Mad Max: Fury Road happened to be centered around spectacle, but even if your film is an edgy character piece or a zany romantic comedy, you’ll always capture an audience with more action and less talk. That's because the action is the main course, and the dialogue is the dessert. This is one of the reasons why dialogue that accompanies stunt sequences very rarely seems extraneous - especially as a form of punctuation for the scene. The filmmakers didn't default to writing dialogue heavy scenes. We see everything we need to see, and the vast majority of dialogue in the film is there to enhance the actions taking place on screen. Pay attention to the use of dialogue in the scene below: I’m a big Tom Hardy fan, and while I was surprised to see him basically grunt his way through the entire film, I thought it was perfect. The best modern example of this is Mad Max: Fury Road. But…fifteen pages of good dialogue isn’t worth one page of decent action. It flows pretty naturally and takes up a lot of real estate on the page. Show.don’t tellĪs far as cinema and television goes - action lines reign supreme. Want to write about Lawyers? Astronauts? Tech Companies? Figure out as much as you can before you begin to write your screenplay, and definitely before you begin writing dialogue. A lack of research will sap the willing suspension of disbelief. People love to learn from films, so do some heavy research on a specific topic, and then use what you learned to entertain others. Read biographies on detectives and FBI agents.Watch great detective films and documentaries.If you want to write a detective thriller: They either think you should lace in elements from your own experiences into your characters and plot, which is the kind route. Gather useful researchĮver hear someone say, “write what you know”? Me too - it’s safe advice. So let's begin with our screenwriting tips for writing better dialogue.
#Movie magic screenwriter tips how to#
If you follow these steps in order, your scripts will show producers you know how to write great dialogue, and you'll be a better screenwriter. If your goal is to learn how to write a screenplay, the first screenwriting tip is to create a writing workflow that ends with writing dialogue. Learning how to write a screenplay starts with writing action lines, transitions, and compelling characters before writing dialogue. You want to know how to write dialogue, but many of the screenwriting tips you get are too broad, less specific, and feel a bit hollow.
#Movie magic screenwriter tips movie#
Screenwriting Tips Movie dialogue preface