How To Write The Best Dialogue - Shane Stanley

Film Courage: How do you

write

good

dialogue

s? Shane Stanley, filmmaker/author/instructor: I think the

best

dialogue

comes from the

best

listeners. I had an absolute crash course in how to

write

dialogue. Years ago I used to write with   Charlie Sheen. I don't care if they don't credit him and the comedies he's been involved in as a writer, I know who's been writing the dialogue. I worked with him for three years. I have never read or heard better dialogue from anyone than the ones he wrote himself and I asked him one day. I used to be very good at writing scene direction and my dialogue was flat, it wasn't interesting, it wasn't engaging, it wasn't on the edge of your seat.

I asked him one day, while we were writing, that the way we worked was that we would set it up, I would write the scene direction, he would do the dialogue, unless you know it was basic stuff (it was easy). Finally I said to him: Where do you get this encyclopedia of incredible dialogues? I had never heard anyone use it before and he said, "Just listen." He said, "You know, when this works, these don't work." And if they don't work, you can't take in what's happening and how people interact and find those gems. Most of the things I write that people like, I heard them at a party, I heard them at a barbecue, I heard them at an airport, I heard them while pumping gas.” He'll say, "I'll go out and pump gas and hear a couple arguing in the car next to me at the pump." And he says, “That's gold.

That's the golden man." And this was before everyone had phones and we couldn't hear them, we were doing this.” That's why I think the best advice for writing dialogue is to listen. Put yourself in the position of a character you have created. It goes back to old, I think, keeping the audience interested in good dialogue. I think a lot of people also try to make fun of themselves with the dialogue. They think they have to use verbiage or words that people don't use. They have to show you how smart they are. I think we've talked about this before, the drummer who exaggerates everything to show how good my skills are and it's not about that, it's about making things sound organic and there are a lot of things that actors have to understand too, it's They are acting or they are actually listening and responding with the work.

But I think the best dialogue comes from the best listeners and people who know how to implement those words that they've discovered over the years and have known the realms. Obviously you're not going to be pumping gas at a gas station and listening to a husband and wife. Every script you write won't be about a husband and wife pumping gas at the gas station. Where else can you implement that? It could be a movie like SAHARA, where Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz walk through the desert, or you can put some of those disputes in different situations, but it depends on how you use them and how it inspires you to go down different paths.

That's how I learned from him to write better dialogues. I'm not very good yet, but I know good dialogue when I hear it and I'm good at adjusting dialogue when I understand it and it's about listening. Film Courage: And now people are talking on the phone, so you can only hear part of it. And I don't think people realize, or care, how well you can listen to them or how attentive (no pun intended) people are... I mean, I've heard some big arguments... stuff. important personal details and I think, I don't think this person realizes that I can hear them on the other side of the store?

But that's also gold. Shane: It's gold and it's even better when they're on speaker phones so you can hear everything or their receiver is really loud but you're right, sometimes you'll hear half the conversation and other times that might be better because you're able to imagine ...I mean, can you imagine? If it was Hey Harold, you didn't bring in the trash barrels and that's what the whole fight is about, but you're only hearing Harold's side, can you imagine? What can you create? Is Maude yelling at him? Film Courage: When you worked at the car dealership, did you learn anything about dialogue?

I realize that's not why you were there [in another video, Shane talks about selling cars for a short time and what he taught him]. But if I come to see a car... you know... I'm probably going to hesitate. I'm probably going to say I don't want this guy to sell me anything, but I do need a car, but I don't want him to know that, so I'm going to be very selective about what I say. Shane: I learned it when I said the owner of the car lot told me, "Come sell cars." You will learn more about life than you ever knew and it will be the education you were missing,” he wasn't kidding.

You become a good listener because you have to go above and beyond every goal you have to address every concern and need the client has. So how does that happen? It happens by listening and I always... they weren't lines of dialogue and I have a very retentive memory, if I hear something I remember it. Nothing was said in those 18 months I worked there that stood out, but it was mannerisms, quirks, character flaws or interesting things about people that I will still implement into my characters today. The way a husband and wife interact. It's not about what you say, but how you say it, it's about the posture.

It's about the 45-year-old son who is with his 70-year-old parents buying the Ford Taurus today and you realize that the parents have a gambling addiction and are going to get a car to go to Las Vegas every two weeks, but the Su 45 year old son still lives at home to help supplement overhead so they can afford to maintain their lifestyle and the boy is also kind of lazy. I mean there are all kinds of things and if you look at that, you think it's a story. You've got this retired milkman and his wife who owned a beauty salon and now they're addicted to going to Las Vegas every... well, what else do they do when they go to Las Vegas that we don't know about?

And then your mind thinks: what did they see on that trip to Las Vegas? You know they are lottery winners. I sold to some lottery winners. That was interesting. In fact, I worked with a salesman who had won $24 million on the big lottery and he left his wife and two and a half years later he was at the point of selling cars with me and you want to talk about having it all and losing it? Friends who abandoned him when the money ran out and he said, yeah, you know, it's funny, my wife still has her 10 million... you know... and here I am selling cars trying to make a living, living in a one-bedroom apartment. .

And he was the one who left her and was horrible to her... yeah... you see a lot of really interesting people... Film Courage: But those two years (sorry to interrupt), but those two years were probably very fascinating? ? Shane: Fascinating. Like I said, I'm still very close to the family that gave me that opportunity. I'm still very close to some of the salespeople I worked with on the lot. Unfortunately some of them have died. Some of those people in that sales class I took Patrick just passed six months ago and I found out. Stuart, who sold with me and I got the most character stories in the world, passed.

They were people that I worked with and was very close to and it was incredible the people, the experiences, the encounters of just going out for a cigarette and meeting a guy whose car was due for an oil change and that 20 minute exchange. . Whatever you have with this guy, those conversations will live with you forever, but you don't have to sell cars to do it. You can drive an Uber, you can work in a restaurant as a waiter, you can work anywhere. Most of the encounters I've had in my life that I write about are personal experiences or exchanges or encounters I've had anywhere, but it's funny that you bring up the car thing for years because that was my job five, six days a day. day. week.

I spend those eight to 12 days dealing with the dealership without two days in a row fighting between salespeople over a customer or customer... you know, there's an old saying about car buying: all buyers are liars. And it was about trying to... I learned something. We used to have a salesman who sold an incredible amount of cars and made incredible amounts of money and I used to say to him, "What's your secret?" And he said: "You just have to remember that all buyers are liars and they tell you one thing because they think they can have an advantage and the secret to selling cars successfully is to give buyers... they have to trust you, you have to to like you and want to deal with you." But he said, "You have to let them think they have control, but in reality they don't have it at all." And it's almost like being a movie director.

Actors live to be directed and controlled, but They also like to think that they are the show. And a good director will help guide them and make them think that they can move forward and you have to be able to dominate them without them knowing that they are being dominated. It is an art, it is a dance and it is that way. to sell cars. But he taught me how to negotiate, sell cars and negotiate four, five, six times a day. He certainly taught me how to go out and raise money, he taught me how to negotiate with contracts, actors and agents.

It's the same thing. How much for how much? So everyone should sell cars and you will become a better filmmaker. Question for viewers: Where does your best dialogue come from?