dialogue

Others can give far more inside advice than I ... but if you're calling it an "action" script, I'm betting others will warn you about having two full pages of talk-not-action (imagine a reader, they see one full page of talking heads, they turn the page and see another full page of talking heads ... if they're taking on faith that it's page-a-minute ... three minutes is a long time)

So others know better than I. But I feel safe in suggesting that "dialogue" can still be dramatic and never mere "talking heads"

Talking heads in a room isn't the same as talking heads locked in a room with a bomb hidden ticking under the rug, as Hitchcock would suggest.

There's always dramatic context. Imagine a murder trial, where one lawyer is dramatically ripping apart a witness's testamony, or revealing a grand dramatic mystery ... we may savour page after page of gripping character dialogue and conflict!

And as much as people complain about Exposition ... I've read that you get ONE scene where the audience is happy to hear characters talking, if you're telling the audience something they really want to hear to set up the story.

So ... there's my two cents. There are others here who'll give you five dollah bills, soon enuf!

As long as it's interesting!

Not trying to be vague; there are some action movies that have pages of dialogue (even if they are hidden rather well (Fifth Element)). It just depends on how long you can keep it interesting...

FR

Can you illustrate or dramatize any of the dialogue, for instance, use it as V.O. for a dramatic flashback?

You can either have a character sit there and TELL us the Pharaoh was mummified and buried alive ... or you can SHOW us the Pharaoh's dramatic horror as he's mummified and buried alive, etc.

Six pages of dialogue just seems like a lot of talking, unless you can disguise it ... spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, etc. Cook up a spoonful of heroin and crawl in bed with a Russian supermodel and you can pretty much prattle on for page after page, the audience will forgive you ...

6 pages of dialogue is unlikely to translate to 6 minutes on screen, unless everyone talks slowly, so maybe it's not as bad as it sounds. I hope it's visually interesting and full of witty argument.

-Derek

I've been given the rule of thumb that NO scene --no matter what genre, and no mater if it's all dialogue or all action or a combination thereof-- should ever go longer than 7 pages.

Meanwhile, from another perspective, I was recently reading Lew Hunter's book, and he said he was discussing his script with Paul Newman. Newman was leafing through the pages and suddenly said: "Damn you TV writers! You're all alike! You guys never think of scenes that last longer than 3 pages!"

Holy crap! 6 pages of pure dialog??? Dang, break that monster up! that's like having to attend the presidential speech and just sitting there. Imagine cramming that into a movie? No, they break it up. They give bits and pieces broken up with action.

I don't care how interesting the dialog is, break it up!

I love writing dialogue, and this is something I run into. break it up with some movement, gestures, or even a scene/location change.

whistlelock said:

I love writing dialogue, and this is something I run into. break it up with some movement, gestures, or even a scene/location change.

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icerose said:

Holy crap! 6 pages of pure dialog??? Dang, break that monster up! that's like having to attend the presidential speech and just sitting there. Imagine cramming that into a movie? No, they break it up. They give bits and pieces broken up with action.

I don't care how interesting the dialog is, break it up!

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Tentpole/Blockbuster example #1 from moi:
In the DVD extras, the scriptwriter for The Day After Tomorrow, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, said director Roland Emmerich asked him to rewrite all of his info-dump/expository dialogue scenes so that the chattering characters were either walking down a hallway or driving in a car.



Tentpole/Blockbuster example #2 from moi:
The most static, boring, snoozer of a scene in The Fellowship of the Ring was the one known as "The Council of Elrond" where the representatives from all the different races/nations from Middle Earth were sitting around in a secret meeting at Lord Elrond's palace, discussing what to do with the Ring. Peter Jackson struggled as best he could to stay true to the book (in the book, that whole sequence of nothing but Parliamentary-style discussion was something like 40 frigging pages!) and yet still somehow make that scene spark to life. He took loads of liberties with the scene, including making up the part where Gimli smashed the ring with his battle axe. But in spite of Jackson's best efforts, it was STILL a difficult scene to sit through. I never actually timed it, but I think it ran about 6 or 7 minutes.

And here's one more example:

The infamous Pulp Fiction, reknowned for its amazing dialogue, rarely had anyone SITTING while talking. They were usually walking or driving, or MAYBE standing (and the dynamics on the screen are several notches more electrified when you have STANDING characters vs. SEATED characters) while in the midst of some other activity. If they actually WERE just plain-old-plain-old SITTING, there was usually some kind of palpable tension being simultaneously generated by maybe the presense of weilded guns or else an overt sexual undercurrent.

Plot Device said:

Peter Jackson struggled as best he could to stay true to the book

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Well I have to say, that's a line I never thought I'd ever read anywhere.

-Derek

dpaterso said:

Well I have to say, that's a line I never thought I'd ever read anywhere.

-Derek

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Plot Device said:

Meanwhile, from another perspective, I was recently reading Lew Hunter's book, and he said he was discussing his script with Paul Newman. Newman was leafing through the pages and suddenly said: "Damn you TV writers! You're all alike! You guys never think of scenes that last longer than 3 pages!"

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When did this conversation happen, 1982? Some screenwriting books are so out of date.

Plot Device said:

Tentpole/Blockbuster example #1 from moi:
In the DVD extras, the scriptwriter for The Day After Tomorrow, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, said director Roland Emmerich asked him to rewrite all of his info-dump/expository dialogue scenes so that the chattering characters were either walking down a hallway or driving in a car.

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Directors do this quite frequently. It's another way of keeping things moving. Also adds to the visual feel of the piece.

9 times out of ten if you've got two characters sitting in a seaside hotel restaurant discussing something, the director will shift part of this scene to the same two characters ending their conversation by walking along the shore front back to their cars, or whatever.

zagoraz said:

When did this conversation happen, 1982? Some screenwriting books are so out of date.

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More like 1972.

The book was published in the late 1990's by a "seasoned pro."

xhouseboy said:

Directors do this quite frequently. It's another way of keeping things moving. Also adds to the visual feel of the piece.

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I knew that. I wasn't pretedning it was anything unique. I was more suggesting that IF you write it to be flat, you WILL (more likely than not) be asked to jazz it up a bit.

Sometimes I under-explain stuff, other times I over-explain. That post was one where I was undeniably guilty of --oh, fugheddaboudit! You can figure out the rest!

Oh, fer cryin' out loud, I give them heroin and a Russian supermodel, and they're still talking about breakin' up the dialogue with a car ride?!

My hands are tied ... my hands are tied ...

Here is an example of interesting dialog on the move.

True Lies

His daughter just stole some cash and he half way caught her. Saw her do it, but didn't grab her on time. They're headed into work, they are having this conversation. It lasts from the car clear till they reach the briefing room.

They go through a car ride, over the omega symbol, through the scanners, the check point with the chick with the gun, the eye scanner, everything. All this time they are having a conversation and what they are doing reveals quite a bit about themselves, what they do, their environment that has nothing to do with the dialog itself.