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WRATH OF NOLAN - Short Script

Are you shooting this yourself? If not, there are flaws you need to fix. You should probably get screenwriting software which can properly format the script rather than rely on Google documents. The formatting is really annoying. And unless you're shooting this yourself, lose all the camera direction. You really don't need the transitions either here.

The dialogue is kind of tedious. You need to get to the meat. Also, I understand it's just at a table. For that reason, the dialogue needs to be very exact and to the point. It was boring to read. You could cut out a lot of the chit-chat dialogue. Your page 6 should be your page 3. Seriously. Condense pages 1-5 into two pages. Honestly, I had to scrub through to see the ending. It was a let down. The short is tedious and uneventful as currently written. Given this is all talking heads, you should keep this script to six pages total. And the dialogue has a very expository feel. The characters lack development and are uninteresting. It's not bad just very underwhelming.

Overall, there are different directions you could go by bringing all of them into the same space and incorporate imagery to help sell the story. The format, structure and story all need to be fixed in the re-write. Good luck.
 
Wow... Well, honestly this was written as just something for practice in shooting. It's easy, and I don't have a ton of resources. I'll look over it again and see what I can change and what I can completely cut out. But I still plan on shooting it lol. Thanks for the feedback though!
 
FantasySciFi always gives great advice. One of the things I learned about dialouge at an early stage is brevity is KING. No point saying something in 6 lines in your dialouge if you can say the same thing in 2 lines. That will help not only keep the reader/viewer interested, but keeps the flow of the story and conversation.
 
FantasySciFi always gives great advice. One of the things I learned about dialouge at an early stage is brevity is KING. No point saying something in 6 lines in your dialouge if you can say the same thing in 2 lines. That will help not only keep the reader/viewer interested, but keeps the flow of the story and conversation.

You're right. I guess I went a little overboard with the exposition. Thanks!
 
FantasySciFi always gives great advice. One of the things I learned about dialouge at an early stage is brevity is KING. No point saying something in 6 lines in your dialouge if you can say the same thing in 2 lines. That will help not only keep the reader/viewer interested, but keeps the flow of the story and conversation.

Just to show an example of brevity, I will write the above in a shorter version below to show how easy something we write can be rewritten to make it even tighter.

FantasySciFi gives great advice. Regarding dialogue, brevity is KING. Why write a 6 line dialouge when you can write it in 2? It keeps the reader/viewer interested and maintains the flow of the conversation and story.

That's why rewriting is very important in screenwriting. Probably more important than writing in the first place. Your screenplay will improve second time round and you will know it as well.
 
Just to show an example of brevity, I will write the above in a shorter version below to show how easy something we write can be rewritten to make it even tighter.

FantasySciFi gives great advice. Regarding dialogue, brevity is KING. Why write a 6 line dialouge when you can write it in 2? It keeps the reader/viewer interested and maintains the flow of the conversation and story.

That's why rewriting is very important in screenwriting. Probably more important than writing in the first place. Your screenplay will improve second time round and you will know it as well.


But that kind of precis is exactly what you DON'T want in dialogue as it's not how people speak. They key in dialogue is not to make it as short as possible, but to make sure that every word that is included has a value and a purpose - does it drive the plot? Does it expand a character's personality?

IMO, in dialogue, it's not brevity that's king, but EFFICIENCY, and they're not the same thing.
 
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