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. U64022 Screenwriting: Advanced Level

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 U64022 Screenwriting: Advanced Level

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) U64022 Screenwriting: Advanced Level

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? U64022 Screenwriting: Advanced Level

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 U64022 Screenwriting: Advanced Level

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 U64022 Screenwriting: Advanced Level

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) U64022 Screenwriting: Advanced Level

ANALYSIS OF SE7EN  Act 2  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) U64022 Screenwriting: Advanced Level

ANALYSIS OF SE7EN  Act 3  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) U64022 Screenwriting: Advanced Level

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) U64022 Screenwriting: Advanced Level

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

ALTERNATIVE MODELS MEMENTO Not just backward chronology Colour scene / BW scene pattern Specific pattern?

ALTERNATIVE MODELS MEMENTO OVERALL STRUCTURE BW scenes numbered 1 to 22 C scenes named A to W Film Structure W-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 22 C scenes named A to W Film Structure W-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 chronology A-B-C- D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W