U64022 SCREENWRITING ADVANCED WEEK 4 DIALOGUE NEO-NOIR TRADITIONAL PARADIGMS vs. COMPLEX NARRATIVES.

U64022 SCREENWRITING ADVANCED

WEEK 4

DIALOGUE

NEO-NOIR

TRADITIONAL PARADIGMS vs.

COMPLEX NARRATIVES

DIALOGUE

• Style + pace

• Last element worked on by the screenwriter

• First element (sometimes the only one) considered by script readers

• Visual context and functional information

U64022 Screenwriting: Advanced Level

4 USES OF DIALOGUE

1) Dialogue integral to the visual • Speaker is seen on the screen

2) Dialogue from source not on the screen• Classic VO (voice over): e.g. narrator, thoughts• OC/OS (off camera/off screen) option: dramatic tool

to guide the viewer’s attention, reaction speech, faces, surprise, etc.

3) Fragments of speech.• Chat-up lines, juxtaposition of snatches of dialogue

4) Reproduced speech• Recorded dialogue on a given source or device: radio,

television, tape recordings, answering machines, letters, computer screens, etc.


4 FUNCTIONS OF DIALOGUE

1) To provide information/context• To the audience (to avoid time-consuming alternative

options): usually at the beginning of scenes

2) To define characters• Their attitude, relationships with people, inner

motivation Black hole of dialogue

3) To establish active questions• If delivered effectively, conveys characters’ next

step in the story: usually at the end of scenes (expectations in the audience)

4) To establish ambience, setting, action• To be used sparingly


GOOD DIALOGUE

1. Is it essential?

2. Does it relate to the visual aspect? (must be clear on the written page already)

3. Is it character specific? (character’s background, style, skills, worldview, intentions, goals, relationship to other character)

4. Does it replace the visuals?

5. Is it economical? (length, rhythm – exceptions: monologues or very specific situations) [NO WALLS OF BLAHS)


GOOD DIALOGUE

6. Speech, not prose (but well written)?

7. Dramatic hook for dialogue (beginning of scene)?

8. Dramatic build of dialogue within the scene?

9. Patterns (questions, answers, repetitions, agreement/disagreement, stops, non-responses, simultaneous actions)

10.Does it influence the action or does it move the story on?


BAD DIALOGUE

1. No obvious reason for providing information

2. Stating the obvious in a dramatic situation

3. Too much information provided all at once

4. Order of information is misleading

5. Not leaving enough reaction time to the audience

6. Unnecessary repetitions


BAD DIALOGUE

7. Reverse building (Vs climax) (?)

8. Underscoring words or giving stage directions in dialogues

9. Too many parentheticals

10. Dialogue not linked to action (dialogue is not conversation)

11. No variation in tone or moments of relief

12. Not character-specific


ANALYSIS OF SE7EN Act 1

Set-up (minutes 1-7): Big city Main characters: two detectives - one older (Somerset,

Freeman), meticulous, skeptical, close to retirement; the other (Mills, Pitt) young, new in town, ambitious

Inciting incident (minute 9): Somerset’s (Freeman) supposedly last investigation, ghastly murder of an obese man Somerset suspect a serial killer, the captain not Mills reassigned to another case Will they give up?

Mills’s first case: murder of attorney Discovery of the words Greed and Gluttony Somerset and the serial killer, theory of the Seven Deadly

Sins [PATTERN], VS the captain, refuses the case (climax Act One, 24 mins in)

Will they give up? Mills and Somerset working separately

Mills at home, disorganized, frustrated Somerset in the library, methodical, notes on Mills desk (plot point end of act 1, 30 mins in)



Tracy (Mills’ wife) invites Somerset to dinner, truce, the two work together again

New victim (Victor) and new word: Sloth Mills does not control his emotions and reacts against

a reporter; Somerset calms him down Tracy and Somerset: Tracy’s fears, pregnancy Idea, FBI tracks readers’ reading habits: found a name,

Jonathan Doe (hook, 68 mins in) Doe’s apartment and chase

Doe spares Mills’ life (Act 2 climax - midpoint, 73 mins in)

Apartment searched, books, photos of all victims, no fingerprints

Sex parlour victim: Lust Somerset and Mills nursing a drink: defeatist worldview of

S. Mills does not buy into it (plot point end of act 2 – anticlimax, 93 mins in)



Pride’s crime scene, Somerset will stay on the case SURPRISE (VS genre expectations)

John Doe enters the precinct and turns himself in (no fingerprints, no identity)

Doe’s offer to reveal last two victims leads into final crisis

Car Psychological superiority of Doe on the detectives

Finale in the desert Wait tension builds Van arrives, delivers package Somerset opens, no show (OS), importance of dialogue Tracy and unborn child killed by Doe: Envy Doe shot by Mills: Wrath (Act 3 climax, 121 mins in) Somerset won’t retire (Resolution, 124 mins in)


ANALYSIS OF SE7EN Three-act structure typical of detective story genre

BUT Pattern (Seven Deadly Sins) create a sub-structure

within each single act that allows the writer to play with expectations and motivate the characters’ actions Act1- Greed, Gluttony (pattern set, expect 7 murders) Act2- Sloth, Lust, Pride (almost caught, almost dead,

dead end) Act3- Envy, Wrath (vs expectations)

Ending: reversal of roles Killers becomes a victim Detective becomes a killer

Multiple levels: ethical, emotional, personal, social values (good VS bad)


ALTERNATIVE MODELS

Traditional 3-act structure• Significant events in linear structure (logical flow)• Cause and effect • Climaxes and turning points at end of acts, final

resolution• Main narrative device: conflict goal• Usually “closed” ending (consistent fictional reality,

emphasis on external conflicts, all questions resolved)• Majority of Hollywood films (archetype is Casablanca)

ALTERNATIVE MODELS

Mixed / complex structures• Structure is not clear-cut• Still beginning, middle, end BUT not 3 acts, no usual

climax, turning points, act breaks.• Can reverse chronological or logical order or events• Series of episodes, incidents on a central theme OR

apparently separate stories that interweave – also multi-plot stories

• Often “open-ended”

ALTERNATIVE MODELS

PULP FICTION• Causal relation between sequences not explained,

nor evident to viewers at the beginning• The through-line jumps backwards and forward in

time, but begins and ends in medias res (in the middle of the chronology)

• The three story (plus the prologue) have narrative connections that explains the cause-effect logic, even though at different times

ALTERNATIVE MODELS

PULP FICTION

1 2 3 4 5 6

ALTERNATIVE MODELS

MEMENTO

• Not just backward chronology

• Colour scene / BW scene pattern

• Specific pattern?

ALTERNATIVE MODELS

MEMENTO

OVERALL STRUCTURE

BW scenes numbered 1 to 22C scenes named A to W

Film StructureW-1-V-2-U-3-T-4-S-5-R-6-Q-7-P-8-O-9-N-10-M-11-L-12-K-13-J-14- I-15-H-16-G-17-F-18-E-19-D-20-C-21-B-22+A

ALTERNATIVE MODELS

MEMENTO

OVERALL STRUCTURE

BW scenes numbered 1 to 22C scenes named A to W

Film StructureW-1-V-2-U-3-T-4-S-5-R-6-Q-7-P-8-O-9-N-10-M-11-L-12-K-13-J-14- I-15-H-16-G-17-F-18-E-19-D-20-C-21-B-22+A

Story chronology1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22+A-B-

C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W

U64022 SCREENWRITING ADVANCED WEEK 4 DIALOGUE NEO-NOIR TRADITIONAL PARADIGMS vs. COMPLEX NARRATIVES.

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Transcript of U64022 SCREENWRITING ADVANCED WEEK 4 DIALOGUE NEO-NOIR TRADITIONAL PARADIGMS vs. COMPLEX NARRATIVES.