How Screenwriters Can Create Authentic Dialogue by William C. Martell

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[@storlach]

Dear people from FilmCourage, the content you put out is worth more than gold! Not only for newbys. I've been working in the filmbusiness for about twenty years now, wrote scripts, directed etc. But still, with the help of your series of Interviews, I can refresh my knowledge and, what's even more important, I can LEARN new stuff. AMAZING! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!

[@alabamajenny8751]

storlach I wanna be your friend! 🙂

[@Biring1]

The way he talks about outing exposition through misunderstanding is a simple, yet genius way of conveying it. Aaron Sorkin is a master at this.

[@JN003]

have you watched is course ? (sorkin) wld it be useful to a layman?

[@thomaskubrak1576]

Aaron Sorkin... need to do more research on his work. What pieces has he done?

[@davidjames-cameron617]

@@thomaskubrak1576 west wing 1999-2006, The Social Network, Steve Jobs, Moneyball, and A Few Good Men arw some pretty great places to statt

[@nivaldomonte5441]

It's also present in much of Christopher Nolan's 'Prestige'.

[@Biring1]

@@JN003 Extremely late reply, but yes, his masterclass course is worth it. Tons of content and he has a writers room with some aspiring screenwriters. Lots of great tips.

[@robbieclark7828]

I would love to have this guy as a professor

[@thereccher8746]

The challenge of dialogue can be summed up as such: every line must be manufactured to push the narrative forward in some way, but comes together to form the illusion of two real people talking, and you cannot see how it's happening on an engineering level, but you know in the back of your mind. It's a very tough juggling act, where it only looks easy when it's done well.

[@howardkoor2796]

TheReccher Yes, it should reveal character and move the plot along..

[@codacreator6162]

No, it shouldn't. It should augment the story. It should not, as he is saying, "carry the burden" of the story. That's when it gets goify.

[@codacreator6162]

*goofy

[@feralmode]

I’m always wary when people say ‘should’. There’s no rules for what dialogue must be. Sometimes it’s for plot, sometimes it’s exposition, sometimes it’s for character, sometimes it’s just a verbal flourish. I think getting hung up on what it ‘must’ or ‘should’ be is to write yourself into a corner.

[@owensanfordstuff]

@@codacreator6162 dialogue and action must move th story forward. If it doesn't, it's pointless and goes backwards instead of forwards

[@tag1111]

it's cool that, doesn't matter how many books or interviews you see, something new and interesting always shows up. Loved the tip about misunderstandings.

[@codacreator6162]

"Input equals output." Every writer, every KIND of writer could learn from this. And dialogue "should be the icing on the cake." Brilliant.

[@BritneyLaZonga]

Only, if you want to write screenplays, you should not watch movies... you should read screenplays

[@Thompa93]

That part about the same dialogue but with different spins on it is really helpful. I often find it hard to differentiate character's dialogue from each other and find unique ways for them to talk.

[@miketacos9034]

That's really cool way to think of it. *goes to rewrite every line of dialogue*

[@jimman404]

Great advice and he is very engaging. He seems like he just enjoys the process of writing and thinking about writing, it's really refreshing to see that sort of positivity around a subject that can be tricky and frustrating

[@undead890]

Dialog in a movie can really be summed up as "less is more" Movies and TV are visual mediums, you should use the visuals to tell the story and the dialog to fill in the holes. A couple great examples of this would be the beginning of Up and Inside Out when Riley comes back home from almost running away. With Up, you literally watch almost the entire lives of Carl and Ellie, all of their ups and downs, as they constantly pursue their goal of being able to go to Paradise Falls. During this whole scene, for about 5 minutes, not a single word is spoken, yet you understand everything that has happened in their lives. You know that they both worked at the zoo, that Ellie wasn't able to have kids/had a miscarriage, that life often happened, and prevented them from saving for their trip, and that Carl and Ellie were about to go on their big trip, before Ellie fell ill and died. All their life, all the emotions, all conveyed without ever speaking one single word. With Inside Out, when Joy finally hands over controls to Sadness, it's a metaphor for her finally letting go of her control over Riley, knowing that what Riley really needed was to feel sad so that she could finally feel happy again. It's only about 1 minute long of silence, but we feel every emotion Riley is going through because we have all been Riley at one point in our lives. We have all felt that sadness of loss that we tried to deny, when in fact, it needed to be experienced and felt in order for us to finally move on. In either scene, if the characters had said anything at all, it would have detracted from each scene and lessened the impact, because the scenes didn't need to be described, they needed to be felt, to be experienced. No words could have made the scenes better because emotions can't be described in words, you can only feel them.

[@anilsrivastha708]

"Paranoid barista" - rofl! Cracked me up!

[@timplum5698]

I love how for his concept at 4:38 of people not hearing what the other person is saying, he demonstrates it perfectly with his own example at 1:16.

[@fascistphilosophy5649]

OMGGGG THIS GUY IS A HERO !!

[@KimTownsel]

Bill Martell has been supportive and helpful to me as well as other beginners. Grateful!

[@xpgx1]

Huh, I never thought I could learn so much from Baristas. Fascinating!

[@frankservant5754]

This channel is gold. I am a Space scientist by profession I have a passion for filmmaking I am learning a lot, who knows probably more than what others would get from film school

[@michaelangeloh.5383]

1:38 Tarantino: "Ahhh, okay. - No." *shakes head vigorously*

[@WanderingWeirdly]

This was great! Been struggling with one of my projects' dialogue but this has given me a lot to think about, especially confirming the age-old advice: Show. Don't tell. Love this channel

[@filmcourage]

+Wandering Weirdly Thanks, our next few videos with Bill will be on dialogue. Hope you find them as helpful and thought provoking as this one. We appreciate your feedback and wish you luck finishing up your current projects.

[@deanpapadopoulos3314]

These screenwriters are so smart. They explain our nature so well. The interviewer is great. She really lets people express their knowledge. Thank you.

[@ivansosa3218]

This content is gold. There's no other way to put it.

[@chrisoliver3642]

I like this guy, he doesn't waffle unlike many professors. To lift a quote, talking about writing is like dancing about architecture-- but with the right dance you can still teach structure.

[@reepacheirpfirewalker8629]

BTW, just as an aside, I was watching the Making of Halloween they had here on You Tube and it was interesting to hear that the woman who was working on the screenplay went to a fast food restaurant and put down all the dialogue that girls of the age of the people in the movie and the way they talked and what they talked about. Something that Carpenter himself wasn't about to do.

[@filmcourage]

Thank you for suggesting the making of video. Will check it out. Sounds good. :)

[@reepacheirpfirewalker8629]

@@filmcourage Your welcome, it is interesting to say the least. Also another good one is the one about the making of Alien and how Dan O'Bannon put together the Alien idea with the deep space workers or the deep space truckers and a Alien whose sole purpose was eating and perpetuating their species. And how they brought in other people to refine what Dan had put together. After Star Wars came out the level of corporate interest in creating something that would bring people to watch movies. All the sudden adventure/horror genre couldn't get enough of things. I also love to indulge my other vice being campy b-grade movies like Terror in Space and Battle Beyond the Stars movies that didn't have the best technology for crafting a Space film but didn't let them sideline their ideas.

[@reepacheirpfirewalker8629]

One other thing I would point people towards is obtaining the annotated version of the Hobbit by Tolkien it is very fascinating showing how he developed the characters and in the end created not only a world but everything within it. He also was surprised that more people didn't do the same thing that he did. Going within the history of the British Isles the story teller had the spot next to the fire. Same with the Fiddler.

[@filmcourage]

Thank you again! More great content to watch. Loved the making of CARRIE. Not sure if it's on KZbin? Was part of the DVD. Appreciate the information and for the comments. :)

[@TahtahmesDiary]

LOVED the barista dialogue example at the end!

[@alabamajenny8751]

Im lo key obsessed with Margaret Atwood. Freaking genius writer. Even her voice draws me in, makes me sit up and pay attention. What I wouldn’t do to sit and just listen to her speak, pick her brain about how she creates such amazing material.

[@meg-k-waldren]

Awesome advice from an awesome guy. His perspective is always so interesting.

[@MariWakocha]

+megt n He`s my favorite too, his tips are always so good.

[@howardkoor2796]

meg he knows his stuff. And he's a character too

[@thomaskubrak1576]

Literally was watching this at the Bar of the Starbucks I go to a lot in my city and told the barista what William was talking about in the video relating to Starbucks Lol Love it

[@TahtahmesDiary]

SO glad I found this channel, it's like you have a video for all the questions I have but feel might be stupid or just literally have no idea who I would ask as I'm not a film student, just making my own.

[@SteveHovland]

Excellent advice. He has a bunch of credits in imdbpro, which makes him credible.

[@JackDecker63]

Another great video with Mr. Martell. :-)

[@lucygeddes8409]

Great advice, so helpful to what is an often struggle of making believable and "real" dialogue ... love these interviews so much

[@HonestArttsEntertain]

The Breakfast Club had a lot of dialogue that told half of the story.

[@ardentmuskrat1361]

That’s pretty much a single location movie where there aren’t that many events and actions to drive the story.

[@nabilleal2315]

sounds like Neil Degrasse Tyson

[@gmooney77]

I thought the same thing then ran to the comments to see if anyone else had already agreed lol

[@markjepson4130]

Yep, that was the first thing I thought! Similar mannerisms too.

[@felicity4711]

I was just going to post that!

[@madcircle7311]

You nailed it

[@LaneCarter]

And a little bit of Seth Rogen? Am I crazy?

[@FalconFordXR]

I'm a big fan of martial arts movies and I have a lot of William's movies on DVD.

[@PaleyDaley]

What an amazing educator! I wish I could take a class with him.

[@moushumimitra]

i have been watching and sharing your videos ..... your content is just amazing, insightful, refreshing and relatable!

[@filmcourage]

Thank you so much, Moushumi! We appreciate the kind words. Glad to hear you're enjoying them. :)

[@jaredjenkins99]

I agree that having people misunderstand for a moment or a few can be useful but I hate when entire scenes and plot points are built off of characters misunderstanding each other. Feels very contrived and wasteful. You see that a lot in romantic comedies. Like the example he used, the length of the misunderstanding should probably only be kept to a line or two. Unless it's a straight up comedy and the scene is pure hilarity.

[@joech1065]

I think simple misunderstandings resolve fast, because it's usually more natural for the person B to reply to that rather than passively absorb what was said and then talk about something else entirely. So, when the reply happens, a person A will hear something that is not congruent with what they said and the misunderstanding will be immediately obvious. But I think there is another type of misunderstandings, lets call then "macro" misunderstandings, which are based on different psychological types interacting with one another. This one is based on people not be able to understand one other because they think differently or have different life experience. So it's easy to misread intentions or forget about commonality, when they start to get lost in those differences. People can have the same abstract goal, but never notice it because they come up with different implementation, different ways to achieve a similar outcome. That difference can be much more obvious than the commonality of more abstract goals or values. In real life a lot of the conflict is based on this. One example of this is prevention/promotion focus. Some people focus more on risks and others on rewards, forgetting or disregarding risks. So people can have the same goal, but if they have strongly opposite promotional focuses then there will be an immediate conflict about what to do (how to best achieve that goal). Another example is attachment styles. People can express love differently so it can be very easy for them to misunderstand one another.

[@drunkalfuzzyness]

This guy makes sense! Good advice thanks!

[@felicity4711]

As an audience member, I find misunderstandings depressing and tiresome. The worst is the _Three’s Company_ type of misunderstanding, where a whole lot of suffering could have been avoided if someone had just explained themselves instead of piling one misunderstanding on top of another. It’s very rare that misunderstanding can lead to cleverness and delight, although _Arrested Development_ manages to keep the ball in the air. Misunderstanding is especially painful for a verbal sort of person like a writer, and whenever there’s a misunderstanding it creates an unpleasant tension. I’m always relieved when it’s over.

[@JN003]

this guy is hilarious and an excellent communicator... thx for doing these vids.. very insightful

[@filmcourage]

Thanks, love our time with Bill. He's a lot of fun to listen to.

[@lastlooks2986]

Incredible advice. Thank you so much!

[@C.Church]

this guy explains things well.

[@felicity4711]

PS: I should mention however that I’m enjoying these videos and William C. Martell especially.

[@moonhunter9993]

brilliant talk. thank you.

[@chaeyoungvideos5742]

This was so helpful

[@Ilregard]

Excellent video. This helped me a lot.

[@jimb1453]

Don’t just watch movies, go out of your way to watch terrible movies, you can learn just as much from them as you do watching great movies.

[@tmac8892]

Hey that was informative. Thanks.

[@_SHADOWMAN4EVER]

Pretty good advice

[@kevinbirnbaum6460]

Well, that's one way to look at it - pretty much sounds like what an agent would say. But notice the flicks that win Oscars have tons of dialog as well. As long as the people are interesting and you care about them and what they have to say and suck in your audience, great. Wordiest well-known writer I can think of is Aaron Sorkin. His stuff is tons of dialog. Check out Paddy Chayefsky who wrote Oscar winners "Network" and "The Hospital." Watch them and listen. Tons of talk. Scenes in films can be edited to get rid of dialog if the visual speaks for itself as the video states. But you can't hope that a reader someplace can envision the scene as you do and figure out what emotions are playing there. or that the director will "get it." Let them cut the words. And keep in mind, at one minute per page, you can't just start writing brief paragraphs everytime you want to explain "here's what's happening in this scene..." sort of stuff. It'll mess up the length. And I agree that it's better for someone to punch a mirror with his bare hands to show how angry he is rather than say how angry he is. Show, not tell, makes sense - budget permitting.

[@anothercharacter]

Great video, I'm trying to come up with my spin of dialogue at the moment :-)

[@howardkoor2796]

Mr. Martell is always interesting and entertaining. Thank you

[@teacherofteachers1239]

I hope people are still watching this. His observations help one develop analytical distance and a sense of humor about the strange or frustrating things people around you say. Their remarks go from being frustrating to being humorous and intriguing.

[@AndreaClinton]

Excellent points

[@animetrip18]

Excellent!

[@enjoythestruggle]

This guy is clearly a genius.

[@gailh4466]

Nice examples,,, thanks.

[@AllThingsFilm1]

Great advice.

[@Nantchev]

I have also heard that is it good to have characters interrupt one another and try to finish off their sentences when someone knows what they are going to say. Perhaps, even, coming to the wrong conclusion, as talked about here.

[@pikiwiki]

hits the nail on the head, again

[@keyyjo]

Wow great advice! 💭

[@KristoferBurns]

This is a really good one, I like this guy lol

[@moetarded7757]

I never thought I would write as much dialog as I have in the last month for my book. I have to go and read it out loud at different times of my day so that I can judge the tone. Sometimes I misunderstand this is easy.

[@MidnightKino]

Great Video

[@filmcourage]

+Daisy Castañeda Our next few with Bill will all be about dialogue.

[@skyedog47]

that's a great tip.

[@ericwilliams626]

Dialogue is about efficiency. The best way to write dialogue is to just write it. Write out the scene completely. Most of what you end up doing is cutting the beginning and most of the end, and the middle is the real dialogue. After that, its about saying more with less. You really can. You can convey a lot more by a character saying, yes, than some monologue. Monologues are great and should be used but used for the actor as well as the story, but it better be dramatic or it better be funny. It better say something in a different way otherwise throw it away.

[@howardkoor2796]

Nice

[@whitzala]

This was so freakin helpful😭

[@maestro7058]

08:45-09:05 WHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH THAT'S HOW YOU PRESENT A DIALOGUE!!!

[@michaelangeloh.5383]

4:33 So pretty much all those "crime scene investigation" series where they finish each other's sentences just so that every actor has a reason to be there. - I - HHHATE

[@davemckay4359]

Dialogue should be as natural as just writing the first thing that matches your feeling.

[@tolstoy_was_right]

Double like on this one 👍👍

[@subbir8095]

Hmmm...both are possible; it quite often happens in Indian films. In a Tamil film, one of the two brothers A was summoned to go and see and fix the bride for 'his' brother B, but this guy, A, falls head over heels seeing the girl fixed for B and by using 'misunderstandable dialogues' gets 'the B's girl but brother B gets A's girl who is a mismatch for B.

[@timtitus7861]

I want an all access patch

[@oligieconfidence9567]

thanks. Please, I really need to study film making in the USA. I need help.

[@ralphybillofrights7364]

Very helpful, he’s a genius lol

[@channel100tube]

Film Courage: "Do you think about characters misunderstanding one another or each character having their own spin on dialogue?" Me: "What do you mean by character?"

[@KayFlowidity]

1:25 Prob with Dialogue

[@GryphonWyng]

I got a Starbucks ad at the end of the video.

[@davemckay4359]

This shit is awesome

[@nauka9634]

I googled this guy and most of his movies have poor imdb ratings. This is quite common for this channel. Yet, their comments seem quite convincing. It makes me think that it is something else than knowing this stuff that makes you a good screenwriter. I wonder whether this knowledge is irrelevant or it is insufficient to flourish as a screenwriter.

[@sammygeorgakopoulos8148]

So let's say I have a hearing disability. How can I still record people's conversations? On top of that, wouldn't the mic pick all of the white noise that's going on when your at a coffee shop, or even a mall?

[@miracle_worker3270]

It is not about quality its about the content of the recording

[@filmdevil123]

He's like Dr Phil crossed with Neil DeGrasse Tyson

[@milo8425]

Most ads in an 11 minute video ever? Nice

[@MeanBeanComedy]

"I recorded a guy who spoke entirely in belches." Uhm, I think you were listening to Rick Sanchez.

[@wilwilson8146]

Neil Degrasse Type-son right? Ha!

[@cwburntorange]

Billy Wilder is Austrian, not German.

[@howardkoor2796]

I don't understand what you don't understand

[@thatguyTushar]

Ugh-may-ZING!

[@Rubrick23.]

Quentin Tarantino movies blow the s*** out of the water

[@mychannel-lp9iq]

says the guy who wrote Ninja Busters

[@mizz308]

3:51

[@magdaty1815]

the only way to make your script into a movie is to meet ppl with money willing to finance it, right?

[@itstrazzle2034]

4:30

[@tinyrocks7549]

Paranoid barista 😂

[@Blvff]

bro sounds exactly like Neil Degrasse Tyson

[@RobMottoMovies]

Show, don’t tell.

[@iCyFlaMeZ96]

What does he mean "bleches" and "you could understand it", huh? Lol

[@maunster3414]

Some people can speak words as they belch.

[@blackfang3000]

You must rewrite untill you're horrified

[@Nautilus1972]

He sounds like Seth Rogen.

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

Seth Rogen's dad.

[@Oresths1990]

Is this the white Neil deGrasse Tyson?