The Final Rewrite

12 Dialogue and Character Issues

DOI: 10.4324/9781003161578-13

The chapter considers pauses and space, the challenges that ensemble characters bring to the writing and editing process, how writers and editors choreograph scenes with multiple characters, and the use of improvisational dialogue.

Space

Other aspects of dialogue editing will also inform dialogue writing. In constructing a film from dailies, the editor strives to remove all unnecessary pauses. Pauses feel like brakes on a vehicle that had been gliding smoothly along. Everything slows. The narrative freezes. Not all dialogue needs to move at the pace of our Social Network example, but in some cases too much dialogue and too many pauses hinder the onward flow of the story. This ...