Speaker 1: Film Courage We may have already covered this but…

Speaker 2: Ask it anyway because you never know, it might lead somewhere if you'd like.

Speaker 1: Film Courage Realistic dialogue using the three wells of screenwriting.

Speaker 2: Oh wow. Yeah. So there is again a chapter in the book around dialogue and using the three wells of writing dialogue. I find for me writing dialogue was really difficult in the beginning. Some people can just write dialogue. Oh by the way I was going to call my book YOU CAN'T TEACH SCREENWRITING because I wonder sometimes if you can teach screenwriting. And dialogue writing in particular is something that some people come to my classes and they just write brilliant dialogue. I'm like how did you do this? What do you do? But people are open to the world. Again it's about being open to the world and listening to the way people speak. And also understanding that if you set a scene in your movie it's got to be as realistic as your own life. So in your memories if you're writing a divorce scene or say a scene where someone breaks up with someone. I find people write on the nose dialogue so they're like I am breaking up with you now. And I'm like when I broke up with people did I ever say those words? I don't think I ever used those words and I've broken up with some people unfortunately. And if you go into your own memory well and you look at how did that happen with me? Is there anything I can draw from this? Was there a moment or was it just like silence? It's not working anymore. What isn't working? I don't know. This whole thing. And you look at the scene. Maybe you parked your car on the seafront in your backyard. It's been many years but I think it's definitely time that we just…you know? And then okay. So you don't actually say in life very often we don't say like these very clear moments. However the difference between life dialogue and screen dialogue is that we do have to clearly communicate to the audience that they're breaking up. So it's kind of this way you go to your external sources as well and say well how did they do it in that movie? And do I need to actually say at some point I do have to say we are broken up officially so the audience understands that they're broken up. And this is the difficulty between what I call street dialogue and screen dialogue. And well stage dialogue is also different because stage dialogue is all about the words and you know often not all stage plays but often stage plays is about language. It's about you know the uses of language and street dialogue is totally different but screen dialogue as a writer you're writing because you have to communicate some information to an audience through your characters. And that's the delicate balance is using your memory well to write realistic sounding dialogue but then also using the external sources well and knowing that it's got to serve a purpose. It's got to move the story forward so sometimes it has to be slightly on the nose but it shouldn't be too on the nose obviously. So yeah that's how you would do it. But I find some of the difficulty I had with first-time writers is trying to communicate to them that what you're writing must be as real as life. You know it's got to be even if it's set in space you know. Like Avengers keeps coming up like Iron Man leaving that message for Pepper Potts when he's floating up in space. It's got to be real. You're in space but it's got to be real. So he can't say the things he wants to say and then he'll eventually say them because you want the characters to care about him but it'll take him a while. And that's why that scene kind of works really well because it feels real. And often when first-time writers write they don't write like that. And so how to teach that? I don't know how you teach that but you've got to draw from your life. You've got to draw from your life experiences. You need to be empathetic with your characters and teaching that is difficult. So that's where the three walls came from as well is that I found when people started drawing from their own lives they were like oh it's really easy that's how people speak. I'm like yeah and they should speak like that in your movie as well maybe. And so the other thing is the symbolism sleuth is if you're going out there and you're listening to what people sound like when they speak that's also very important especially if you've got regionally-specific accents and you've got to write that then you've got to go listen. You've got to listen to the way people speak.

Speaker 1: Film Courage That's very true yes because I have especially here in LA you'll hear people from all over and the different things that they'll say and the terminology. I remember one lady I'm not sure where she was from but she was like they're going to call the law on him and that meant the police were coming and I was like oh yeah that's right. And I didn't know. I was like wow I like that. That's cool. And then you'll hear other people that just different terminology for things that we would call something else. You would ask about principal versus headmaster.

Speaker 2: And there's so many in LA in particular I'm just noticing all these different accents everywhere. It's overwhelming. Even the waitress who served us last night I was like where the hell is she from? I can't place her at all. Anyway but it's interesting. She had such a unique way of speaking it was just like it sounded like she had a high-pitched voice but it was also like she was a sportscaster or something but she was also maybe Spanish like background. I don't know. It was difficult for me to figure out what she was saying most of the time. But it's difficult for people to figure out what I'm saying most of the time as well. That's really funny. Anyway speaking of dialogue this is a total aside but it's just a funny thing that happens to a South African in LA. It's really funny. So I was surfing and this guy was surfing and he fell off his board and I picked his board up and I gave it to him. I was on the shore. And I said something like oh I see your board has got space for two fins which is anyway which is a strange sentence you wouldn't normally say. But I could see his face and his face was like this human being is talking to me. I think he's talking to me in English. It's definitely English and he's confident in English but it's not American. And then I said it again and then he was like okay he is speaking English and he is very confident. I needed like adjust my brain to understand what he's saying and then I spoke it again and then he was like he understood me. But it's really funny to see that happen here. It's just a total aside but it's in terms of dialogue you know like the miscommunication that can happen with dialogue is really funny. And then the subtleties the subtext it's just I find it really funny because like English is my home language. This is the way I speak but when I speak it here every time I see this look on people's face it's classic. It's like this man is not from America and he's talking to me. I've never spoken to a South African before. I don't know what the space is. It's really a great look. Anyway I'm sure Trevor Noah understands. Luckily for Trevor Noah, thank goodness for Trevor Noah, he's opened up the door to South African accents.

Speaker 1: There you go. Right.

Speaker 2: And the Musk family too. Exactly.

Speaker 1: And the Musk family. Good for you, Yvonne.