If You Want to Write Freakishly Good Dialogue, Try THIS

[@TuckerBerke]

✍ The secret to writing amazing screenplays ➤ tuckerberke.com/screenplay-success

[@jbchannel88]

I'm getting a late restart in screenwriting, directing, and filmmaking. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels. Thanks for the informative and inspiring videos.

[@TuckerBerke]

Wish you the best man -- glad you're enjoying 💪🏼

[@JudiChristopher]

I LOVE THIS VIDEO... I am an Acting Instructor.... and I teach EVERYTHING you just said... That is just like the "B" Roll... an insert of an object... (without diologue)... can further explain the Subtext... or it is the Subtext. No one wants to just watch two "talking heads" ... with an OSS (over the shoulder shot) back and forth... SUBTEXT is the Glue that keeps everything together... Another GREAT example of great Subtext ... is the TV Show: "The Closer" ... I really like the first 3 years of this show.... The writer... director was famous to use Subtext... that did not have anything to do with was was being "Said"... but EVERYTHING what wasn't being said... that said volumes. I use this TV Show to teach just what you are saying in this video Thank you so much Tucker for sharing this great video. Can't wait to SEE more.

[@rottensquid]

I understand subtext very well. But for me, the frustrating thing is, on reading my finished work, I realize I hadn't trusted the audience enough to "get it," so I spelled too much out. I'm so proud of my plot and character moments, I can't resist making sure it's clear. And that can be deadly. I often find that, for key moments of subtext, the best dialog is no dialog at all. The plate in Breaking Bad is a prime example. In the movie Kinky Boots, the main character's wife begins the movie coveting a pair of outrageously expensive high heels in a department store window. Becoming successful enough to keep her in style is his prime motivation. Late in the film, he catches a glimpse of her out at a restaurant with a strange man, but she runs away before he can confirm it's her. Until he finds one of those high heel shoes stick in the cobblestone street. That shoe not only told us it was her, but that she was cheating on him with someone who could afford her lavish tastes. After all, how else would she have gotten those shoes? And beyond that, because the film is about a shoemaker, turning the second act climax on a shot of a shoe fit the movie's thematic language perfectly, like a glass slipper on Cinderella. Not a word needed be spoken. Cinema is a visual medium. Though we're working with words, we need to remember that the story doesn't just happen in the dialog. The more we can tell it with imagery, the better.

[@ChristophBartlett]

Not only is she not in the basement and doesn’t need help in crazy stupid love, but Carrell’s character can see her and knows what she’s doing and rather than calling her out on it he’s touched by this charade and helps her anyway cause he knows what she’s doing too, even without flat out saying it

[@Terrificguyonline]

"Does anyone else know?" "Of course not." "Okay. Good. How are the kids doing?" "They're great."

[@eddiejc1]

I know a lot of people hate John Wayne and refuse to watch any of his movies, but compare the scene where Anakin tells Prime "I killed them!" to the scene in "The Searchers" where Martin catches up to Ethan Edwards after Ethan has discovered that the Indians have massacred his family. Ethan never says outright what they did, but at the end yells "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO, PAINT YOU A PICTURE??"

[@montgomeryday]

Wow. This is excellent advice

[@Justin_TVChannel]

This is really good advice thank you

[@TuckerBerke]

Thanks, glad it helped you!

[@paolobellucci-g9n]

The exercise you suggested at the end is really helpful and valuable. Thanks for sharing.

[@krampus7520]

The bit about consciously finding subtext in films that you watch and recording it is so incredably powerful in making your diolouge skills better Another good example of subtext is from the movie *Lethal Weapon* where Robert asks Ribbs before he leaves 'if he really liked his wife's cooking' and Ribbs just stares at him for a little bit and then says "No" Ribbs very badly misses his wife and currently has a very shit life, so seeing Robert's beautiful, loving family reminds him of that (and rather tan making him mire suicidal it gives him a reason to live/or at least in that scene brings him a bit from the edge)

[@krampus7520]

I'm on a roll with writing scenes , taking a break with your vids to get some extra motivation, i realised i made a the lack of subtext mistake with one of the lines in one i just finished writing. Your videos are INSANELY underrated, there is so much good info packed into them as well as humour. Keep it up my guy

[@TuckerBerke]

So glad the videos are helping you, keep it up!

[@carlirobertson]

I didn't hate Skylar. She just wanted to keep her family safe, and Walt was putting their lives in danger. I think people only hated her because her wants, which are the moral ones to have, interfered with Walt's god complex.

[@EricaNewGirl]

As an actor who also writes from time to time, the anakin scene, it’s also a combo of bad acting/direction. If I was handed the script I have to ask myself “why am I repeating this so many times?” If I’m going to so slowly deliver this, something has to happen to trigger me saying it again. Did Padme give me some kind of look of confusion? I’m repeating to clarify. But he’s like. Not even really looking at her. The only way I could justify these lines (I might ask George if I can cut some of these bc it feels so redundant), is an emotional burst of blabbering over and over. But I know from interviews that it was a choice for anakin to be emotionally stunted and an emotional outburst is out of character except when he’s angry in the prequels. He needs to take the thought/feeling through to motivate the next. He’s killing his own emotional world by saying it like line. Pause. Line. Pause. Line. It’s not impossible to make what’s on the page work. But directing might also kill it too. He’s become a better actor since he first played anakin as a young kid/man. But episodes 4-6 worked so well bc the actors weren’t afraid to say “hey this dialogue sucks. No one can say this as written.”

[@devinreese1397]

The problem is the delivery of Annakin NOT the dialogue. Though, you're probably right. Subtext is better.

[@DAMON409]

Dialogue doesn't matter. Nobody leaves a theatre and says, " that dialogue was sooooo good!"

[@gustavofring1927]

What the.... lmao that newsletter promotion was so random

[@anthonycosentino463]

I think if the writing is good, the subtext will be there...

[@clpwn4537]

great vid!

[@alisdairmckenzie]

You want subtext - watch the scene between brother and sister in Incendies where he tells her ' 1 plus 1 should not equal 1' and she slowly grasps what he is saying - the look of horror and that very audible gasp is horrifying. There is no explanation behind his strange dialogue but it starts to dawn on her and us, the audience, quickly filling in the blanks, the mental picture created by the pieces you rearrange is more horrible than having it shown or explained. I highly recommend it

[@dansemacabre242]

Subtext can be daunting. It feels like shaky ground. My early stuff probably had 0% subtext. Will the audience “get it”? I don’t even know if I did, at the time. (Thank you.)

[@elchiponr1]

I like the bad stock footage that you created with yourself in it 😅

[@JudiChristopher]

SUBTEXT... "Show ... Don't... Tell"

[@anthonycosentino463]

Describe, don't explain...

[@louzky.177]

I really disagree with your opinion on the anakin skywalker scene, you dont kill a whole town of people and go home and mope around like you had a bad day, he had the reaction any normal person who can move shit with his mind woukd have after killing a small village of people for revenge

[@kevinmejia1989]

I'll take this a step further. I think he's not being maniacal enough. He can even be stoic about it, and I would have goosebumps. I don't think subtext is needed, yet I don't think he's acting like a young god discovering his powers would.

[@vailangibbs5849]

Agreed. I think the bulk of people’s beef with this scene isn’t in the lines, but the delivery. Hayden’s acting style with Anakin has been a source of criticism for a while now and this scene is no exception.

[@aSnailCyclopsNamedSteve]

The advice to have a hidden agenda is too broad to be useful. What one needs are specific obstacles. Cal comes over and the gas is shut off that day for routine maintenance, which Emily forgot about, again. Cal goes to leave, and the car won't start. Emily fixes a snack while they wait for the mechanic and Cal spills greasy food on his trousers. Etc.

[@aSnailCyclopsNamedSteve]

In other words, make those characters as uncomfortable as possible with things they want to hide or spin differently.