Functions of Dialogue (class contribution)

• Convey message of the story
• Explore the character’s emotions
• Explore the character’s personality
• Creates moods
• Shows the relationship between the characters who are engaged in the dialogue
• Make the film more interesting

 Functions of a Dialogue (Ryan’s slide)

• Dialogue reveals character
  • Character talks about themselves
  • Other people talk about that character
• Dialogue establishes relationships between characters
  • Characters express attitudes and opinions that are in opposition to one another
• Good effective dialogue will move the story forward, sort of adds a momentum; if a dialogue helps to control the story, then its good
  • It conveys essential exposition
    • Exposition: information to the audience
  • Characters will talk about what happened, establishing the story line
• Dialogue ties the script together, another way in which it can make the film more interesting
• BAD DIALOGUE?
  • Characters expressing exactly how they feel when they speak
  • Sentences with ambiguous meanings
  • One-person dialogue
  • No-point kind of dialogue
  • Having too much conflict/drama. Not too realistic
  • Too real: then it’s just too boring.
  • Therefore, you would want to write a realistic dialogue
• Common mistakes:
  • Dialogue should be used sparingly, never telling the audience what they can see for itself
    • Dialogue is no substitute for action