Film Courage: We may have already covered this but... Matthew Kalil, Author/Screenwriter/Director: I'll say it anyway because you never
know? Film Courage: Okay did you like writing dialogue using the three wells?
Matthew: Yeah so there is again a chapter in the book on round dialogue and and using the
three wells of writing dialogue I find for me writing dialogue was really
difficult in the beginning some people can just write dialogue oh by the way I
was gonna call my book you can't teach screenwriting because I wonder sometimes
if you can teach screenwriting and dialogue writing in particular is
something that some people come to my classes they just write pretty entire
like I'm like how did you do this what do you do but people are open to the
world again it's about being open to the world and listening to the way people
speak and also understanding that if you set a scene in your movie it's gotta be
as realistic as your own life so in your memories if you're writing a divorce see
where say a scene where someone breaks up with someone often what I find people
right on the nose dialogue so they like I am breaking up with you now and I'm
like when I broke up with people did I ever say those words I don't think I
ever used those words I have broken up with some people unfortunately and if
you go into your own memory while you look at how how did that happen with me
is there anything I can draw from this well it wasn't a moment was it just like
silence it's not working anymore what isn't working I don't know this
whole thing it's just and you look at the scene maybe you parked your car and
seafront you lack yard to be many years but I think it's definitely time and we
just you know and then okay you know so you don't actually say in life very
often we don't say like these pretty clear moments however the difference
between live dialogue and screen dialogue is that we do have to clearly
communicate to the audience that they're breaking up so you know this kind of is
where you go your external source as well and say well how do they do it in
that movie and do I need to actually say at some point I do have to say we are
broken up officially so the audience understands that they've broken out and
this is the difficulty between what I call street dialogue and screen dialogue
and well staged dialogue is also - Rico staged dialogue it's all about the word
you know often not all stage plays but often stage plays is about language it's
about you know the uses of language and street dialogue it's totally different
that screen dialogue as a writer you writing because you have to communicate
some information to an audience through your characters and that's the delicate
balance is using your memory well to write realistic sounding dialogue but
then also using the external source as well and knowing that it's it's got a
serve a purpose it's got to move the story forward so sometimes it has to be
slightly on-the-nose but it shouldn't be too on the nose obviously so yeah that's
how you would do it but I find some of the difficulty I had with first-time
writers is trying to communicate to them that what you're writing must be as real
as life you know it's got to be even if it's set in space you know like an event
just keeps coming up like I'm and leaving that message for paper pots when
he's floating up in space it's got to be real you're in space but it's got to be
real so he can't say the things he wants to say and then he'll eventually say
them because you want the characters to care about him but it'll take him a
while and that's why that seem kind of works really well because it's it feels
real and and often when when first-time writers right they don't write like that
and so how to teach that I don't know how you teach that but you got a drawer
from your life you got to draw from your life experiences you need to be you need
to be empathetic with your characters I'm teaching that as difficult so that's
where the three walls came from as well is that I found when people started
drawing from their lives they were like oh it's really easy that's how people
speak I'm like yeah and they should speak like that in your movie as well
maybe yeah so yeah and sorry the other thing is the symbolism sleuth is if
you're going out there and you're listening to what people sound like when
they speak castles are very important especially if you've got regionally
specific accents and you got to write that then you gotta go listen you're
gonna listen to the way people speak that's very true yes because I have
especially here in LA you'll hear people from all over it's amazing and the
different things that they'll say and the terminology yes I remember one lady
I'm not sure where she was from but she was like they're gonna call the law on
him these are coming and I was oh yeah that's right okay and I didn't know it
yeah I like that cold cool you know and then you'll hear other people that you
know just just different terminology for so much that we would call something
else you asked about principal vs. headmaster
yeah there's so many MLA particularly I just noticing all these different
accents everywhere it's overwhelming I'm like even though the waitress who served
us last night I was from I can't place her at all anyway but it's interesting
she has such a unique way of speaking it was just like it sounded like she was a
I don't she had a high pitched voice but it was also like he was a sports caster
or something but she was also maybe Spanish like background I don't know it
was difficult for me to figure out what she was saying West the time but it's a
view losing a favor all I'm saying what's the time as well that's really
funny anyway speaking of dialogue this is a total aside but it's just a funny
thing that happens to a South African in LA it's really funny is this so I was
surfing and this guy was surfing his board he fell off his board in his board
was a pic he's brought up and I gave it to him I was in the shore and I said
something like oh I see your board has got space for two fins which is anyway
which is a strange sentence you wouldn't normally say but I could see his face
and his face was like this human being is talking to me I think he's talking to
me in English it's definitely English and he's
confident in English but it's not American and then I said it again and
then he was like okay he is speaking English hey I needed like adjust my
brain to understand what he's saying and then I spoke it again and then he was
like Amy understood me but it's really funny to see that happen yeah it's just
a circle aside but it's in terms of dialogue you know like the
miscommunication that can happen with dialogue is really funny and then the
subtleties the subtext it's mean it's just I find it really funny because like
English is my own language this is the way I ask people and I speak it yeah
every time I see this look on people's face it's classic it's the like this man
is not from America and he's talking to me I've never spoken to South African
before I don't know what this space is is really a great look anyway I'm sure
Trevor Noah understands lucky for Trevor Noah
thank goodness for Trevor now he's opened up the door to South African
accent see right and the mosque family - exactly and the most family good for you
young