ahh, griffin's amiibo corner references.
So hello again! Today, I'm focusing on dialogue! Yay!
So, what is dialogue?
dialogueˈdʌɪəlɒɡ/noun
1.
a conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or film.
"the book consisted of a series of dialogues"
Shoutout to Google and Wikipedia for that :D
So essentially, it's one or more people just talking. They can talk about pretty much anything; a random conversation, something expositional, or literally reciting something that's happening on screen.
Is it necessary to the opening 2 minutes of a film? No, not necessary. A common rule that's used in film is "Show, Don't Tell". Essentially, it means show your audience what is going on, instead of just telling them. It may not get as much information across, but visual indication in a film should get everything the audience needs to know in whatever shot it is; if it doesn't, it's a poor shot.
So, let's get analysing some film openings! (that was probably grammatically correct)
Unfortunately, I have the 2 minute cap... boo.
But this time, it's a tiny bit different. For each genre, I'm analysing TWO openings; one with dialogue, and one without.
Let's-a go.
COMEDY
So for my without dialogue opening, I chose Ghostbusters (the 1984 one... the GOOD one.)
The opening seems pretty dull; just some establishing shots of a woman walking through a library; presumably, she's the librarian. She goes down one section of the library, and papers start flying out of filing cabinets :0
She starts screaming, and running away... but it seems that whatever invisible entity is throwing the papers around is chasing her. It ends up with a close up shot of the librarian's face, as she screams, and a purple light brightens up her face... as if whoever was chasing her was glowing.
She starts screaming, and running away... but it seems that whatever invisible entity is throwing the papers around is chasing her. It ends up with a close up shot of the librarian's face, as she screams, and a purple light brightens up her face... as if whoever was chasing her was glowing.
This intro doesn't have any dialogue at all, if you're not including the small segment of the Ghostbusters. However, with there being no dialogue, it still manages to establish a lot about this film's premise; there are spooky ghosts, they're messing up the world of the mortals, and people are dead scared. Get it? Dead? No? Ok...
This intro shows that not all comedies need to open with a barrage of jokes to be funny and to establish itself as a comedy.
This intro shows that not all comedies need to open with a barrage of jokes to be funny and to establish itself as a comedy.
The opening WITH dialogue I'm looking at is The Hangover.
It starts with a bride getting ready for her wedding, when she gets a phone call from a man. She asks where they are, and the man responds purely with "We f*cked up.". I turns out that after some talking, one of the members of the stag do has gone missing. The scene ends with some pretty hard hitting dialogue-
"We're getting married in 5 hours!" - Tracy
"Yeah... that's not gonna happen." - Phil
It then cuts to multiple shots of Las Vegas, as the opening credits play.
By having the dialogue, it can give more information than what we would've got if the opening had no dialogue at all; it'd just look like a phone call between a woman and a guy in the desert. The dialogue actually informs us many things; what the story may revolve around, what the stakes are, an introduction to some of the characters & their relationships, and some light backstories. There's no way to concisely tell these things purely through a visual way.
HORROR
For my non-dialogue horror opening, I chose Child's Play 2.
The opening has two major things going on; let's refer to them as the A-Plot and the B-Plot.
The A-Plot is of a mangled, corpse like doll head having it's burnt skin taken off with professional equipment. It exposes a metal head, which is then repurposed for another Good Guys/Chucky doll.
The B-Plot hasn't got too much going on, just multiple shots of a long, black car driving down various roads.
The emission of dialogue is both a blessing and a curse. It's a great way to open for those who have seen the first Child's Play film... I am not one of those people, but I'll try my best.
By showing this corpse-like doll head and having no audio, it gives a sign to the fans of the original film that this is indeed the same Chucky from last time, and the fact that he isn't lipping someone off is an indication that he will somehow be revived from his "dead" state.
However, for someone who hasn't seen the original Child's Play movie, it raises a lot of questions that could've been answered with dialogue. Whose head is this? Why is it mangled? What is Good Guys? Why did they need to make "Curse of Chucky"?
Well we were all thinking that last one.
However, for someone who hasn't seen the original Child's Play movie, it raises a lot of questions that could've been answered with dialogue. Whose head is this? Why is it mangled? What is Good Guys? Why did they need to make "Curse of Chucky"?
Well we were all thinking that last one.
By not having dialogue, it's not giving newcomers enough information. They won't know that the doll is cursed, or how it's a murderous little tyke. I guess this is an example of a good series of shots that doesn't get any points across apart from "we made a doll."
A horror movie that DOES start with dialogue is Frankenstein, from 1931.
A horror movie that DOES start with dialogue is Frankenstein, from 1931.
The opening involves a man walking into shot from behind a curtain, welcomes us, and then starts giving us an explaination of what we're about to see.
"How do you do? Mr. Carl Laemmle feels it would be a little unkind to present this picture without just a friendly word of warning: We are about to unfold the story of Frankenstein, a man of science who sought to create a man after his own image without reckoning upon God. It is one of the strangest tales ever told. It deals with the two great mysteries of creation; life and death. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even horrify you. So, if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now's your chance to uh, well, ––we warned you!!" - Edward Van SloanChilling.
It then cuts to all the credits, since they were at the beginning of the film up until the 60's.
By having Van Sloan tell us this, it can prepare an audience of the 30's, who aren't used to seeing a horror movie in the cinema, for what they're in for.
It's also helps to hype up the film itself, by telling us that it may thrill, shock and horrify them, it makes the audience potentially more excited and fearful for what they'er about to watch.
This particular usage of dialogue is good, since films from before the 1960's, especially for a modern audience, can't get any real emotion out of it's viewers (some rare examples of ones that can are "Casablanca" and "It's a Wonderful Life"). By saying the audience should prepare to feel is a way to let them know they should feel scared during this at some point.
However, the dialogue, while iconic, is ultimately unneeded. It could be cut out of the film entirely and nothing would change.
ACTION
For my no-dialogue opening, I've chosen Deadpool.
By not having dialogue, it adds to the comedic tone that the movie is aiming for as well as action, since Deadpool is a character who's 50% comedy and 50% action. There is a music track playing, but it's so inappropriate for what's going on... especially since it's a love ballad ("Angel of the Morning" by Juice Newton.)
There are really no disadvantages of having no dialogue for this particular example, having no dialogue let's you focus on the comedy and action of the scene
For my dialogue opening, I've chosen Iron Man 3.
In this opening, it starts with three Iron Man suits blowing up, while Tony Stark starts talking to the audience.
"A famous man once said, "We create our own demons." Who said that? What does that even mean? Doesn't matter. I said it because he said it. So, now, he was famous and it's basically getting said by two well-known guys. I don't, uh... (SIGHS) I'm going to start again. Let's track this from the beginning." - Tony StarkIt then cuts to a party, celebrating the new millenium. Tony goes around, talking to some people at this party. He meets a man called Yinsen, who is the one who helps him survive in the first Iron Man.
He then gets in an elevator with his lady-friend, when he's interrupted by a bumbling fanboy, who introduces himself as Justin Hammer.
The opening has dialogue which pretty much tells us the type of person that Tony was before he had the Iron Man suit. This is a side of Tony we don't really know, we only saw something similar to this for about 15 minutes in the first Iron Man. This is good to see and hear, since it can show how much Tony has developed as a character; from being an arrogant, selfish, unlikeable person, to a more considerate but still snarky person.
However, the same thing could've been done without audio, by applying the see-don't-tell rule. They could've just shown Tony being rude to people and having no regard for decency with some music on top, and the same point would've been made.
DRAMA
For my non-dialogue opening, I chose Forrest Gump.
The opening entails the camera following a feather as it floats and flows through the air. We see a bustling, yet small-scale city in the background as the titles play. Eventually, the feather lands near the protagonist, Forrest Gump, as he's sitting on a bench. He picks up the feather, and puts it into his briefcase.
The omission of dialogue in this opening, leaving only music and visuals, gives the opening a much more impactful and striking opening. It also leaves out dialogue so that the audience to admire and respect the effort it took for this opening. To film a feather falling is tricky work as it is, but filming it OUTSIDE, on a windy day, whilst also FOLLOWING IT... it's definitely something that isn't glossed over easily; it takes a lot of planning, effort and patience to do that.
There really isn't any use in having dialogue for exposition here, since 80% of the film is going through Forrest's past, so dialogue explaining the story at the very beginning of the film would be completely unnecessary.
There really isn't any use in having dialogue for exposition here, since 80% of the film is going through Forrest's past, so dialogue explaining the story at the very beginning of the film would be completely unnecessary.
(just go up to the 2 minute mark)
It's just a date night for Mark Zuckerberg, where he talks to a girl. Their conversation is mostly about clubs and how there are more genius level IQs in China than anywhere else in the world. Eventually, the girl leaves him after he starts being fairly snarky, and she ends it with one line -
"You're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart,that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an asshole." - EricaThe dialogue is fairly useless, since it doesn't move the plot/story along, and has no real purpose apart from to show how smart Zuckerberg is. The girl he's with clearly recognises this, as she starts to put him down for this when the date is reaching it's end.
However, using the dialogue to show his intelligence is a great way to introduce Zuckerberg's strongest aspect. Since he needs to be shown as an intelligent person the whole way through the film, establishing this strength at the beginning of the film helps the audience realise this is going to be important.
ROMANCE
For my non dialogue opening, I chose The Notebook.
The opening is, essentially, a load of establishing shots of a lake, and next to that lake is a large manor (side note: it looks kinda like the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland :0 ). It's sunset, and we can see a person sailing across the lake in a canoe. When we cut to see the manor, there are a lot of cars nearby, both parked in front of it and driving past.
In this opening, there is no dialogue in the first 2 minutes (please ignore the last 38 seconds it's very difficult to find a romance film with no dialogue this is the best i could do).
This wasn't a good decision for the film, since the audience has no idea what's going on! Who is the guy in the boat? Whose manor is it? Why are there a load of cars in front of said manor? Why did they make Curse of Chucky?
Some light narration over this opening would've helped a lot. Just something to give the audience some kind of launching platform to go from.
For my dialogue opening, I went with Beauty and the Beast.
"Once upon a time in a faraway land... a young prince lived in a shining castle. Although he had everything his heart desired... the prince was spoiled, selfsh and unkind. But then, one winter's night... an old beggar woman came to the castle...and offered him a single rose... in return for shelter from the bitter cold. (...) The rose she had offered... was truly an enchanted rose... which would bloom until his 21 st year. If he could learn to love another... and earn her love in return by the time the last petal fell... then the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed... to remain a beast for all time. As the years passed... he fell into despair and lost all hope...for who could ever learn to love a beast?"
~ Noah :)
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