How People Talk.

What is it about dialogue?

 

A few weeks back, I wrote an article about what I thought good acting to be. To be fair, however, it’s not always an actor’s fault if a line of dialogue rips us out of our fantasy world and screams “YEAH, I’M SCRIPTED! MOVE ON!” Sometimes we can, often we can’t. Further displeasure often ensues, because bad dialogue is a sort of betrayal similar to seeing the boom mic in a shot. It makes us aware of the magician’s trick that is film.

 

Very good actors often recognize these lines and fix them, and as a director (and perhaps writer), it’s important to let them do that. No doubt, if you have a good script supervisor, you’ll be notified of the alteration, but your charge is the sanctity of the meaning, not the words themselves.

 

Even better, make sure that the dialogue in your scripts rings true and natural before wasting any time on-set. Here are my dialogue touchstones:

 

1. Forget all the grammar you’ve ever learned: People don’t talk in complete sentences. They start in the middle of a thought and trail off before finishing. Interruptions are frequent. A character that is consistently glib better have a reason to be, character-wise.
2. People make logical leaps: Real conversations are infrequently linear, because people are impatient, unfocused, and think ahead. The best dialogue reflects this tendency, which allows conversations to move ahead much faster and convey much more meaning, particularly in the subtext (what the conversation is REALLY about).
3. Life is physical: With few exceptions, gestures are often far more powerful than words. Nods, winks, shrugs, and even silent stares can convey a lot more about a character’s internal workings than a fancy turn of phrase. Make sure you leave room for them in your scripts.
4. Avoid the speech: Unless your character is a litigator or a politician, speeches should rarely show their ugly faces. They’re incredibly hard to pull off, because in real life, people just don’t make them. Sure, you’ll be tempted to throw them in, particularly near the end to explain stuff, but, well, don’t.
5. Reading is not speaking: For some reason, dialogue that is read silently can seem very natural, but when read out loud, seems ludicrous. Try it with a novel. It’s exceptionally good practice to read your dialogue out loud as much as you can, even at the risk of sounding slightly crazy to those around you at Starbucks.

Best of all, listen. Go to a diner, bus station, or anywhere else you can eavesdrop on people living their lives, and try to absorb the conversations around you. If you’re really dedicated (or a member of the Bush administration), try transcribing one or two. I’m sure it’ll be a bit of a revelation.