Now, just before you sit down and write, we're almost there I promise but just before you do let's talk a little bit about dialog. Dialog means words. Keep this is mind, the theater is for the spoken word, the theater is for the ears. Because a person sitting way in the balcony cannot see an eyebrow raised so therefore words convey the same thing of an eyebrow being raised for whatever emotion. It's different from movies. Movies are about pictures. Movies are for a visual treat for your eyes. I'm saying that to say do not write a lot of words. If anything, you want to cut down unnecessary words that are in your script and just stick to what moves the story forward. An actor, Glen Ford once got a script and he looked at it the director and he said, "I'm not going to say all these words". See in theater it's different. Actors want the words, the more words they get the longer they're on stage. Not so in movies, the less words the better. I'll give you another clue that Michael Caine talked about John Wayne when he first met him. John Wayne got off an airplane and Michael Caine met him for the first time, he just got here after his big movie Alfie and John Wayne said to him, "You just here kid? I'll tell you what to do, speak low, speak slow and don't say much". That will make you a star. General rule of thumb, ten word sentences. General rule again, no more than three sentences at a time for any one character. Now, as I said, I'm teaching you the basic rules. You can change, you can do what you want, but this will keep your story moving. If you write it this way first you can always go back and add words if you like later. But, my suggestion is you take it that way. If you can't tell your story in pictures my suggestion is you write a play. Don't write a movie script. You have to be able to tell your story in pictures. The character's actions and their reactions to situations and events and their circumstances. You want to show the emotion in their eyes, you want to show how they feel in their faces. Show the pain, the joy, the suffering in their body movements. So when they finally do say something it's a climax to what they are experiencing. Last rule about dialog I'm going to say is never use a main character to explain the story. You don't want to do that, you want your story to be explained in pictures, the dialog just helps with that information.
Marco Aziz
Dec 29, 2010
it's fantastic i don't know how to thank u it's verry useful and i will teach it to my friends in church in Mansoura Egypt