Constructing Dialogue

by Mark Axelrod

Unlike most screenwriting guides that generally analyze several aspects of screenwriting, Constructing Dialogue is devoted to a more analytical treatment of certain individual scenes and how those scenes were constructed to be the most highly dramatic vis á vis their dialogue. In the art of screenwriting, one cannot separate how the scene is constructed from how the dialogue is written. They are completely interwoven.

Each chapter deals with how a particular screenwriter approached dialogue relative to that particular scene's construction. From Citizen Kane to The Fisher King the storylines have changed, but the techniques used to construct scene and dialogue have fundamentally remained the same. The author maintains that there are four optimum requirements that each scene needs in order to be maintaining scenic integrity; advancing the storyline, developing character, and eliciting conflict and engaging emotionally. Comparing the original script and viewing the final movie, the student is able to see what exactly was being accomplished to make both the scene and the dialogue work effectively.

328 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2013

About the author

For almost two decades, Mark Axelrod has been the Director of the John Fowles Center for Creative Writing for which he has received 4 National Endowment Arts Grants. He is a two-time recipient of a United Kingdom Leverhulme Fellowship for Creative Writing (University of East Anglia, Edinburgh University), a three-time recipient of the Alliance Française National Writing Award, has written over 20 works of fiction including Capital Castles (Pacific Writers Press, 2000), Cloud Castles (Pacific Writers Press, 1998), Cardboard Castles (Pacific Writers Press, 1996) and Bombay California;or Hollywood, Somewhere West of Vine (Pacific Writers Press, 1994) and Borges’ Travel, Hemingway’s Garage (fc2, 2005) which was published in fall, ’09 in Spanish by Thule Ediciones, Barcelona as Viajes Borges, Talleres Hemingway.

Reviews

[Başak İlhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Birçok filmden diyalog kesitleri ve açıklamalarıyla okuması keyifli bir kitaptı ama diyalog yazmaya yönelik daha bilgilendirici olmasi dilerdim, bazı yerlerde kendini tekrar ediyordu. Arkasında alıştırmalar bölümü var o kısmı da oldukça yararlı buldum.