2008: The Directors and Writers Thread

[cct]

On "Huh" and "Really?":

First of all, any Screenwriting 101 book will tell you that screen dialogue is a stylized version of natural dialogue. In other words, no one really speaks like this. However, it cannot sound phony or stilted.

Result? Huh, Really?, and all this stuttering actors are doing to sound more natural is quite annoying for the viewer. It just sounds to me like poor actors searching for their line. I believe Carolyn Hinsey mentioned this in a column a while back in SOD. I agreed.

Example? I love AM as Kendall. I really do. Unlike nuColby, nuBabe and former nuGreenlee (Fake Greenlee?), no one I know who watches AMC calls Kendall nuKendall, although they all watched SMG in the role. I digress. However, AM is guilty of doing all of what we're talking about:

"Really, Greenlee, really? What did Aiden say?"

"No, no, no, no, Zack...you can't, you can't. Stop."

I don't know if this is due to the dialogue Beldner is editing to match B&E's Realism Edict, or if it is truly a case of AM's acting style. Whatever it is, when she does it, (and others), it sticks out like a sore thumb and takes you out of the moment. (Witness: Taunting Richie with the knife)

P.S. Do want to say that sometimes these things can assist with rhythm.

[soaplvr02]

daytime dialogue is different from all other forms in that it has to be done with the constraints of the actors in mind. ie, the volume of material they must learn in such a short time. all those extraneous huhs? and ohs, and "Jacks" (susan lucci is the greatest name adding culprit) are usually added by the actors themselves as they stumble through the lines they barely remember. and adding a whole bunch of extra "natural" words only makes it harder to learn said lines.

in fact, many of the lines you all make fun of and credit/discredit the scriptwriter for weren't actually written that way. an actor screwed it up and no one has time to reshoot.

[Sylph]

soaplvr02, any new additions on AMC or GH?

[soaplvr02]

none that i know of right now... although someone might be leaving soon...

and before you all go nuts - i mean soon as in a month or two. definitely not something to announce.

someone's prize catch didn't turn out as spectacularly as TPTB had hoped...

[Khan]

Oh, boy, lol.

[Sylph]

Thank you, soaplvr02! This should be interesting.

[MarkH]

You just can't get genuine FishNChips in New York!

You know, soaplvr02, I liked what you wrote upthread: It seems to me on soaps, the dialogue writers should write minimalist dialogue in good common standard vernacular. Then, let the ACTORS do with it what they need to to make it flow, fit with their character/acting style.

As a Y&R fan, my best examples are Shemar Moore and Victoria Rowell, who took what they got and make it right for them. I doubt a writer needed to script "She's cookin' my last grit". The writer should just script something like "She's getting on my last nerve," and then let the actor do what they need to.

Given the speed of daytime, it seems fine to me that we acknowledge that a big part of the end dialogue is improv. The script just gives the skeleton.

[Sylph]

I'm of the Rossini after Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra school of thought (): every coloratura should be written in every detail.

[MarkH]

It's lines like this that make brimike wonder if you're serious about liking Austin Peck :-).

If we were talking about a feature film, I suspect I would be more in agreement. But, HONESTLY, I just can't see how the daytime french fry factory can work if every potato is meticulously hand cut.

[brimike]

:lol:

Hey, I happen to like the fact Sylph can use Austin Peck's photo and "coloratura" in the same post.

[Sylph]

Yours is a very down-to-earth, realistic, pragmatic approach. It is just impossible for your lines to be delievered the way you wrote them. One of the first and foremost rules of Hollywood is: You will be re-written. A saying that has so many ramifications and interpretations.

[jcar03]

I was watching DAYS on SoapNet just now and they air the credits with the hourglass in the background and I noticed that it went

Dena Higley

Victor Gialanella

Rick Draughon

I thought Gialanella was no longer a co-head? Was it just a mistake?

[R Sinclair]

I believe I said: "I will say, however, that when I do write and take my red felt tip pen to my hard copy, one of the first things to go are the "huhs." I hate the sound of "huh" with a major passion."

So... am I seriously suggesting that "huh?" and "really" make the dialogue more natural? Obviously, I'm not.

I was suggesting that I tend to add or subtract seemingly minor things in general. That's all I was saying -- trying not to stand too high up on my pedestal of message board judgment, because at the end of the day, they're the ones getting paid to add "huh?" and "really..." while I'm getting paid to put foam on Hunt Block's lattes.

[R Sinclair]

I doubt "bitchtatorship" and "I don't need DNA. I have K-A-N-E" were screwed up.

I know that all of the "look at me's" and "you know what's?" and the "listen's" and the "but, um..." are words actors insert themselves as they stumble for their lines... but thanks for the education.

[R Sinclair]

Minshew's always been guilty of adding those "nuances" to her lines. For instance, Ryan would get upset and start to storm out of the room or something, and Minshew would say: "Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, wait! Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, calm down... Ryan, Ryan? Ryan, Ryan, no, Ryan!"

Or Zach would fall to the floor unconscious and Minshew would shake him, "Zach, Zach, Zach? Omigod, Zach? Zach, are you okay? Zach, Zach, Zach, please, Zach! Omigod, Zach! Zach!"

I doubt all of those extra "Ryans" and "Zachs" were scripted.