Learn To Write Movies

Dialogue PDF
 Dialogue
Good dialogue is probably the hardest thing to do in writing and it takes practice. The
problem is, there is nothing worse than reading bad, stilted or cliche dialogue and so if
you don’t make the effort to do it well, your script will suffer.
The reason I have left dialogue until know is because it is usually the last thing I do in
my own work. I write the script with dialogue which is more of a placeholder in the first
instance. It gets across what I want the characters to say but isn’t polished. Then, after
the scene or even entire script is written, I will go back and take my time to change the
dialogue. I do this because I want to concentrate on each character’s voice on its own
rather than have to worry about writing the rest of the scene.
Pop Trivia: Did you know that Paul McCartney used to do something similar when he
was writing songs? He would concentrate on getting the notes down first and instead of
coming up with the lyrics at the same time, he would just sing “Scrambled eggs, how I
love you scrambled eggs”. This way, he made sure the song was right before he went back
and concentrated on coming up with the lyrics. The human brain isn’t great at doing lots
of things at the same time (at least, mine isn’t) so being able to attack one aspect at a
time is very helpful.

WHAT IS THE POINT OF DIALOGUE?

There must always be a reason a character says a line of dialogue. It must either reveal
something about themselves, tell the audience something important about the story or
something about other characters, as well as move the story forward. Having a character
just saying things to fill space is going to result in a boring read. Movie dialogue is not
like real speech, it is a much more distilled version of it. If you were to write how people
really talk you would get a lot of rambling, punctuated with errs and umms. That is not
what we want here.

USING DIALOGUE TO REVEAL CHARACTER

Just as every character is unique, so is their dialogue. If you and I were to speak, we
would probably have quite distinctive differences in the way we talk. I’m not talking
about how our vocal chords work or specific language, I’m talking about the way we
phrase sentences, the words we use, the amount of humour we inject into it or even the
type of humour. Our personalities and therefore our dialogue are shaped over the course
of our lives. It is a mixture of our past experiences, our upbringing, our location, our
education and our social circle that give us our unique perspective and voice. A member
of the Royal family will have a very different speech pattern to a country farmer. One is
not better than the other, they are just different.
The same is true with our characters. It can be quite hard not to start writing with
your own inner voice but if you do this, all your characters will sound the same. Instead,
think of each one individually. Who are they? What kind of words would they use? What
kind of grammar would they use? It is almost second nature for us to write with correct
grammar because that is what we have always been taught to do since school. For
dialogue though, ignore this. Do what sounds realistic for the character you are writing.
In Pirates of the Caribbean (Ted Elliiott, Terry Rossio) we find a number of characters
with very different voices and this contrast is what helps each stand apart.
NORRINGTON (CONT'D)
 I apologize if I seem forward -- but
(working up his confidence to do so)
that I have accomplished the goals I
career. But it also casts into sharp
not achieved. The thing all men most
fine woman. (beat) You have become a
I must speak my mind.
This promotion confirms
set for myself in my
relief that which I have
require: a marriage to a
fine woman, Elizabeth.

......
ELIZABETH
Captain Barbossa... I have come to negotiate the cessation of
hostilities against Port Royal.

Barbossa is both impressed and amused.

BARBOSSA
There was a lot of long words in there, miss, and we're not
but humble pirates. What is it you want?

......
BARBOSSA
It's you who invoked the parlay! Believe me, Miss, you'd best
hand it over, now... or these be the last friendly words
you'll hear!

In this example, we have an obvious distinction between Upper Class, English accents
and the brogue of pirates. Both have their own vocabulary and grammatical structure.
The contrasting dialogue not only gives the script a great depth of characters, it also
helps the reader distinguish between who is talking.

HUMOUR
Dialogue quickly lets us know about a character’s sense of humour and therefore their
personality. Does your character takes things literally like Drax in Guardians of the
Galaxy (James Gunn, Nicole Perlman):
Peter Quill
She betrayed Ronan, he's coming back for her. And when he
does, that's when you...

Peter draws his finger across his throat to indicate slicing Ronan's
throat.
Drax
Why would I put my finger on his throat?
Peter Quill
What? Oh, this is a symbol. This is a symbol for you slicing
his throat.
Drax
I would not slice his throat, I would cut his head clean off.
Peter Quill
It's a general expression for you killing somebody.

Or maybe they have a drier sense of humour like Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight Rises
(Jonathan Nolan):
CATWOMAN
My mother always warned me about getting into cars with
strange men -
BATMAN
 This isn’t a car.

Catwoman flinches as the Bat thunders into the sky.

Humour is great in any script and you should try to inject a dose even in the most
dramatic of writing. However, try to make it clever or witty rather than the type found in
Christmas crackers.

ATTITUDE
Dialogue can reveal attitude. For instance, rather than telling your audience that a
character is an asshole, we can show it in their actions and through their dialogue.
Training Day (David Ayer)
ALONZO
Have some chow before we hit the office. Go ahead. It's my
dollar.
JAKE
No, thank you, sir. I ate.
ALONZO
Fine. Don't.

Alonzo turns the page. A long beat. Then:

JAKE
It's nice here.
ALONZO
May I read my paper?
JAKE
I'm sorry, sir... I'll get some food.
ALONZO
No. You won't. You fucked that up. Please. I'm reading. Shut
up.

Jake does -- Jeeez, sorry. Pours a ton of sugar in his coffee.

EXPOSITION
Exposition is telling the audience details of the story that they need to know in order
to understand the plot. For example, telling us how society is set up at the beginning of
Divergent or how the population can buy transplant organs in Repo Men. If this was not
done, you wouldn’t have a clue what was going on.
Exposition is predominantly delivered through dialogue but is always quite tricky to
get right. You want to convey all the necessary information but you need to do it in a way
that is not boring. There is nothing worse than sitting watching one person drone on and
on about how some facet of the story world works.
So, how can we fix this problem? Well, we need to distract people from realising they
are actually listening to a load of exposition. We need to break it up, either visually or
with the help of other characters.
1. One solution is to use voice over while we see visual images of what is being talked
about. This method is seen quite often at the start of movies.
BRAVEHEART (Randall Wallace)
EXT. The SCOTTISH countryside - day

Epic beauty: cobalt mountains beneath a glowering purple sky fringed

with pink, as if the clouds were a lid too small for the earth; a
cascading landscape of boulders shrouded in deep green grass; and the
blue lochs, reflecting the sky. We hear a voice, husky, Scottish...
Voice over
I will tell you of William Wallace.

Ext. MacAndrews farm - day

A farmhouse and a large barn lie nestled in a Scottish valley.

Riding down the roads that lead in from opposite sides are Scottish
noblemen in full regalia: eye-popping tartans, sparkling chestplates.
Even the horses are draped in scarlet.

Behind each nobleman rides a single page boy.

Voice over (cont’d)
Historians from England will say I am a liar. But history is
written by those who have hung heroes.

Another noble rides in from the opposite side. Two more appear down the
road, converging on the barn.
Voice
The King of Scotland had died without a son, and the king of
England, a cruel pagan known as Edward the Longshanks, claimed
the throne for himself. Scotland’s nobles fought him, and
fought each other, over the crown. So Longshanks invited them
to talks of truce. No weapons, one page only.

The nobles eye each other cautiously, but the truce holds. They enter
the barn, with their pages…

The voice over may be from a character in the film or maybe not but it is still effective
as a tool to get us up to speed, quickly.

2. You can introduce exposition while an exciting event occurs, mixing dialogue and
images. This could be part of a cool overture scene but can be anywhere in the script.
Pitch Black (David Twohy)
Another LOCKER BLOWS OPEN. A body falls right on top of Fry --

but this one's still alive. Disoriented, frantic:

OWENS
Why did I fall on you?
FRY
He's dead. Cap'n's dead. Christ, I was looking right at him
when --
OWENS
 I mean, I mean, chrono shows we're 22 weeks out, so gravity
wasn't supposed to kick in for another 19. I mean, I mean, I
mean, why did I fall at all?
FRY
You hear me? Captain's dead. Owens too.
OWENS
Oh, no. Not Owens, not.... Wai', wai', wait. I'm Owens. Right?

They swap nightmare looks, momentarily unsure of their own identities.

FRY
Cryo-sleep. Swear to God, it sloughs brain cells.

INT. NAV-BAY - MAIN CABIN

They stumble into nav-bay. ALARMS CONTINUE. Fry grabs warm-up suits out
of storage, pitches one to Owens, checks her screens.
FRY
1550 millibars, dropping 20 MB per minute, shit, we're
hemorrhaging air. Somethin' took a swipe at us.
OWENS
Just tell me we're still in the shipping lane. Just show me
all those stars, all those bright, beautiful, deep-space....

Owens activates an exterior view: A planet rushes up at us.

That's why they have gravity.

FRY
Jesus God....

EXT. SHIP - PLANET'S ATMOSPHERE - DAY

The SHIP PLOWS through the upper atmosphere, antennae pylons already
disintegrating.

………..
INT. NAV-BAY - MAIN CABIN
OWENS
...showing no major water bodies...maximum terrain, 220 meters
over mean surface... largely cinder and gypsum with some
evaporite deposits....

JETTISON DOORS CLOSE behind Owens, segregating him from the passenger
compartment. It scares him for a new reason.
OWENS
Fry? What're you doing?

INT. FLIGHT DECK - DAY

Fry flips up a new security-latch. INTERCUTTING:

OWENS
 Fry?
FRY
Can't get my nose down...too much load back there....
OWENS
You mean that "load" of passengers?
FRY
So what, we should both go down too? Out of sheer fucking
nobility?

Tortured silence. Fry's thumb moves to the switch that will jettison
the passenger cabin. Jettison 50 people.

INT. MAIN CABIN

SELECTED SHOTS of faces inside cryo-lockers, among them JOHNS. He's

prime-of-life, badge on display, some kind of cop. Shaken awake, he
clears condensation to check the locker directly across from his,
finding...

RIDDICK. Small black goggles hide his eyes. A metal bit wedged in his
mouth lends a perpetual grimace. A read-out admonishes

"LOCK-OUT PROTOCOL IN EFFECT. ABSOLUTELY NO EARLY RELEASE."

In this passage, we just got through a load of exposition including where we are,
what’s happening, who the passengers are and introducing our main man, Riddick as
well as the antagonist, Johns. However, it was done in an exciting way so no one could
possibly be bored.

3. Instead of one person telling us what is going on, how about we break it up so a
number of characters give us information. They can ask questions and play off each other
so it seems like a natural conversation when we really know the only purpose is
exposition.
The Mummy (Stephen Sommers)
INT. CURATOR'S OFFICE - DAY
The Curator sits at his desk, staring through a jeweler's eyepiece at
the key/box. Evelyn hovers behind him, excited.
EVELYN
See the cartouche there, it's the official royal seal of Seti
the First, I'm sure of it.
CURATOR
Perhaps.

Jonathan leans in from across the desk.

JONATHAN
Two questions. Who the hell is Seti the First? And was he
rich?
EVELYN
 He was the last Pharaoh of the Old Kingdom, said to be the
wealthiest Pharaoh of them all.
JONATHAN
Alright, good, that's good. I like this fellow, like him very
much.

The Curator picks up the MAP. It's actually the exact same map that we
established in the opening scenes of the movie.
EVELYN
I've already dated it, this map is almost four thousand years
old. And the hieratics over here... (Inhales deeply) It's
Hamunaptra.

The Curator freezes, suddenly very nervous, then he recovers.

CURATOR
My dear girl, don't be ridiculous, we are scholars, not
treasure hunters. Hamunaptra is a myth.
JONATHAN
Are we talking about the Hamunaptra?
EVELYN
Yes. The City of The Dead. Where the early Pharaohs were said
to have hidden the wealth of Egypt.
JONATHAN
Right, right, in a big underground treasure chamber. Everybody
knows the story. The entire necropolis was rigged to sink into
the sand. On Pharaoh's command, a flick of the switch! And the
whole place could disappear beneath the dunes.
EVELYN
All we know is that the city mysteriously vanished around
2,134 B.C.

The Curator holds the map closer to the burning CANDLE-LAMP.

CURATOR
As the Americans would say: it's all fairy tales and hokum.

Again, lots of exposition in a conversation as well as giving us a good insight into their
characters (Evelyn is a true historian, Jonathan is after riches and the Curator is stuffy
but hiding something).

4. News reports on tv. For some reason, we find it more acceptable to listen to exposition
which is coming from a tv, news report or radio. Take these examples from Mission
Impossible II (Robert Towne):
Swanbeck turns to his computer and begins play on a DVD, and projected
onto a computer screen staring back at Ethan is:
VLADIMIR NEKHORVICH
NEKHORVICH
(with exaggerate brio)
Well, Dmitri! How are you?..

Nekhorvich pauses as if waiting for reply. Ethan smiles.

ETHAN
 ..I'm fine..and you?
NEKHORVICH
I'm fine..

Ethan laughs.
ETHAN
I'm fine and you're fine..

With Ethan simultaneously whispering:

NEKHORVICH
I'm fine too.. I'm fine and you're fine - do you remember,
dear fried, how you got Sergei and I to repeat those lines
from Dr. Strangelove and we gave you the name of that silly
Soviet Premier because we didn't know your name?..In those
days, you not only saved our lives, you saved our sanity.
'Now, then Dmitri - we have this little problem': Every search
for a hero must begin with something that every hero requires;
a villain. Therefore, in a search for our hero, Bellerophon,
we created a monster Chimera. I beg you, Dmitri, come to
Sydney and accompany me to Atlanta immediately. However we
travel, I must arrive at me destination, within 20 hours of
departure. Forgive this fanciful explanation, but for now
prudence dictates that I communicate nothing but the gravest
urgency. I fear I can entrust this to no one but you, Dmitri.
as we say, 'I'm sorry and you're sorry'..

Swanbeck stops the DVD.

.....
INT - ETHAN - SAFEHOUSE (SHEEP FARM - DAY)
Ethan watches the Nekhorvich video on the computer screen.
NEKHORVICH
...therefore in a search for our hero, Bellerophon, we created
a monster, Chimera.

Ethan then flips through a series of pictures on the computer depicting

the myth of Bellerophon attacking Chimera.

Anything like computer feeds, surveillance footage, camera memory cards will be a great
distraction. You can then get away with piling in some exposition.

5. Or you could even put these last two techniques together:

Mimic (Matt Greenberg & Guillermo Del Toro)
THE SCREEN. DARKNESS.
A voice, a somber bass-relief in the darkness.
ANCHORMAN (V.O.)
Strickler's Disease crept into Manhattan like a thief in the
night, claiming its first hundred victims before it was even
classified.

INT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT

A long hospital ward.
ROWS of illuminated oxygen tents, pulsating softly in the dark like
cocoons of light.
ANCHORMAN (V.O.)
Most were children under ten.

Tents. BODIES OF SMALL CHILDREN inside, wrapped in white sheets, hooked

up to IVs or breathing apparatus.
Skeletal hands, parched lips, glazed eyes.
BELLOWS of respirators push in and out, labored, failing.
IMAGE RESOLVES TO A VIDEO ON A SCREEN.
PULL BACK to reveal a number of SCREENS, each with a different set of
images. We are in a NEWS VAN. A TECHNICIAN and DIRECTOR sit watching.
The voice belongs to an ANCHORMAN who's now overimposed.
ANCHORMAN
Only after the numbers had reached into the thousands were
officials able to identify the carrier of the deadly
infection...
DIRECTOR
Cut to three.

The Technician manipulates the controls. On another screen we see them

cut to STOCK NEWS FOOTAGE: regular cockroaches, crawling on garbage.
ANCHORMAN
Blattida Germanica. The common cockroach.
DIRECTOR
(To a RUNNER)
Tell them we're ready for a live feed.

EXT. OUTSIDE VAN - CITY HALL - DUSK

The runner exits the News Van. Other such vehicles parked nearby. A
CROWD of ONLOOKERS, REPORTERS and a gaggle of PROTESTERS with
handpainted signs.
Gliding past them, we pick up sound bites...
REPORTER 1
...an insect that has proven virtually immune to chemical
control...
REPORTER 2
...the announcement by the Health Department that an end to
the nightmare has finally...

REPORTER 3 is interviewing a Greenpeace PROTESTER who is holding up a

photograph of Susan.
REPORTER 3
...an ex-colleague of Doctor Susan Wyeth...
PROTESTER
...Susan has always been opposed to biological tampering. A
real advocate for ecological causes.
SUBTEXT
Subtext is the thoughts or emotions a character implies behind what they are saying.
It is the meaning underneath the dialogue. This is not easy to do but if you think about it,
you use this in your everyday life. When someone asks you something that you’d rather
not say out loud for fear of embarrassment or hurting their feelings, you skirt the issue or
reveal your emotions indirectly.
Have a read of this famous scene from Sideways (Alexander Payne) and ask yourself
what it is about:
MAYA
Can I ask you a personal question?
MILES
Sure.
MAYA
Why are you so into Pinot? It’s like a thing with you.
MILES
I don’t know. It’s a hard grape to grow. As you know. It’s
thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early. It’s not a survivor
like Cabernet that can grow anywhere and thrive even when
neglected. Pinot needs constant care and attention and in fact
can only grow in specific little tucked-away corners of the
world. And only the most patient and nurturing growers can do
it really, can tap into Pinot’s most fragile, delicate
qualities. Only when someone has taken the time to truly
understand its potential can Pinot be coaxed into its fullest
expression. And when that happens, its flavors are the most
haunting and brilliant and subtle and thrilling and ancient on
the planet. MILES I mean, Cabernets can be powerful and
exalting, but they seem prosaic to me for some reason. By
comparison. How about you?
MAYA
What about me?
MILES
I don’t know. Why are you into wine?
MAYA
I suppose I got really into wine originally through my ex-
husband. He had a big, kind of show-off cellar. But then I
found out that I have a really sharp palate, and the more I
drank, the more I liked what it made me think about.
MILES
Yeah? Like what?
MAYA
Like what a fraud he was.
MAYA
No, but I do like to think about the life of wine, how it’s a
living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year
the grapes were growing, how the sun was shining that summer
or if it rained… what the weather was like. I think about all
those people who tended and picked the grapes, and if it’s an
old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I love how
 wine continues to evolve, how every time I open a bottle it’s
going to taste different than if I had opened it on any other
day. Because a bottle of wine is actually alive — it’s
constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it
peaks — like your ’61 — and begins its steady, inevitable
decline. And it tastes so fucking good.

Miles and Maya are obviously talking about wine but that's not all. They are really
talking about themselves, their love lives, and they are describing their own faults or
eccentricities through different wines. This is subtext at play. Imagine the scene without
using the wine as metaphor. Imagine Miles just saying, “yeah, actually I’m a bit needy
and like constant attention”. It would be a bit weird wouldn’t it. Through subtext
however, they can reveal their own insecurities without fear of being judged.

SOME FINAL DIALOGUE WARNINGS

Finally for our dialogue section, I'd just like to go through a few issues that come up
again and again. I know I’ve been guilty of some of these in the past so keep them in
mind…

DON'T TRY TO COPY A WELL KNOWN STYLE

There is nothing wrong at all with reading how other writers tackle dialogue. In fact, it
should be encouraged. However, don’t try to copy their exact style as it will just come
across as a fake version of that person. For example, there was a stage when a lot of new
script writers were trying to copy Tarantino’s dialogue. The problem is, his dialogue is
unique and very easily identifiable. If you try to copy this then you will take away your
own voice and replace it with a synthetic version of Quentin’s. This is not good. Rather, if
you like his style, ask yourself why. What does he do that makes you feel a certain
emotion? How does he turn a phrase or produce a certain kind of humour? Rather than
copy, learn the specific techniques and then utilise them in your own writing.

NO SHAKESPEARE HERE
Dialogue like description, should be kept brief and to the point. We do not want long
rambling monologues akin to a theatrical performance. It puts the reader off and slows
everything down. Try to keep your dialogue no more than three or four lines. If there’s
some longer chunks, no problem. You could maybe intercut with some description or
action as well. Just don’t have one character speaking pages of dialogue at a time.

HI BOB, IT'S ME, JAMES

When you see people that you know, do you call them by their first names the whole
time and tell them stuff they already know about themselves?.. I didn’t think so. Yet
when it comes to writing, for some reason people do things like:
TOM
Jane, it’s me!
JANE
Tom! Wow, I haven’t seen you since you married Kimberley, ran
away with the circus and ate two rotten twinkles which made
you sick and you had to stay in hospital for a month.
TOM
Yep, and I still can't eat dairy, Jane.
 This is ridiculous isn’t it but the repetition of people’s names and heavy exposition
happens more than you’d think. It's on the nose. Subtlety and realism are the goals here
so use what you have already learnt to not fall into this trap. If it helps, read the lines out
aloud. If they sound a bit stilted or corny, rework them.

DON'T WRITE IN ACCENTS OR FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Many films have characters from different countries or dialogue in varying languages.
If this is the case in your film, don’t be tempted to write the dialogue in the foreign
language. Write it in English and then put (in French) or whatever the case may be,
under the character name. For example:
BOWMAN
(in Slovakian)
Find out where they live and bring them to me.

When we are dealing with strong accents, it can be rather confusing to read if you are
not from that region. Take this example from the movie Kes (Barry Hines) which is set in
South Yorkshire, England.
Billy
There it is!
Farmer
Aye.
Billy
That big ‘ole.
Farmer
It’s nested there for donkey’s years now.
Billy
Just think and I never knew!
Farmer
No there’s not many that does.
Billy
Been watching from up t’wood here. Goes onto t’post, then
'overs, then swoops down onto t’prey; carries it off t’young
‘uns. It looks great…!

While it may be easy to understand if you live in the UK, the phrases and accented
lines can be quite confusing to some. When you are writing a spec script, you want every
reader to be able to understand what you have written so stay clear of writing in hard
accents unless it is absolutely necessary.

STEPS OF ACTION
1. Does your dialogue reveal character, exposition or move the story forward?
2. Is each character's dialogue individual?
3. What words/structure/grammar or humour does each character have?
4. Have you used subtext to portray hidden emotion?
5. How have you handled any exposition without someone just talking?
6. Is your character's dialogue brief and succinct?
7. Is there any "on the nose" dialogue in the scene you should get rid of?