Posted by DelaWhere at proxy2-external.oaks1.pa.home.com on January 30, 2002 at 21:14:04:
In Reply to: How much dialogue is too much dialogue? posted by Scraps Flippy on January 30, 2002 at 21:05:12:
Make use of stock footage and voice overs.
Reduce the interviews to the most descriptive statements and then use cuts between interviewees and footage.
As for scenes, you could use some more interseting sets or locations to liven the action on screen (ie. roadside cafe) as opposed to a chair in a blackend room.
Pat
If you want to respond, you could use my e-mail at topat@hotmail.com
: I'm stumped and in a bit of a funk.
: Let's say you are handed a screenplay which is a pseudo-documentary about a tragic event. The entire screenplay is mostly interviews because, duh, it's in a documentary style (reference "Q" the Quincy Jones doc for an example.) What this amounts to is virtually all dialogue, very little in the way of descriptive text or activity. Boring? Stupid idea? Way over scripted?
: I watched Clerks and Mallrats back-to-back over the weekend, and I'm stumped. These flicks are very dialogue heavy. Clerks in particular is for the most part long stretches of dialogue with very little activity.
: My quandry is this: Is it actually harder for people to visualize a dialogue heavy screenplay as they read it as opposed to, say, your run-of the mill Arnold-Schwartzeneger-five-lines-of-dialogue action film? Ive gotten pretty mixed reviews from those who have been goodly enough to read my screenplay, and so the funk.
: So what of it, Kevin? Or anyone else? Have a hard time with people not "getting" a dialogue heavy script?
: -- Drew