Steve coombes script writing workshop

• Dialog is not the biggest part of film making, if it doesn't advance the story leave it out.
• Don't be too formal
• Don't keep including name
• Don't have every character behaving same way
• Don't get too artistic with dialog
• Don't be too grammatical, make it seem like human beings are talking
• Don't make it exactly true to life, real life dialog is boring
• Don't do long speeches
• Beware of accents, just
• Don't have too much information in one sentence
• Don't make your characters a mouthpiece for what you think your script is about
• Use dialog that grasps attention but also serves for the story
• The denial "I'm not in love" you know they are
• Think about the most extreme words your character might say, then that will tell you what words they will normally use
• Best use of bad language, full metal jacket - "monsters" talk
• Bad language is always from anger and hate
• Characters need flaws
• Characters are better looking up than down e.g. not billionaire. Little looking at big, poor looking at rich
• Hubris - the characters fate. can have conscious or unconscious choices
• The existential hero is given so many options and choices that he doesn't know what he is
• When looking at characters, what drives them, and what bugs them?