[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: What’s the purpose of dialogue in story?
Writer/Director/Co-Founder of Scene Study LA, Tom O’Brien: I think it develops character and I think how someone talks is part of who they are. For me coming from theater that was always how I found the story and found characters. I would start with dialogue and just put two characters in a room, have them talk and;
-Figure out who they are;
-What’s their dynamic;
-What are they interested in;
-What do they do all day.
Dialogue helps me find the story. Of course you have to go in and structure it and trim it and do that all in the rewrite but I like the characters to tell me what the story is.
Film Courage: Why do you love dialogue?
Tom: I love to let the characters take me places. When I’m writing I’m just guiding it but letting them take it and then I’ll have certain things that I want to do but I’m not too heavy-handed with where the story is going. That’s what I love about it, when the characters surprise me with dialogue and I write something that I didn’t think I was going to write…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
Tom O’Brien is a Los Angeles based writer/director. He teaches acting and writing at Scenestudyla.com. Tom’s first feature film, Fairhaven, Starred Chris Messina and Sarah Paulson and was a critics pick in the New York Times.
Tom’s second feature, Manhattan Romance, starring Katherine Waterston and Gaby Hoffmann was distributed by Netflix worldwide. Tom’s online series, OM City, that he created with his wife, Jessie Barr, was a New York Times Critic’s TV Pick.
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