Your Screenplay, Short on Dialogue
When writing your low or no budget script you need to consider the actors. I do not mean that you need to consider casting. You need to consider their limitations. Unless you are lucky the majority of your cast will be new to the business. They will not be use to being on screen. They will not be use to hitting their marks and the massive pressure of a low budget film shoot.
You as the writer need to help them out as much as possible.
How do you do this?
Keep dialogue as short as possible.
No, I do not mean keeping the scenes as short as possible. I mean that you you try to keep their speeches as short as possible. One to five lines at most. Your name is not Tarantino and this is not Kill Bill. If you are going to have stage trained actors who are use to memorizing massive amounts of dialogue then go for it. But most likely you are going to have people who have never done this before. Friends trying to help you out or models who are trying to branch out. It will most likely be their first time so follow the first time rule, be gentle.
Acting is a funny thing. It is easier for a novice to react than to actually act. Some of the greatest movie stars of all time are not actors, but reactors. Go rent a Kevin Costner movie and watch one of the worlds great reactors.
Your lead character gets the most dialogue and the biggest blocks of dialogue. Allow those who interact with the lead to have shorter bits of talk that when and where ever possible they are called upon to react to what is said to them. Bill was killed, react. Did you hear that Mike died, react. There is a monster in the basement, react. Our son is missing, react.
Make it easy on the actors and they will show their love by giving a quality performance.
When writing your low or no budget script you need to consider the actors. I do not mean that you need to consider casting. You need to consider their limitations. Unless you are lucky the majority of your cast will be new to the business. They will not be use to being on screen. They will not be use to hitting their marks and the massive pressure of a low budget film shoot.
You as the writer need to help them out as much as possible.
How do you do this?
Keep dialogue as short as possible.
No, I do not mean keeping the scenes as short as possible. I mean that you you try to keep their speeches as short as possible. One to five lines at most. Your name is not Tarantino and this is not Kill Bill. If you are going to have stage trained actors who are use to memorizing massive amounts of dialogue then go for it. But most likely you are going to have people who have never done this before. Friends trying to help you out or models who are trying to branch out. It will most likely be their first time so follow the first time rule, be gentle.
Acting is a funny thing. It is easier for a novice to react than to actually act. Some of the greatest movie stars of all time are not actors, but reactors. Go rent a Kevin Costner movie and watch one of the worlds great reactors.
Your lead character gets the most dialogue and the biggest blocks of dialogue. Allow those who interact with the lead to have shorter bits of talk that when and where ever possible they are called upon to react to what is said to them. Bill was killed, react. Did you hear that Mike died, react. There is a monster in the basement, react. Our son is missing, react.
Make it easy on the actors and they will show their love by giving a quality performance.
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