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Jan. 31st, 2010
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Jan. 31st, 2010 12:40 amAnteeksi, minä en puhu suomea. Puhutko englantia?
Minä soitan Australiasta.
Prepping for chase-up calls to job applications. J taught me enough to charm with an attempt at speaking Suomi. One thing working in a building full of Indian expats teaches me is the way inflection can take a word and make it sound like two alien ones. Apparently this rule holds with Suomi. So, inflection I get, enunciation I get, conjugation is going to kill me I think.
Minä soitan Australiasta.
Prepping for chase-up calls to job applications. J taught me enough to charm with an attempt at speaking Suomi. One thing working in a building full of Indian expats teaches me is the way inflection can take a word and make it sound like two alien ones. Apparently this rule holds with Suomi. So, inflection I get, enunciation I get, conjugation is going to kill me I think.
I defy you to...
Jan. 31st, 2010 05:38 pmI've never seen this mentioned as a dialogue tip anywhere, but it's something every screenwriter seems to adhere to.
I defy you to find an instance in any reasonably well-known production in which one character asks another character a question, and gets a straight answer.*
And you know why? Because straight answers are an expositorial cul-de-sac.
"How are you holding up?"
"Detective Chalmers wants a list of Lucy's friends."
"What's the weather like tomorrow?"
"Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon?"
"What the hell are we supposed to do now?"
"Stop whining and collect all the electrical tape you can find."
That kind of thing. The last example is probably the closest you'll find to something like
"How are you?"
"I'm fine."
... in 9 out of 10 cases, unless its purpose is to develop a sense of unease or whatever. Almost always it's:
"How are you?"
"Where were you last night?"
or
"How are you?"
"I found something interesting in your office."
Works like a charm, too.
*: I'm talking primarily in conversation-openers, subject-changers or stand-alones here. In a straight back-and-forth or interrogation scene the number of straight answers may rise (especially if the conversation is clipped), but only very slightly. Where possible it's almost always oblique answers.
I defy you to find an instance in any reasonably well-known production in which one character asks another character a question, and gets a straight answer.*
And you know why? Because straight answers are an expositorial cul-de-sac.
"How are you holding up?"
"Detective Chalmers wants a list of Lucy's friends."
"What's the weather like tomorrow?"
"Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon?"
"What the hell are we supposed to do now?"
"Stop whining and collect all the electrical tape you can find."
That kind of thing. The last example is probably the closest you'll find to something like
"How are you?"
"I'm fine."
... in 9 out of 10 cases, unless its purpose is to develop a sense of unease or whatever. Almost always it's:
"How are you?"
"Where were you last night?"
or
"How are you?"
"I found something interesting in your office."
Works like a charm, too.
*: I'm talking primarily in conversation-openers, subject-changers or stand-alones here. In a straight back-and-forth or interrogation scene the number of straight answers may rise (especially if the conversation is clipped), but only very slightly. Where possible it's almost always oblique answers.
Frickin' waaaah!
Jan. 31st, 2010 07:12 pmSaw the last few eps of Terminator. Holy crap, that was a such a good season finale. S3 would have been incredible. Apparently Bear McCreedy had a conversation with one of the creative team the day they got axed and he said pretty much the same thing: "Season three would have been our best yet."
GAAAAAAAH! Christ it was really, really coming into its own. Goddammit.
GAAAAAAAH! Christ it was really, really coming into its own. Goddammit.