Turn off the brain and just write. Write because you LOVE it!Ok, let's talk film. Friday night rave is here. I know you're all excited. One day of the week I allow myself to be more incoherent than usual, let's do this! Trite and ordinary movie dialogue. Corny film dialogue is all over the place. I see a lot of Independent film on the web. A lot of budding film makers making film and using scripts that would serve better as fire wood. Not that I haven't written great stuff all the time, I have written garbage a lot. I actually most of the time I write crap. If you're reading this blog you can shake your head yes with confidence in that statement. But if I were making a film, you better believe I would try at best to have some meaty dialogue. I think all of us as writers want to get stuck with the "Hello, how are you" We want our characters to be revealed in everyday speech. When in fact and please write this down, we want to see exposition and plot/narrative in tandem.
What does that mean? I am glad you asked. Well put your character in the plot immediately and have your first lines of dialogue stem from that moment, your character's response. It's way more interesting that, "Hello, pass the papaya". It is more fun to learn of characters in the moment. Let's take Die Hard for a moment to analyze. You remember the whole opening scene with John Mclaine in the limo talking to Argyle divulging his life story. I bet if you cut that whole scene and gone straight to the terrorist and have the narrative exposed as the plot unfolded, it would have been surprising and more interesting. Not that Die Hard is in anyway a bad film, it is one of my favorites, but imagine the first half hour cut out and the film tightened. I know you're saying that I sound like a studio exec now. No, I am sounding like I thought of a good way to add an element of mystery to a film while getting the ball rolling.
Why? I am glad you asked again. Because not every film can make up for its lack of interesting dialogue. Die Hard can. If you watch Speed, you wish Keanu Reeves would stop talking right away. Anyway, write dialogue that goes with the Narrative. The narrative is variable, plot is the constant. We have to go to the store, but how we get there is Narrative. Don't spend a half hour changing the oil, spend your time accidentally running over your neighbors caton the way to the store. The neighbor whom you owe money to. Something like that. We will learn more from that.
Beauty and brains..and Beauty.Everyone wants to be the villain in the next Batman film. I mean everyone. Everyone is campaigning for this. Last week we heard Angelina Jolie was campaigning for Catwoman. Not a surprise. This week Brain Austin Green is campaigning for the riddler. Who knows. I think the only best thing Green has gotten into is Meghan Fox. Who cares really. Here's the thing with this. In the 90's it was an honor to to play the Batman, now, in the Mellenia it is an honor to play the Batman Villain.
So everyone wants to be the villain. Let Nolan decide. When he chose Heath no one had faith in that decision. So let him decide. A film should be the vision of a singular person, not a focus group and certainly not Angelina Jolie. We need Laura Linney to get in there an do it. Ah it's the Rave I can say what I want. Go see Tropic Thunder, you'll laugh till you pee. Until Monday! Let's talk film
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