FILM 1120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Mike Nichols, Surface Tension, Seven Deadly Sins
Document Summary
A flow of action in (more or less) continuous time and space. The fundamental building block of the screenplay. Surface tension (something that is different at the scene"s end) Every scene has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Every scene is a single cell in the body of the screenplay. Just like every cell in the human body has the same dna, every scene contains the central elements of the story. Every scene contains the central elements of the story: plot, character, and theme. Reveals something about the characters that helps us understand the world of the story. Dialogue is the only words of the screenwriter that the audience experiences as written (more or less) But the vast majority of the time, dialogue is only the outer skin of the scene. 7 deadly sins of dialogue: obvious exposition, overwriting (the sound of her voice takes the sword out of my hand.
