Episode 17: Writing Screenplay Dialogue

The Go Draft is a masterclass series with veteran Hollywood screenwriter Andy Guerdat.
In each episode, Andy breaks down the proven techniques that he uses and has used for 45 years of writing in the industry.
If you are currently a staff writer, a screenwriting student, or just someone who wants to break into screenwriting, then this series is for you. Learn how to take the writing skills you may already possess and elevate them to start getting paid within the industry for your work.
If you have topics that you want covered or have questions for Andy, feel free to email them to [e-mail]

[@caurnelmorgan4934]

Halfway through this episode, I concluded that it delivers the best advice on dialogue I’ve gotten in years of searching. Oh, Andy. Well done!

[@TheGoDraft]

Glad it's of help to you. Good luck with your project.

[@elizabethdahl487]

"Silence is dialogue too." 😲It's not just the breadth of your knowledge, your incredible understanding of this craft, and your attention to detail that most people and books overlook, it's your ability to actually communicate and teach this that's so amazing. Thank you!

[@jbeach12078]

are you familiar w/the cop show, "the Shield", early 2000's? the most powerful scene in the whole series is 42 seconds of silence.

[@TheGoDraft]

Thanks, whoever you are.

[@TheGoDraft]

There are lots of great silent scenes. The caper scene from RIFFIFI is all silent.

[@jbeach12078]

@@TheGoDraft is it easier to use "silence' in the horror genre? since its used to build tension, mood, & atmosphere. i like the scene in hallowen 2018, towards the end. the 1, when lori's looking for "the shape' in the house. there's also no music to build the tension. its all done, by her actions and breathing.

[@robertkulb6640]

When Andy drops a new screenwriting video I get so happy I start walking around my house singing “Andy Guerdat” to the tune of Player’s song “Baby Come Back.”

[@TheGoDraft]

Ha ha. Now that's a picture. Thanks.

[@SHANECatLoveActivistHistorian]

I love the insight and wisdom you have on this subject

[@TheGoDraft]

Thanks. Glad it speaks to you.

[@paul72324]

I’ve been waiting for this one.

[@TheGoDraft]

Hope it helps.

[@mikesmithz]

Instant subscription. So many people completely ignore the sound of words. People are so focused on the meaning of words that they ignore the hidden power of the sound of them.

[@TheGoDraft]

Right. That's our job.

[@mikesmithz]

@TheGoDraft It's so rare to find anyone on KZbin going to the depth and levels you do. I've found that focusing on the sounds of the words is the secret sauce, it's the magic ingredient that elevates good writing to genius writing, and it's so strange that so few people really focus on it. It's not hyperbole, but when I first discovered information on plosives, fricatives and nasals, I honestly felt like a beam of light came down from the heavens and illuminated the full "big picture"! It was like I discovered fire for the first time - finally, I had discovered the DNA of good writing, the computer code behind genius, the atomic structure of prose! Not only could I use meter and assonance to create a melody with my words, but with plosives, nasals and fricatives - I could now create a melody with any part of my words. I suddenly found out how to blend each word into the next to create music under my prose. You get this. You are thinking along these lines, and it's so rare to find any other KZbinrs going to these depths. Plus, you are the real deal, you have the credentials to back up your teachings. Honestly, I couldn't be happier now that I've found your channel. Thank you so, so much for taking the time, trouble and effort to make and post these videos; you are by FAR the best and most educational teacher of this subject on KZbin. Thank you so much!

[@caleebpinkett6450]

Class back in session!! 🎉

[@jbeach12078]

i treat it as an ongoing lecture/seminar.

[@TheGoDraft]

Right! And sit up straight!

[@sponko]

Seriously my favorite channel right now. Thank god I can get some proper writing advice before I go off to film school

[@TheGoDraft]

Absolutely! Film school can be great (making contacts that will serve you a lifetime, getting to actually make films), but the feedback you get can be as harmful as helpful if it's not coming from people with actual experience and with a well-meaning heart. The basic training, beat-everybody-up-with-mean-spirited-snark approach is counterproductive, so if it happens to you (hope not), smile and ignore it and move on.

[@philjones422]

Yeeeesss!!!!! New video!!!

[@TheGoDraft]

Thanks!!!!!

[@DexterMorgan-sd4jx]

I like your caps a lot

[@TheGoDraft]

Ha ha. Well, I always try to entertain any way I can.

[@spacecatboy2962]

I hope sometime you do a big video about music/songs in movies or scripts.

[@TheGoDraft]

I'll put it in my "to do" list.

[@OffLabelShow]

Andy Guerdat creates a tapestry of gem-studded videos that effortlessly interweave screenwriting technique, structure, imagination and intuition into the best and most entertaining course. While doing so, he reveals the antagonist in his autobiographical central conflict - the Suits. Thank you, Andy.

[@TheGoDraft]

Ha ha. Great blurb!

[@OffLabelShow]

@@TheGoDraft Thanks to your videos, a rewrite of my first-ever TV film script has just made it through to the semi-finals of the London International Screenwriting Competition (a small but not entirely inconsequential competition). This has given me the confidence to press on with a series pilot that I recently began writing.

[@terrencemontgomery1926]

I’ve always been awe struck by the beauty of Lawrence of Arabia. Aside from the unforgettable David Lean compositions, the acting is incredible. This is in great part due to the remarkable ability of Robert Bolt’s writing and dialogue (no wonder Bolt was the go-to writer for Lean on many films). After reading the shoot script for Lawrence of Arabia, I was taken by the poetic quality of the writing, more akin to verse really. Whereas I only focused on the surface of Bolt’s genius, i.e., the meaning, I couldn't help notice the overall flow of his dialogue. When you elaborated on this in your video regarding sound and meter, that’s when it resonated for me and made sense. Your insider knowledge as a true practitioner has allowed me to consider screenwriting from a multi-dimensional perspective and broaden my appreciation and respect for the form overall. Bravo Andy! Thank you!

[@TheGoDraft]

You're welcome. I can see you love film (good ones, that is) as much as I do.

[@yaboydolphin]

doing a masters in screenwriting next year. these vids are a big help. thanks.

[@TheGoDraft]

I hope it's taught by people who know what they're talking about (they don't all).

[@constanzagarcia348]

We will be waiting for your next chapter. Oh, the red that dance all over my scripts, and topple what is trash, since you teach us. Thanks to you, Sir, from Spain.

[@TheGoDraft]

Glad you're finding it helpful.

[@Zerepzerreitug]

Love the tip to make characters 'toss' words back and forth between them like a hot potato. I had noticed that snappy feeling in many movies but wasn't but until today that I finally got why it works. Great lesson as always!

[@TheGoDraft]

Well, that's certainly part of it. Hope it helps you.

[@kathleenrough4864]

I must apologize, I love your videos so much, but have not yet left a comment, because every time I watch one, I have to suddenly go off and write. Thank you .

[@TheGoDraft]

Wow. That might be the nicest compliment I ever got. Thanks! And good luck with your writing.

[@themightymattp]

This is fabulous! I've always wondered how to decide what words to write, what the characters' should say in a scene. I realize dialogue should be an action to accomplish a goal or thwart the other's attempt at their goal. The three factors (meaning, sound, and meter) in regards to what the scene is about are great tools. Playing catch, lengths of speech, and improv (to a limited degree) are great techniques. Thank you for pointing them out!!!

[@TheGoDraft]

You're very welcome. I'm glad it's helping you.

[@cledosliop4175]

Very helpful sharing! Thank you!🙏🏻

[@TheGoDraft]

My pleasure. Hope it helps.

[@SHANECatLoveActivistHistorian]

Robert Altman, i had an uncle named robert altman. He was in the 28th infantry, europe, the hurtgen forest assault, the meat grinder as they called it. Then after that slaughter they were sent to get some rest and got hit by the bulge. He was a born in america, but his line, our lines all go back to germany coming to america around 1830 to 1850. He grew up speaking german in indiana as well as american. But anyways, he was in a foxhole with some of his buddies, i assume in the forest. They were terrified to get out of the holes. They were there so long that they ran out of water and got desperate for it. No one wanted to go get water as getting out of the holes seemed like certain death. Finally he said he would go get the water and gathered up every ones canteens and took off. I dont know where he got the water or how long he was gone, but when he got back, all his buddies were dead in the holes. The germans had overran them. I can only imagine the horror and agony he felt in that moment, and the guilt he felt for the rest of his life. He decided to take a big risk and leave the safety of the foxholes, yet that is what saved his life.

[@classicalperformances8777]

wow. for an author whose native language isn't English THIS IS GOLD!thank you so much!

[@TheGoDraft]

Thanks. Glad to know it's of value to you.

[@australiainfelix7307]

"Release the pooches!" 🤣

[@81a112]

Thank you!

[@TheGoDraft]

You're very welcome. Hope it's helping you.

[@DexterMorgan-sd4jx]

Great dialogue is spare, it must have no more than 2 lines, if it's one line better, if it's just one word, much better, if you can tell it with silence, great!

[@TheGoDraft]

I don't believe in arbitrary rules regarding art. What you're expressing is your taste, which is fine, but that's not a blanket dictum about all dialogue. Chayefsky changed the world with his dialogue, which tended to be often long. There are no hard and fast rules.

[@DexterMorgan-sd4jx]

I'm a student of Guillermo Arriaga, one of the best screenwriters ever "Amores perros", "21 grams", "Babel", and he always says: "try to keep your dialogue shortest possible"

[@DexterMorgan-sd4jx]

Though, I enjoyed his work in "Steve Jobs", a very good work

[@dontuttle]

Congratulations for getting KZbin to quickly reverse being blocked for copyright violation. I don't think I've every seen it happened so quickly.

[@TheGoDraft]

That's what I understand too. My producer deals with them. They backed down because of "fair use" provisions re educational material. And I don't make money off these videos.

[@miggseye]

“Dating you is like dating a stair master.” What a line!

[@TheGoDraft]

Yes, Sorkin has a great ear for dialogue.

[@SHANECatLoveActivistHistorian]

Some great great lines in the movie lonesome dove. Probly the line that hits me the hardest is when woodrow tells laurie that gus left her his half the herd. Gus did two things, one he changed her life instantly from a homeless whore with no money to a fairly wealthy woman who could now afford a home and gus also knew it is stick in woodrows craw real good and be a slap in his hardnosed face.

[@SHANECatLoveActivistHistorian]

So you wouldnt want to title your movie "odor of a woman" instead of "scent of a woman."

[@TheGoDraft]

You could. Probably would get a different crowd.

[@SHANECatLoveActivistHistorian]

Another heavy scene in lonesome dove when clara tells woodrow what she really thinks of him before he leaves with gus in the coffin. When she says, "I am sorry you and gus mccray ever met. All you ever did was ruin each other, not to mention those closet to you" My dad was a drunk that hated his wife and kid and spent all his time running around with his drinkin buddies. Any woman that was ever married to a guy like that, would have been cheering to hear clara say those words to woodrow as that is what those kind of guys do, they forsake their families to run around with their buddies and in doing so, ruin each other and those around them.

[@TT-wx4tg]

Pro.

[@TheGoDraft]

Is that regarding me? And a compliment, I hope. Well, I'll take it that way. Best of luck.

[@TT-wx4tg]

@@TheGoDraft 👍♥️

[@spacecatboy2962]

Actor director Bill Duke told the story of being in a store by himself when a much younger gal who knew he was famous and most likely wealthy, came up to him and said, you know we could be friends would benefits. Bill said that had never heard that expression before and had no idea what she meant. So he stood staring at her trying hard to figure out what on earth she must mean by friends with benefits. He could only think of one possibility and so he said, you mean my social security benefits? She turned and walked away. I think that would be a great exchange in a movie scene.

[@TheGoDraft]

Sure, although I don't think I would build a film around it.

[@spacecatboy2962]

You mention the use of harsh language. I once sent a script of mine to one of the more famous script contests, The reader gave me notes where they said that the mom characters angry cussing outbursts were too harsh and over the top. Well that may be true if you are not wanting to offend the audience too much, in which case you might throttle it back, but if they meant it as in, moms do not cuss like that, well i have to say, i was modeling the character after my mom and she could had some pretty intense stomping, cussing outbursts at me when i was a little kid. Kind of like the dad fighting the furnace in a christmas story, but only more real life.

[@TheGoDraft]

You can't make everyone like your work. Take criticism seriously (including mine), but that doesn't mean you have to do it. Being rejected is part of the gig.

[@mikeribble2222]

Turns out I have to open another window and use it to the said ball...

[@mikeribble2222]

Andy, your the second podcaster I've seen use the "follow the bouncing ball" subtitles. [the other being Jan Psaki]. You use to use just words coming on. The bouncing blue rectangle is a visual distraction that interferes with your spoken words. Whoever talked you into using this new, "really cool" technology is the sort of fellow who used every cute graphic designed to lay out a brochure, not understanding its distraction as well. So, what I do is lower your video so my iMac screen hides the cute bouncing rectangle.

[@TheGoDraft]

You're not the first to dislike them. I'll pass it on to my producer.

[@arfung9871]

First!!!

[@Pulpaficcional]

Neeww videooo

[@classicalperformances8777]

i wonder what your opinion of the script resulting into the movie Rosenkrantz and Gildenstern must die. Talk about a character-driven story!!!

[@TheGoDraft]

"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" is a great play by my favorite dramatic writer, Tom Stoppard. He directed the film but, sadly, proved why he shouldn't direct - and he hasn't since. Love the play much more than the film version of it.

[@fpstosan]

Andy do you have a crush on Annette Benning? 😂😂

[@TheGoDraft]

No!!! (read the subtext)

[@DexterMorgan-sd4jx]

I don't like how Sorkin writes, he writes long dialogues that are unrealistic trying to be smart and all characters sound the same

[@TheGoDraft]

A fair enough criticism, but his dialogue is very good, and we can all learn a lot from it, even if you don't like all of his choices.