Dialogue is part of what makes a character stand out; it may even be one of the most telling things about a character. By no means is this an exhaustive list, but here are a few thoughts on the matter.
1. Listen to people talk. You don’t want all the characters to sound like you, so take into consideration how other people speak – the phrases and words they use, inflection and so forth. By becoming aware of the variety around you, you’ll have more ideas about how to give characters distinctive voices.
2. Be consistent with each character. Once you identify how a character speaks, don’t stray from it. This can be particularly difficult over a long stretch of time because you may forget what the character sounded like earlier in the story. If you’re not sure, review your previous dialogue for the character.
3. Allow your characters to break grammatical rules. Real speech is raw and broken. It isn’t polished.
4. Don’t try to capture dialects with sentences that are difficult to read. I hate reading stories with odd contractions that try to convey an accent: “He’da shun’t gawn ‘in dun s’well.” Fantastic! You’ve made me work so hard at picking apart your sentence that I’ve forgotten what I’m reading. Try subtler ways of reflecting an accent. Spell one or two words phonetically (e.g. “suh” for “sir”) or use words specific to a region (like luncheon).
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Friday, August 07, 2009
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
I just came out of seeing “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”. I think a viewer’s opinion on the movie will depend heavily on how much he or she enjoyed the television show.
I’m probably in the target audience for this movie. The cartoon came out when I was around seven or eight years old. I collected the toys, quoted the taglines and wanted to be one of them. “Yo, Joe!” was one of the coolest phrases I’d ever heard.
The movie tried to capture all of that and bring it back relatively unchanged. This isn’t a movie that tries to make a realistic what-if scenario, like “Batman Begins”. This is about a cartoon in live-action form. You don’t ask questions about how a terrorist organization builds an enormous military base beneath the polar ice cap. You don’t think twice about how people walk away from spectacular car crashes or how futuristic/implausible many of the weapons and machinery are (after all, a caption indicated that this was the near future).
One thing I didn’t really like were the camera shots during fight sequences. It seemed like the cameraman was taking a few punches, too. I hope this doesn’t become the new trend of action movies: to violently shake the camera while carnage ensues.
Ah, but this is G.I. Joe, after all. We must have fights, we must have explosions, and we must have over-the-top plotlines that leave gaps. Someone has to give the obligatory, “Knowing is half the battle” (which I felt Dennis Quaid did with utmost dignity). And of course they have a colossal underwater base! They’re Cobra! (Incidentally, does anyone else understand why Cobra Commander became evil? I didn’t quite understand his motivation. Crud, there I go thinking again!)
It’s best to let go of logic and pretend you’re eight again; otherwise, I think you’ll be disappointed. The eight-year-old in me thought it was great, recalled many of the toys I collected (and still keep in the basement) and thought the characters were really cool. Balance that with my current age (32), and I think it’s a good movie so long as I don’t analyze it (or think about how many scenes were stolen from other movies – did anyone else feel like they were watching the Millennium Falcon escaping from the second Death Star?).
I’m sure I’ll have a few laughs with others about some of the logistics, but I had fun watching it. I’d recommend it for any Joe fans out there. Just don’t think like an adult.
I’m probably in the target audience for this movie. The cartoon came out when I was around seven or eight years old. I collected the toys, quoted the taglines and wanted to be one of them. “Yo, Joe!” was one of the coolest phrases I’d ever heard.
The movie tried to capture all of that and bring it back relatively unchanged. This isn’t a movie that tries to make a realistic what-if scenario, like “Batman Begins”. This is about a cartoon in live-action form. You don’t ask questions about how a terrorist organization builds an enormous military base beneath the polar ice cap. You don’t think twice about how people walk away from spectacular car crashes or how futuristic/implausible many of the weapons and machinery are (after all, a caption indicated that this was the near future).
One thing I didn’t really like were the camera shots during fight sequences. It seemed like the cameraman was taking a few punches, too. I hope this doesn’t become the new trend of action movies: to violently shake the camera while carnage ensues.
Ah, but this is G.I. Joe, after all. We must have fights, we must have explosions, and we must have over-the-top plotlines that leave gaps. Someone has to give the obligatory, “Knowing is half the battle” (which I felt Dennis Quaid did with utmost dignity). And of course they have a colossal underwater base! They’re Cobra! (Incidentally, does anyone else understand why Cobra Commander became evil? I didn’t quite understand his motivation. Crud, there I go thinking again!)
It’s best to let go of logic and pretend you’re eight again; otherwise, I think you’ll be disappointed. The eight-year-old in me thought it was great, recalled many of the toys I collected (and still keep in the basement) and thought the characters were really cool. Balance that with my current age (32), and I think it’s a good movie so long as I don’t analyze it (or think about how many scenes were stolen from other movies – did anyone else feel like they were watching the Millennium Falcon escaping from the second Death Star?).
I’m sure I’ll have a few laughs with others about some of the logistics, but I had fun watching it. I’d recommend it for any Joe fans out there. Just don’t think like an adult.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Doctor Who
My wife and I rented the first season of the relatively new "Doctor Who" series. Yes, I realize it has been out for several years, but I’m just now getting on board with it.
"Doctor Who" has actually been around for quite a long time (dating back to 1963), but it is the iteration that began in 2005 that I’m watching. The series is about a time traveler known as “The Doctor,” who is accompanied by various companions as he explores space and time. There’s a good mix of humor and adventure, and though many of the episodes from the first season (I mean the 2005 season) are stand-alone, they fit together into one continuous plotline.
I was sad to discover that the ninth doctor (that is, the ninth actor to play the doctor since the show’s creation), Christopher Eccleston, only appears in the first season. Eccleston portrays a whimsical, winsome doctor with a hilarious smile (“that goofy grin” as my wife calls it), and it’s going to be a little odd for me to get used to a new face in the role. People who have followed the series since its inception would probably say, “Get used to it.”
The show has pretty good special effects, yet it retains some of the BBC cheesiness that I crave at times. The stories are well told, with great character interactions. If you’re a sci-fi fan, I highly encourage you to check this out if you haven’t already. Oh, and the theme song will stick in your head like glue, but you won’t mind.
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