Speaker 1: So obviously writing dialogue that pops is a crucial skill for screenwriters and filmmakers, but some people believe that they're just not cut out for writing strong dialogue. But my belief is that dialogue is a skill that can be developed and improved just like most other skills and there's some guiding principles in this video that might immediately step up your dialogue game.

Speaker 2: So you're telling me there's a chance.

Speaker 1: So first we need to figure out what separates good dialogue from bad dialogue. Bad dialogue is generally long-winded, generic, surface level, and disposable. Whereas good dialogue is usually concise, specific, with layers of meaning or interpretation, and memorable. Easy. Now all we got to do is avoid the one column and get to the other column. So let's drill down into each of these, figure out how. So in general nobody likes a windbag. This type of character can have great dialogue, but they're usually silly or oblivious supporting characters, and rarely is our protagonist a windbag. Do you expect me to talk? No Mr. Bunt, I expect you to die. But one type of main character is often very talkative, and that is the villain. But in those cases you need a hero that has short, terse dialogue to contrast with that over-talkative villain, and give the audience the joy of the hero shutting them up. I am a god you dull creature,

Speaker 3: and I will not be bullied by-

Speaker 1: That's why Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds is always paired with a quiet, reserved character. So as you can see, writing great dialogue is not always about the specific lines in the script. It's often just about how you're structuring your scenes and matching up your characters. So let's quickly workshop how to take a long-winded piece of dialogue and improve it by cutting it down. Shoot, Denny. It's about Lisa. Okay, let's take this scene from one of the worst films ever made, The Room. Denny, it's about Lisa. Johnny, go on. Denny, she's beautiful. She looks great in a red dress. I think I'm in love with her. Johnny, go on. Well, I don't know if we need either of those. It's about Lisa. Beat from Johnny. What if we just suggest all this stuff, especially the red dress we don't need? So she's beautiful. Beat. I know she doesn't like me because sometimes she's mean to me, but sometimes when I'm around her, I feel like I want to kiss her and tell her I love her. I don't know. I'm just confused. Well, right off the bat, I don't think we need I'm just confused. I don't know sets that up. I don't think we need because sometimes she's mean to me. What if we just suggest that he wants to tell her that he loves her and just get rid of that? I know she doesn't like me, but sometimes when I'm around her, I feel like I want to kiss her. I don't know. Johnny, Danny, don't worry about that. Lisa loves you, too, as a person, as a human being, as a friend. You know, people don't have to say it. They can feel it. Danny, don't worry about that's gone. As a person, as a human being. How about just Lisa loves you, too, as a friend. Get rid of all that, too. What do you mean? You can love someone deep inside your heart and there is nothing wrong with it. If a lot of people loved each other, the world would be a better place to live. OK, so what if we just get rid of all that? That's how you write a script, Tommy. Still not great, but less of a bad thing is always a good thing. That's the power of concise dialogue. And by removing the excess, it also makes Johnny's character seem more insightful and wise, which I think was Tommy Wiseau's intention. Go on. And I actually re-edited this entire scene to cut out all that bloated dialogue like I did in the script and I was going to include it here, but apparently Tommy Wiseau is pretty trigger happy on copyright striking the room footage on YouTube, so I'm just going to throw that up on my Patreon along with the other great weekly videos I put there. Great dialogue has to be specific to your character and the character's world, and if your character speaks exactly the way that you speak, they might be too generic. Here's a really quick exercise you should always do for your scripts. Take a dialogue scene and cover up all the character names. You should still easily be able to tell which character is talking, and if you can't tell, it's because they talk exactly the same and that's a big problem. We love listening to characters talk that feel unique and real, so one way to train yourself to write dialogue that's more specific to each of your characters is to do this classic screenwriting 101 exercise. You gotta listen to the way people talk. If you're out at a cafe or hanging out with some friends, eavesdrop on the people around you, and if you want to be a creep about it, which I know you do, use your phone and get a recording of their whole conversation. Then take that recording, take it home, transcribe every single word into script format. Include them cutting themselves off, their uhs, their dot dot dots, everything. You'll be really surprised by how different this turns out than your own dialogue because the way different people talk in real life, their vocabularies, their turns of phrase, how they cut each other off, have different conversations at the same time, change the subject or laugh at inappropriate times. These quirks are what make dialogue specific and real. This exercise trains your brain to listen for these unique traits of speech in your day-to-day life. So writing specific dialogue, you don't always need to reinvent the wheel, but you need to at least learn how to spot a good wheel and remember it for later. Now one of the most powerful tools in the screenwriter's toolkit is subtext. Subtext is the meaning beneath the dialogue. It's what the speaker really means even though they're not saying it directly. So when dialogue exists purely on the literal surface level of whatever the characters are talking about, it's really easy to get bored just by the simplicity of their conversation. But when characters are saying just as much between their words as they are with them, it makes for much more engaging dialogue. So I covered this a little bit in my screenwriting video, Why Your Scene Sucks. I gave an example of subtext in one of my short films, but this time around I'm going to give you a fresh example hot off the presses. Say you have a scene with a mother talking to her rebellious teenage daughter. Mom's worried that the daughter is partying and getting into trouble with boys. So here's how that scene might look without subtext. All right, I'm going to Sarah's. I might spend the night.

Speaker 2: You're going to go out drinking with boys, aren't you? No. God, why don't you trust me?

Speaker 1: Because you lie to me. And I worry about you. Well, you need to get a life, Mom. Okay. Pretty lame, right? Here's how it would look if we said the same things through subtext.

Speaker 2: Hi, I'm going to Sarah's. I might spend the night. Remember when you used to come home from school and be so excited to tell me all about your day? When I was like six? You're still a little girl

Speaker 1: to me, aren't you? I'm a girl with places to be. Okay, so still kind of cheesy, but a lot more interesting when that real conversation is taking place between the words. That's the power of subtext. Nobody wants their dialogue to feel disposable. You want to give your characters, especially your leads, lines that people are going to be quoting for years. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes a great actor want to take on some indie film role. If anybody orders

Speaker 3: Merlot, I'm leaving. I am not drinking any f***ing Merlot. And that's how a lot of films just get made

Speaker 1: in the big leagues. These memorable lines are like a currency for getting good actors. So what separates the disposable from the memorable in dialogue? I would argue that memorable lines are unexpected and specific. Now, we've already covered being specific with your dialogue, so let's talk about giving your characters lines that surprise motherf***er. If you can catch your audience off guard with the line that still feels right for the character, then you've landed in that sweet spot of memorable dialogue. Hasta la vista, baby. Here's Johnny. I love the smell of grape hum in the morning. Skip your first instinct for a line if you're trying to make something memorable, and try approaching your dialogue from a different angle. And if you can't think of anything unexpected that your character might say, then unfortunately the problem might lie with the fact that you're writing a story based around an inherently uninteresting character, because any interesting character is going to have the capability of surprising the audience. I drink your milkshake. And that's it. Thanks for watching. Is that the best line I can end on?