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Maybe, what I'm saying without actually saying it, is that continually "quoting" dialogue within another character's dialogue is a mistake in itself....because, unless you're going to go for a FLASHBACK and V.O., it just isn't going to work over and over again...because peeps just don't talk like that, or if they're going to, you should jump into a FLASHBACK with V.O. to make it more visually interesting.
I don't mean to be argumentative or anything of the sort here. I just don't see how or why anyone would seriously want to set their script up like this, as it's not going to work,,,IMO, of course.
Maybe, what I'm saying without actually saying it, is that continually "quoting" dialogue within another character's dialogue is a mistake in itself....because, unless you're going to go for a FLASHBACK and V.O., it just isn't going to work over and over again...because peeps just don't talk like that, or if they're going to, you should jump into a FLASHBACK with V.O. to make it more visually interesting.
I don't mean to be argumentative or anything of the sort here. I just don't see how or why anyone would seriously want to set their script up like this, as it's not going to work,,,IMO, of course.
Fully agree. How hard can it be to find another way of writing this without a quote in a quote?
Every movie has its own tone. In some movies realism is not the goal. The way people speak isn't supposed to be "realistic". The whole argument "people don't speak like that" is weak, IMO. There are tons of people out there, there could be a few that DO speak like that and those could be the subject of the movie/scene. When writing most of the time one isn't looking for the most common ways of presenting everyday reality.
I want to have my character to quote another character while telling a story. This is because I want to show that this character is a great storyteller and that he's a manipulator. What he's actually quoting never happened. He's making up a lie. So I want to show that he is a very smart individual who can come up with a complicated lie on the spot. I want the audience to see him tell the story, so they can get a feel for the lengths this guy will go to. I don't want to use flashbacks and VO. It's not about being super dynamic. I want a shot on an actor's face while he speaks to the audience. So they can feel that he's manipulative, sinister, clever, just by watching him converse. That's the point of that scene.
I get what you guys are trying to say but nothing is valid across the board.
David Mamet's dialogue while quirky and weird works in his plays/movies.
I don't know if anyone here has seen some Hal Hartley movies but his dialogue isn't "realistic" but it works in his movies.
It has 38 likes and no dislikes and the movie has 7.5 on IMDB. So, a lot of people GET what Hartley is trying to do.
There's no one way to write things. Different scenes need different approaches. It all varies on what you're trying to accomplish. What's the tone you've set, what are you trying to get across. Flashback and VO may work for a movie like lets say Trainspotting but it won't work for a movie like Before Sunrise.