The Explorations Project is an opportunity for FreeStyle Students to explore a topic that we get to choose in great detail and teach what we have learnt to our media class. The reason we have to do this is so we can expand our skills and experience for the 21st century skills such as self-direction, high-productivity, and much more.
For my Explorations project, I have chosen to explore dialogue in modern day media. I chose this topic because I wanted to learn more about how dialogue connects to character development, plot progression, and acting. I also wanted to learn more about the process of creating dialogue for these fictional figures. At the end, this improved my self direction and high productivity skills because of the amount of research I had to do to fully understand dialogue and how to successfully help my classmates better understand it as well as me.
Explorations Project
I’m sure that when we first think of dialogue, it is probably something easy to write because it’s just writing conversation. Let me tell you that if you think that, dialogue is much much harder. It’s harder than Jack when he sees Tyler because there are many factors to it that makes it so interesting and because of that, many writers make mistakes that defeat the purpose of dialogue. I have about 6 pages of notes that are just about dialogue and my slides are going to cover like half of that.
By definition, exponential dialogue is two or more characters exchanging information that is crucial to the narrative. Now the main reasons dialogue is used is for developing the characters and furthering the plot. These pieces of dialogue can range from small side conversations to the grand monologue from the antagonist.
Dialogue should always serve a narrative purpose so you know. Mr. Taylor, you don’t have to grade us so harshly you know, maybe that’s just the way we intended unless its just stupid which we will talk about later.
Dialogue is also used to set up major plot points and conflicts which for me is when I think it shines the most, especially when us, the audience, have that moment of realization of what is going on when the film leads us to there
Meet John Michael Hayes, he was the screenwriter for 4 of Hitchcock’s films including rear window. I am not saying that so Mr. Taylor can like my presentation more, I genuinely appreciate the movie because of the excellent dialogue created by him, but we’ll talk more about that later.
One important note to keep in mind when creating dialogue is that dialogue is different to conversation. According to film courage, people would sometimes talk too much in a conversation without getting to the point, Annie. Because of this, we need our dialogue to imitate a conversation while showing the audience who these characters are and who they will become in a consistent and natural dialogue. It must always stay true to their character.
Be careful with this though, because writers can make dialogue too unnatural which defeats the purpose of what dialogue should be.
Mr. Taylor. May you go to the next slide and play the star wars video?
George Lucas had screenwrote basically all of the dialogue in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and as much as an influencer George Lucas had on the film industry, the dialogue in these movies were horrible. With this scene, the audience are introduced to two characters, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. The main purpose of this scene was that it was trying to show who these characters are. Obi-Wan Kenobi is the charismatic calm teacher who is wise in his own ways and Anakin Skywalker is the courageous student who is reckless, but youthfully strong. These two have a dialogue about their past adventures and Anakin Skywalker reminds Obi-Wan of how one of their many adventures went.
Jack, remember when you gave me that bucket hat
Tai, remember when Isaac and I made a diss track on you
Mr. Taylor, remember in 2016 when Jessica M and a bunch of other students wrapped your car in ceramic wrap for April Fools. It was a lot of ceramic wrap.
The core problem of this scene is that these two characters have a relationship so why would they explain things to each other that they both already know. This is an issue because it can ruin the audience’s suspension of disbelief because the audience will question if the character they see would say that. It is better to have our characters have a dialogue about new outside factors which George did try to do, but the conflict is basically forgotten like 5 minutes after so what was the point of that.
Btw I recommend the clone wars animated tv show if you’re into star wars.
Let’s look at another scene from a movie that effectively uses dialogue.
* 2nd Video*
John Michael Hayes effectively uses comedy and natural dialogue to make the audience engaged and keep that engagement consistent throughout these scenes. Jeff introduces the problem by giving his observations. Stella then proceeds to show her knowledge of cemeteries and her theories with Jeff and Lisa because she is reacting to an external factor and in a comedic way. Lisa then gives her opinion on her remarks.
This is effective because it is natural and we get a better understanding of our characters. We could tell Stella is the funny old lady with questionable experience, Stella being the character that is new to all of this and sort of fragile, and Jeff being the more serious and continuous character.
As I mentioned before, writers shouldn’t make their characters have a dialogue about things they already know, it is more effective to have them have a dialogue about an outside unfamiliar force. Not only is this realistic, but it helps the audience have a better understanding of the world they are about to enter.
What is the 3-word rule that us filmmakers use for our films?
Show Don’t Tell
Mr. Taylor give them extra credit because Show Don’t Tell is a key principle us filmmakers use.
With this rule, you would think that dialogue is mostly telling and this is true in a way. This is why it is important to understand that what our characters DO gives us a better understanding of who they truly are. Dialogue should be a BYPRODUCT of the character’s actions because actions truly tell us who these characters are.
*1st Video*
This dialogue he gives is a byproduct of his ideology and everything he had experienced in his life. This dialogue represents his ideology and anger he has felt for his entire life. Throughout the movie, we see his actions that make him who he is such as his killings, his coping ways of dealing with pain, his imagination, and much more. This is the most important moment for our protagonist’s journey. This is the moment where the Joker finally opens out to the public about who killed those boys, his feelings, and his ideology. I love everything about this scene because the buildup over the past hour of the audience witnessing a man breaking down because of society, this is the moment where the Joker becomes the Joker.
The most apparent feature of this film is definitely the acting, but dialogue is what helps it push it to the max. Let’s say we would have George Lucas write the dialogue or we would watch this scene without context of the film. Would this scene really be as strong? You shouldn’t just rely on dialogue to effectively tell a story. There are many factors to good storytelling, but it all comes down to what you want for your film. When we do focus more on dialogue next year, please consider using my techniques because I believe that these examples prove how strong dialogue can be.
Reflection
I valued the time I spent on learning on the important topic of dialogue that frankly, I think a lot of people are not talking about it, especially when it is a huge part of the media.
Experimental Music
The Experimental Music Project is for FreeStyle students to create a piece of music that is good enough for them. I believe this is one of the bests projects we have done this year because our created music can really tell who we truly are which makes our connections even deeper. I chose to create my music with inspiration from the latest Kendrick Lamar album, Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers because I feel this is the kind of album that the hip-hop game has needed and I wanted to try and recreate that feeling the album gave me.
I valued my experience because of the time I gave myself to fully develop and experiment different sounds to make my music the best possible way. There are some things I would have changed and thats just my process of creating music, experimenting with the different sounds to make sure I know if the quality of the music is higher or it just degrades the purpose.