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WRITING THE SCREEN PLAY
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Indirection
A very effective technique for dialogue economies can be found in the device of indirection. This device has a double result: it can economize in dialogue on the one hand, and at the same time it can flatter the audience by permitting them to reach certain conclusions independently. In addition, the shock value of indirection is intellectually stimulating and, therefore, entertaining.
In My Favorite Wife, for example, as Ellen takes a shower, her mother, in a close-up, and obviously looking at her daughter's nude body off scene, is made to say, "My! Ellen! you're all brown!" This, in addition to having the afore-mentioned results, gave the audience a titillating picture of Ellen in the nude, without actually showing her in that censorable condition.
This sort of dialogue indirection can be used quite effectively, especially in those situations where a shot of what is being discussed is a pictorial impossibility. But once again, it cannot be used indiscriminately. It is a device which, when used judiciously, can have positive effects but which, when overused, would be deleterious to the effect desired.
Dialogue punctuation
A very important consideration in the writing of screen-play dialogue is the insertion of proper punctuation marks. This may appear to be information of the most elemental nature. But punctuation, in dialogue especially, has a definite purpose. It can give the actor a positive indication of the writer's ideas about the dialogue interpretation. At the same time, it can furnish him with the writer's suggestions for pacing.
An example of how a change in meaning can be effected with a change in comma placement should prove how important dialogue punctuation can be. Take the well-known sentence, "Woman, without her, man is a beast." Were the second comma to be shifted over one word, so that the line read, "Woman, without her man, is a beast," the meaning would be entirely different.