Don’t write dialogue
A very senior creative at an agency I worked at once gave me a very useful piece of advice: when writing a script, don’t write the dialogue.
This makes sense for a few reasons:
First, if you don’t write the specifics, there much less to object to. If a client/CD/cleaning lady doesn’t have an exact turn of phrase to pick apart, he/she can just imagine the best dialogue for your scene and let the script go. For example, writing ‘She explains why she hasn’t got a car and they agree to meet later,’ will make your life a bit easier than:
Woman: I left my car keys in the anus of a forlorn giraffe.
Man: Literal bummer. Shall we get together at the apex of the vernal equinox?
Woman: That sounds like a really, really, really, really, really, good idea.
The first method is also easier to read out without getting all choppy and losing the flow.
Another reason why this is a good thing to do is that it leaves room for later development. Someone might say something good in casting, or the director might have a good suggestion. If your dialogue isn’t buttoned down then changing it won’t be a problem. You can’t have a client saying ‘But I prefer the way you had it before’ if there is no before. Also, according to Jonathan Glazer, the wiggle room is where the magic happens. If you pin everything down then there’s no room for the happy accidents that make good things great.
A third reason is that writing good dialogue is not easy, so you don’t want to get all bogged down doing it while you’re trying to get your script structure right. Have a go at the dialogue by all means, but you might want to leave it until later when you’ve properly sorted out what goes where.
A fourth reason is that you might have more important things to do. If you spend ages nutting out every little detail and your client/CD/cleaning lady bins the script, you’ve wasted a lot of time that you could have spent playing Red Dead Redemption or searching the less salubrious parts of the Worldwide Web. Or doing some other work.
By the way, none of the above applies to radio ads which need to be buttoned the fuck down before you go in. You can still have wiggle room, but very few actors/VOs like to be told to make shit up on the spot. And the same with headlines. Writing ‘Witty headline goes here’ very rarely works, and I’ve got the P45s to prove it.
couldn’t agree more with you. and Mr. glazer.
i’ve also found that any dialogue i do write in a TV script tends to be purely for presentation theater which rarely if ever makes it to the screen.
i like to write the dialogue to suit the actor we cast. at which point the director is involved and it all moves as one.
what really needs to be said becomes blindingly obvious as you get closer to the shoot date.
[…] 28, 2010 · Leave a Comment Inspired by novelist Ben Kay‚Äôs recent post on this subject I had some additional thoughts that were frankly too good and long to leave as […]
Ben, is this a trailer for the film?
http://www.southparkstudios.co.uk/clips/sp_vid_189995/
Very similar.
That is very funny.
(Just to clarify btw, I wasn’t belittling. I saw it and thought it might make you laugh.)
The biggest problem with writing dialogue is that the majority of clients/suits (and quite a fucking few Art Director CDs) have no appreciation of what a difference good dialogue can make.
They don’t get that a pause is everything or that changing the word “cretin” to “wally” can be as damaging to your script as casting Simon Weston in an Olay ad.
I long for a day when I can say to a client “listen, you Beazer-home-living, My-Family-watching, Mondeo-Driving CUNT, just carry on enjoying your Michael McIntyre DVD and get the fuck out of my face please…”
Probably won’t happen though.
Cloverfield with bees. Brilliant.
Come to think of it, that would actually make the title of that film make sense.
I think I took it in the spirit in which it was intended.
By the way, the best dialogue that ever appeared in an ad I did was made up by the actor when we asked him to try a few variations on the written line. The director wanted to fuck off home at 4:30 (don’t use Jackie Oudney for anything) but we gently persuaded her to do a few more takes, even though it meant missing Countdown.
Good advice this Ben.
I tend to find I write better dialogue during or after the casting process anyway.
Also, I don’t try to explain the detail of what makes a character interesting, or leave it to chance that the client will implicitly get it. Write something like “a charismatic and magnetic man” or “a man who is clearly worried” rather than trying to describe the describe the actions that make it seem that way.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by LEND ME YOUR EYES and Tim Noble, Ben Kay. Ben Kay said: New post: don't write dialogue http://ow.ly/2iaNW […]
jaysus, can I have a go on your clients?
the ones I deal with spend months discussing different shades of black and demanding to know how we intend to make sure that a tree or the way someone opens a door fits in with their brand guidelines. I reckon if I said that the precise dialogue would reveal itself during production, they’d look at me as if I’d suggested that we all wear fancy dress and move the whole shoot to the merry old land of oz. ‘course, we know that we’ll end up with some whole other script, but mans got boxes to tick.
no-one does no dialogue no more no how.
Naughty creative. What’s the problem with art directors and dialogue?
There’s an awful lot of shit out there and I bet most of it was wrote by writers.
If you’re working with art directors who can’t write you’re in a bad place.
Word, Brake.
Hmmm.
Sitting here on top of Lady Liberty’s burning torch, I can’t help but feel that this is what’s separating the US and the UK in terms of TV.
The US embraces dialogue. The UK doesn’t.
Look at the Grand Prix that stormed the Croisette this year. Old Spice. Nice visuals sure, but dialogue driven. Skittles Touch. The idea is good. The dialogue takes it up to another level.
Pretty sure they nailed the dialogue before the shoot.
The UK exception that proves the rule? BBH London’s Johnnie Walker spot. An avalanche of copy. Think it’s a coincidence that it’s picked up around the world this year?
Don’t get me wrong Ben, I totally agree that locking into dialogue before the shoot can cause an Austrian cellar full of trouble. And that’s the main point of your post.
But, the important thing to state is that people shouldn’t ignore dialogue completely. Writing great dialogue can get you an Aladdin’s cave full of cheap nasty awards.
It’s why I skipped over the pond to the land of big gulps and corn dogs. That and the chance to stalk Betty White.
I agree entirely, but I like to think that some of Old Spice’s dialogue might have cropped up along the way (any intervention from Tom Kuntz, say?).
And still have yet to meet anyone who has made it through the entirety of Johnnie Walker. It’s like a long copy ad that no one has ever read.
And copyless wonders? Balls, Gorilla, Noitulove, Impossible Dream, Cog, Surfer, Drugstore (any Levis ad) etc etc etc.
KMC: “There‚Äôs an awful lot of shit out there and I bet most of it was wrote by writers.”
I rest my case.
“There’s an awful lot of shit out there and I bet most of it was wrote by writers.”
That’s because so called writers are full of it.
Ben, I’d like to second the comment about ‘Jackie Oudney’…possibly one of the worst directors I have had the mispleasure of working with.
I think you’re probably being provocative for the sake of a good post, and I’m all for that. But none-the-less I shall rise to the bait. I can not disagree with this post more. In fact I’m going to rant about it on my blog to get it out of my system
Keep up the good work
I shot with Jackie Oudney and she was the polar opposite. We finally wrapped at 2.30am. The owners of the location were in tears, the crew were spitting blood…but she didn’t give up until it was properly done.
Also, she’s suffered a particularly awful personal tragedy not too long ago. That might have had something to do with your experience, so maybe go easy.
I’m sorry to hear that she had a personal tragedy, but unless it happened before 2003 it didn’t affect the ad I shot with her.
Maybe she learned to shoot beyond 4:30 on my ad and applied her new attitude to yours.
Isn’t it ‘wriggle room’? More energetic, somehow.