Screenwriting How to: PART TWO Writing Convincing Characters and Dialogue

Screenwriting How to: 

Writing Convincing Characters and Dialogue (Part Two)

So in part one we went over what 'on-the-nose' dialogue is and how using subtext and understanding your character helps you to write believable, interesting dialogue. In Part Two we're going to look at the use of character diamonds and character dynamics layers as tools to help us achieve that great dialogue we're after.

Traditional character development requires huge amounts of back-story and mostly irrelevant personal style information such as childhood idol or favourite colour. The character diamond approach requires you to decide just four traits for your character and to decide how that effects their responses and actions. It's a quick and easy way to forge consistent characterization in your work. The rules are simple any action or line of dialogue that your character performs must display one or more of their traits.

So a trait is distinguishing personality characteristic such as secretive, gullible/naive, enthusiastic, imaginative, daring, optimistic etc. You select a trait for each point of the diamond, but just the trait on its own wouldn't be enough. Once you select your traits you need to write a brief bit about why the trait developed and how it affects them. 

So as an example our character is naive, she has always been protected from the outside world by her father, now she is having to cope alone her lack of experience in the real world makes it easy for her to believe and trust others to her detriment. At times even the most fantastical story can fool her. Her other traits are on the image below.

So with that figured out we can start to get a picture of her character and we can also see how she will react to events in the story. Now if I placed Claire into a situation lets say a homeless person approaches her and asks her for spare change for a bus we can get the responses from the character diamond. Well she's Affable so she'd listen to what he says and being naive she would most likely believe him but no sooner does she give him the money then he enters the nearby off licence and buys a can of cider. At this point her response is to get all sensitive and to question herself even blaming herself for not helping him in a different way.

Refer to this diamond whenever this character is in a scene. Ensure that each line of dialogue and action is influenced by one of the traits. If you have a character arc planned then create a character diamond for each time the character's personality develops and changes during the story.

I hope hat this will be of some help. The link to the free PDF character diamond template is here.
DOWNLOAD FILE

In part three we will look at how to develop great interactions between the characters using a character dynamic layer sheet.  

Screenwriting How to: PART ONE Writing Convincing Characters and Dialogue

Screenwriting How to: 

Writing Convincing Characters and Dialogue (Part One)

Screenwriting is lets face it incredibly competitive. The Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting received over 7000 entries last year. The BBC received over 2000 in its short opening window this year and I can't even guess at how many unsolicited scripts from over eager but raw writers a studio like Warner Bro's received. Most of the time screenplays aren't even read especially if they're sent unsolicited. If one of your screenplays even gets looked at there's a sure fire way to tell how experienced and credible a writer you are.

Dialogue and Character.

Yes of course the plot and theme are important, a bunch of very well crafted characters sat around talking is not going to make for a blockbuster movie (in most cases.) but I think it's safe to say that it would be easier to place those characters into a plot and story with the audience able to believe their behaviors and actions.

If you haven't thought your characters through properly then they will appear to behave without reason, lacking continuity and will talk with on-the-nose dialogue. On-the-nose dialogue by the way is when a character says exactly what they are thinking and feeling. It almost always looks and sounds amateur and doesn't reveal character in an interesting way, in fact it tends to be very boring and flat.

An example of on-the-nose dialogue: 

DAKARAI and EMEKA stand on a ridge beneath the shade of a tree. They both stare out over the valley they can see the thick heavy smoke rising from what was once their home village.

DAKARAI: Are we going to stay here and do nothing?

EMEKA: We can't go, it would be too dangerous, something might happen to you.

DAKARAI: But people are dieing.

Dakarai tightens his fist.

DAKARAI: I feel so frustrated and angry we can't do anything.

So as you can tell its not too interesting, it really leaves nothing to be discovered or interpreted by the viewer. We know from this dialogue everything about Dakarai's feelings and his motivation but how dull. Here's a version that uses subtext, it doesn't explain everything but I hope it is more dynamic and interesting. The character's show they're feelings and they don't explain them, its up to us as a reader or an audience to interpret them.

DAKARAI and EMEKA stand on a ridge beneath the shade of a tree. A small herd of goats feed behind them. They both stare out over the valley they can see the thick heavy smoke rising from what was once their home village.

DAKARAI: When do we leave?

EMEKA: They didn't want us there Dakarai.

DAKARAI: They're dieing.

Dakarai tightens his fist. Emeka places a calming hand on Dakarai's shoulder, he looks around to him.

EMEKA: Come, we have much to do.

DAKARAI: It can wait.

Emeka walks away to tend to the goats. Dakarai looks back out over the valley. Another fire elsewhere in the valley has begun it too floods the horizon with thick black smoke.

Being able to write dialogue that uses subtext and shows character requires planning, you need to know your characters, what motivates them and how they would react to most situations. There are many books and websites out there that encourage you to create full biographies with information about a characters childhood, their school experience, their first date, favorite music and colour etc. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be worth knowing but I'm not certain it's all necessary especially if you never intend for music to be an important plot point.

I've found several ways that make a lot more sense and are far more accessible than trawling through pages of biography. The method I'm going to explain was one I found in the book 'Creating emotion in games' by David Freeman. So yes its a book about game design and writing for interactive media but Freeman really knows his stuff and a lot of his techniques can be adapted to screenwriting. He talks a lot about an approach he created called 'Emotioneering'. This book is well worth reading and I can't recommend it enough. Also check out Freeman's website here.

So how do you improve your dialogue and characterization? Using two new tools a free PDF character diamond form and a PDF character dynamics layer chart. Jump over to part two to download the templates for free and an explanation of how to use them properly.

Vivid Pocket - The latest Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Footage

John Brawley has just released more beautiful footage from the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. Having gone to the Vivid Sydney event he decided to film it with his Bmpcc and upload it for the rest of us to drool over. We can only hope that Blackmagic are able to ship this amazing little camera for July as they hoped.

Here's the latest video and below the last few test videos from John Brawley on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. You can also follow this link to John Brawley's blog for more information.

Vivid Pocket from John Brawley Tests on Vimeo.

Pocket in Kurnel from John Brawley Tests on Vimeo.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera - Market from John Brawley Tests on Vimeo.

Now having pre-ordered my own Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera I can only hope there's no production delays. I'm crossing my fingers.

The Best Blackmagic Cinema Camera Footage so far!

Blackmagic Design caused a bit of a stir last year at NAB when they announced the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, just slightly larger than a DSLR it can shoot at 2.5k resolution and more importantly in RAW format. The 13 stops of dynamic range were unheard of at the relatively low price point of £1795 ($2995).

There were of course many cynics and a lot of fuss was made over the camera's small sensor size, at 15.81mm x 8.88mm it is much smaller than the s35mm sensors of the high end camera's out there. This was the beginning of a long ended debate on how wide it can shoot and if the sensor was too small to allow beautiful shallow depth of field.

I managed to check one out during the companies UK tour and even as these questions were being raised by other members of the audience I found myself wondering what upgraded model Blackmagic would be announcing next year at NAB.

I wasn't surprised this year when they came out and announced a super-35mm sensor model, enough fuss and interest had been expressed in a bigger sensor version. What I was surprised by was the jump to 4K resolution and the global shutter. With this shutter its goodbye rolling shutter jello. Even a Red Scarlet at over£12000 ($15490) has rolling shutter issues unless you pony up an additional $9000 for their shutter adapter.

One bombshell wasn't enough and they also revealed the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera a 1080p HD camera that shoots RAW priced at £775! ($995)

In honour of these latest additions to the lineup I've collated some of the best online videos shot with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera so far, and lets face it if these videos look this great how exciting will it be when we see the pros start getting hold of the new 4k and pocket models.

The Quiet City: Winter in Paris from Andrew Julian on Vimeo.

Anything and everything by Andrew Julian inspires me, his location videos taken presumably whilst he's on holiday are so well timed and paced and it really shows his patience as a filmmaker waiting for the right shot. Again below another video by Andrew both of these really showcase the BMCC's incredible dynamic range, and are why they're at the top of my list.

Meet Me in Big Sur from Andrew Julian on Vimeo.

This video is a great example of how BMCC can be used for broadcast quality advertisments and the colour grading and skin tones look spot on.

WEHBE / MILLONES DE COLORES / PV2013 from LA CREME FILMS on Vimeo.

This next one is both technically impressive and down right hillarious. 

JEANOCIDE from Camp Comet on Vimeo.

I have to admit I quite like cinematic wedding videos and this next one is a great example of how the BMCC can be used in the wedding videography business to great effect and with stunning results.

Lauriane + Emmanuel // Highlights BMCC from Mickael Gresset on Vimeo.

This video shot by Jason Xinzhou has been made available as a public download so if you want to have a go at grading BMCC prores files heres you're chance. I like this grade by Impulsekitty Productions and it shows how cinematic grading can really increase the production value of even just available-light shots.

Black Magic Cinema Camera. Quick ProRes grade. from ImpulseKitty Productions on Vimeo.

And here's the rest of the best.

BMCC Tokina 11-16 Test from Fabrice LAU TIM LING on Vimeo.

BlackMagic Cinema Camera - ProRes First Impression from Hans Purwa on Vimeo.

Moon River from Gabriele Vinci on Vimeo.

 

Tropical Heat from Adam Roberts on Vimeo.

Sampler.2 - Blackmagic Cinema Camera from Nicolás Wong Díaz on Vimeo.

Having looked at some of those what do you think? Let me know in the comments box and let us know if you've seen any amazing Blackmagic Cinema Camera footage online, not mentioned here.