Book description
Since the birth of cinema, film has been lauded as a visual rather than a verbal medium; this sentiment was epitomized by John Ford's assertion in 1964 that, 'When a motion picture is at its best, it is long on action and short on dialogue'. Little serious work has been…
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Why read it?
1 author picked Overhearing Film Dialogue as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
What I love about this book is how it relates dialogue to all the other aspects of writing for the screen. I found the sections dealing with various approaches to ‘realism’ particularly useful, as I was writing a non-naturalistic script at the time.
The book is academic but also easily readable—an unusual combination! Books on film tend to focus on the visual aspects of the medium, so this is a refreshing change. It shows how central the words are in a script for the screen. I particularly appreciated the chapters on dialogue and genre.
From Rib's list on The best books to make you a great writer of dialogue.
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