the footage and the audio we then had to edit them together. 

(I found it easier to learn as we were doing the editing)

This is the edit I made:

The thing I found hardest was knowing what audio I wanted with which clip, but I enjoyed the challenge and tried to make it as interesting as possible.

Afternoon lecture with Simon Coombes (Character and Dialogue)

Dialogue

When writing a script use the "Golden Rules" covered in last weeks session as a checklist.

(We first looked at Christopher Walken's monologue for "Pulp Fiction")

Good dialogue doesn't always belong in that particular script or at that point of the script, sometimes a piece of dialogue can work better with a different character or in a different scene.

Dialogue is also the least important thing in screen writing, the important things are what's shown not told. If it doesn't add to/progress the story the it shouldn't be in the script.

Rules in writing dialogue

•  Don't be too on the nose.
• Don't repeat names of characters too much.
• Don't have characters speak in the same ways. (what phrases do they or don't they know, how polite are they, think of who is playing the character too. If your character swears which words are they favouring, how do they say they them as this can depend on where they are from)
• Don't be overly artistic with the characters.
• Read the dialogue out loud. (If you can't say it easily it's not dialogue)
• Don't make the situations too real.
• Don't be too grammatical.
• Make it sound natural without over doing it. (don't include everything that would be in a real conversation, that's not interesting for the audience)
• If avoidable don't do a long speech, in everyday life people don't generally say more than 3 lines at a time.
• Not everything has to be said, for example subtext in a situation can be more powerful at times.
• Beware of over doing accents, little touches on certain words are better.
• Pay attention to the syntax of a character's way of speaking.
• Don't give too much detail and don't voice your opinions through your character.

Good dialogue begins with denial, when a character says they're not something they usually are eg. I'm not in love=I am in love.

If your character is going to swear let them swear, it's better to have 100 fucks rather then just one. When people are angry they talk eloquently.

Character

A character's friends can be another way to learn about that character, a friend knows about your flaws, peculiarities, what your good at and what your bad at, the writer should know their characters just as well as a friend.

Characters are all about their flaws, failures or their "will be" failures, good characters look up at the world not down. Characters when written can have "tells" like in poker, something that gives away their personality in little bits.

When acting melodrama characters usually seem wrong to the audience, the way they're acting doesn't seem to fit with the audience's expectations, in good drama all characters are right.

Backstory's for a character provide their past without telling the audience anything, whereas a front story predicts the next move of the character.

(Hubris- excessive pride)

To make the "monster" you're writing likeable you need to put them next to a bigger "monster".

(We then watched "Diner" the "Don't touch my records" scene)

From this scene you can gather their marriage isn't very good, they have little interest in each others lives, they are taking a stand with each other. "It's too complicated"= is a metaphor for their marriage, music is something he talks bout with his friends and through this conversation he is discovering she is not his friend and he is shouting at her for not being his friend.

Existential hero= What does it mean to be a male grown up, overwhelmed by the freedom they have for their choices.

Single women= (Rom-Com) women are gunna choose who they want and they can be picky about it.

From this session I learnt a lot about how to set up and present a character through their behaviors/interactions with other characters and their dialogue in scenes.