[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: How much importance should a writer place on dialogue?
Andy Guerdat, Television Writer, Producer, Instructor, and Podcaster: A lot and a little. A lot but not as much as most people do I guess is the correct answer. In this grand scheme of things dialogue is the least important part of screenwriting. It’s the least important part of the movie obviously. There are dialogue heavy movies that you know All About Eve or something where that may not be the case but even then structure is much more important. Story, character, scene and then lastly the actual specific dialogue. If a scene and a story and the characters are well thought through and well structured, the dialogue will almost seem to write itself (it should). If you’re laboring over the dialogue, stop because the problem is not with the dialogue, the problem is with something earlier, you haven’t set up the story properly. The character isn’t rich enough or the scene has no purpose or the story doesn’t seem to know where it wants to go and you’ve lost the thread of it. That’s why the dialogue is difficult to write. Writing great dialogue is great fun and there are people who are really good at it and people who aren’t so good at it. Obviously somebody like Aaron Sorkin, that’s his stock and trade, and he’s great at it.
I do a whole section about dialogue and because it’s so much fun to do and there’s a lot to learn about, how to write dialogue but it’s place in the pie chart, should be a fairly small sliver. There are great movies that don’t have much dialogue at all and there are great movies that have dialogue but it isn’t particularly terrific dialogue. It’s not what cinema does best. Stage is a better place if you just want to write dialogue. The live theater is probably a better place for you to be. I could pick up the phone right now if I needed to and call 10 people who…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
Andy Guerdat has been a working writer/producer in film and television for the past 45 years, with hundreds of credits in movies, half-hour comedies, hour-long dramas, theater, and animation. He is currently a consultant at Disney TV Animation.
Advertisement – contains affiliate links
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
More affiliates:
Camera we use for interviews – https://buff.ly/3rWqrra
Sound we use for interviews – https://amzn.to/2tbFlM9
Other books on Amazon that Film Courage recommends – https://buff.ly/3o0oE5o
