Busting The 'On The Nose Dialogue' Myth - Shannan E. Johnson

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  • čas přidán 15. 06. 2024
  • Shannan E. Johnson, a native of Houston, TX, is a former creative executive at The Syfy Channel turned CEO of the first black-owned script consultancy in the entertainment industry, The Professional Pen. The Professional Pen is a writer-centered service provider helping emerging and established creatives develop their stories for the screen.
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Komentáře • 67

  • @filmcourage
    @filmcourage  Před měsícem

    Here is our full interview with Shannan - czcams.com/video/EUd5hZL62MA/video.html

  • @AMPATL
    @AMPATL Před rokem +14

    Shannan is hand's down the most expressive and engaging guest in this series.

  • @terryfriend16
    @terryfriend16 Před rokem +12

    Man, this guest is terrific.

  • @KingMawlock
    @KingMawlock Před rokem +25

    She is brilliant. Love every upload I've seen with Shannan.

  • @rodion1911
    @rodion1911 Před rokem +5

    This lady is so intelligent, and very beautiful

  • @FRWHELAN
    @FRWHELAN Před 11 měsíci +4

    Newbie here, but maybe when you are just getting down the bare bones in your first draft, don't worry about being on the nose. Then go back and translate it into actions, subtext, etc.

  • @ChristinaFonthes
    @ChristinaFonthes Před rokem +3

    We need a Shannan fan club ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

  • @roblindsay101
    @roblindsay101 Před 4 měsíci

    This woman is fantastic! So sharp, knowledgeable, and consice!

  • @jonathancerda-rowell1697

    I love Shannan. Very knowledgeable.

  • @wexwuthor1776
    @wexwuthor1776 Před rokem +30

    Nothing inherently wrong with on the nose dialogue. Especially when two or more people are arguing aggressively. Pretense tends to go out of the window.

    • @rellyWrotethat
      @rellyWrotethat Před rokem +4

      it’s much more hard to stomach when its exposition

    • @garynaccarato4606
      @garynaccarato4606 Před 11 měsíci +1

      I also heard "on the nose" dialogue could work when the nose is made to be interesting or in other words if whats going on is something exciting and out of the ordinary as opposed to something mundane and common place then on the nose dialogue could actually still work.

  • @ChancellorMarko
    @ChancellorMarko Před rokem +5

    Makes me cringe so much when I read back the parts of my dialogue that are like, "Hey, let's get the thing and go to the place and stop that event from happening!"

  • @lonjohnson5161
    @lonjohnson5161 Před rokem +12

    I find it easier to avoid on the nose dialogue when I understand the character and the scene.

  • @filmcourage
    @filmcourage  Před rokem +10

    What is your favorite line of dialogue? Eg., "You had me at hello." "Yo, Adrian!" "My precious."

    • @LisaEifie
      @LisaEifie Před rokem +2

      "It was as if a scene from a dream. Nothing more, nothing less than a beautiful view." - Kimi no Na wa.

    • @wexwuthor1776
      @wexwuthor1776 Před rokem +4

      What we have here is a failure to communicate.

    • @BooksForever
      @BooksForever Před rokem +2

      “I’ve been falling for thirty minutes!” - Loki
      “A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.” - Gandalf the Grey
      “There are two kinds of people in this world - those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.” - The Man With No Name (called Blondie by Tuco)

    • @rodneylopez5073
      @rodneylopez5073 Před rokem +2

      A census taker once tried to test me... I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

    • @gnarthdarkanen7464
      @gnarthdarkanen7464 Před rokem +1

      The problem is that one-liners aren't much better than clever quips in the moment... In that moment, they can seem like genius, but they often just turn meme-worthy and get referenced or repeated to death... and it's too often such a short trip from that "momentary genius" to "death" for them to have been as brilliant as they seemed originally...
      Currently, the PIECE of dialogue that lingers is from "Heartbreak Ridge"... Probably from sitting through it as background noise today, while I found a new workflow routine that doesn't help me with Blender... (ah... but I digress as usual)...
      SO the scene is in the bar, where Highway (Eastwood) is chatting with the proprietor (presumably owner?) who's an obvious old acquaintance and a genuinely "saucy ol' gal"... They've turned toward convo' about Highway's Ex'... "her"...
      Proprietor : So... You gonna go see her?
      Highway : Hell no... Can I run a tab on this [holds up his mug of beer]
      Proprietor : Hell no... [smirking]
      ...and as you probably CAN guess from context so far... THE VERY NEXT SCENE is a confrontation with "her"... the first thing Highway does after speaking to his old friend at his old hangout... OBVIOUSLY...
      SO I'm not going to reference this under the guise that it's even my favorite movie... It's a good movie to go to... especially if you want to start to pick up on some of the older school nuances in this subject... This is just a solid reference for that precious subtext... Obviously, "Hell no" meant the opposite when Eastwood said it... It was being thrown back at him by the Proprietor/buddy, BUT also carried the sense of "You're a damn liar, and we both know it"...
      We don't need a lot of poetic sense or sensibility when making subtext... We NEED (as writers) to know what we want communicated, not just to the audience but between the characters based on THEIR relationships, too... SO I often write dialogue "the first time through" very much on the nose... It's through refinement as I've figured out the relationships, the "in-jokes" and how the characters create and build on their interactions with each other to make up the subtext, both between the characters as they interact, AND from them to the audience who is watching...
      Casually, "Supernatural" is a GREAT TV show for catching subtext. For one thing, Sam and Dean are hunting monsters that the general public doesn't believe in. They deal with magic and hoo-doo and all manners of insanity... and they CAN NOT just bring it to the authorities, unless they want straight jackets and padded cells... SO they're FORCED largely to speak in codes, subtext, and innuendo... It's relatively simple, so you can largely follow everything, and there's just enough "on the nose" to keep you on your figurative toes... AND for all it's flaws, the show NEVER took itself too seriously, so you don't really have to either... ;o)

  • @TamirYardenne
    @TamirYardenne Před 10 měsíci +2

    She's the best of all!!!

  • @HaleyMary
    @HaleyMary Před rokem +2

    I find that some lines don't always work when I read material out loud. That helps me immensely for rewriting my stand-up comedy material.

  • @MiaCatAdventures
    @MiaCatAdventures Před 3 měsíci

    This is the best explanation of “on the nose” dialogue I’ve seen - thanks so much for sharing

  • @malaikitamin
    @malaikitamin Před 10 měsíci +1

    love Shannan

  • @CooLin1stPlace
    @CooLin1stPlace Před rokem +2

    Reading it out loud; I've done that, even before sending an important email. Saved myself from serious embarrassment😅

  • @gcfournier3386
    @gcfournier3386 Před rokem +2

    Great speaker

  • @TheMightyPika
    @TheMightyPika Před 9 měsíci +2

    The only time I saw on the nose dialogue work was in Bojack Horseman, and it worked because even though the characters speak their minds, they are often missing certain insights to understand their own layers. But the audience does understand, which is what makes the dialogue so fascinating.

  • @OhtheSuffering
    @OhtheSuffering Před rokem +13

    2:35 The movie is “Concrete Cowboy”.

  • @frankhernandez1995
    @frankhernandez1995 Před rokem +3

    Concise and extremely informative

  • @shawshank178
    @shawshank178 Před rokem +4

    Brilliant video!

  • @concernedcitizen7385
    @concernedcitizen7385 Před rokem +3

    The more intense the emotion, the more on the nose the dialogue.

  • @prayalways
    @prayalways Před rokem +4

    Excellent content! I felt like I was in class! ❤ Excellent 1:29

  • @southlondon86
    @southlondon86 Před rokem +2

    Great video as always. 🔥

  • @Maria-vg6bx
    @Maria-vg6bx Před 10 měsíci +1

    Very useful stuff, thanks!!

  • @kaujuanrichey7100
    @kaujuanrichey7100 Před 7 měsíci

    The only guest I’ve seen that actually answered the question and not talk so flowery and filibuster me for 20 mins 😂 excellent

  • @CheapSpaceTravel
    @CheapSpaceTravel Před rokem +1

    Excellent!

  • @Speed202
    @Speed202 Před rokem +1

    She's great!

  • @kennycooper294
    @kennycooper294 Před 5 měsíci

    in real life subtext dialogue is the allen iverson "we talkin bout practice" press conference. he was going through something at the time personal and only he knew it and close friends.

  • @subramanianramamoorthy3413

    Haha She is back. Congrats
    Her hands too talk in line with her voice

  • @larslarsen5414
    @larslarsen5414 Před rokem +3

    Initially I thought Shannan was a little too much, although she has made many great insights in many previous videos. But now she just says " I am a little forward". Suddenly I like her very much. Now I get her (of cause I dont know her), but now I just see that she is different from me by being much more forward. Interesting dialogue!

    • @bobdhshshxhzvs2314
      @bobdhshshxhzvs2314 Před rokem

      The comment you've made reeks of racism, sexism, and small energy bravo.

    • @larslarsen5414
      @larslarsen5414 Před rokem +1

      @@bobdhshshxhzvs2314 you probably think so because these issues are prevalent where you live. Try to get past it. 😐

    • @bobdhshshxhzvs2314
      @bobdhshshxhzvs2314 Před rokem +1

      @@larslarsen5414 nope, this is an isolated issue concerning just you and yourself.

  • @ndchieh
    @ndchieh Před 4 měsíci

    Great notes.

  • @user-zd1jh5zz9n
    @user-zd1jh5zz9n Před 10 měsíci

    Wow! very impressive video thanks,

    • @filmcourage
      @filmcourage  Před 10 měsíci +1

      New dialogue video coming this week!

  • @TamirYardenne
    @TamirYardenne Před rokem

    She's the best

  • @wombathijs4560
    @wombathijs4560 Před rokem +2

    any examples of her work out there? Can't find anything

  • @AKATenn
    @AKATenn Před rokem

    when something's too on-the-nose, not just dialog either, is when someone says or does something, or it takes place in a setting so obvious that it makes the rest of the movie hard or pointless to watch because it points out what the entire message of the movie is... or it's being too blunt, and that's uninteresting, and can even turn people right off wanting to watch the rest of the show.

  • @Ruylopez778
    @Ruylopez778 Před rokem +2

    Walter: Am I wrong?
    Dude: You're not wrong. You're just an asshole!
    Walter: OK, then.

  • @Thenoobestgirl
    @Thenoobestgirl Před rokem

    Another fantastic video about writing dialogue: czcams.com/video/-AhtKvgy6MA/video.html

  • @charlessmyth
    @charlessmyth Před rokem +1

    Star Trek and 24 rarely shied away from industrial strength on-the-nose-dialogue. This could have been rectified with edits, but it would have changed the tone of the shows, which may have reduced their appeal. The Unit, for example, even with David Mamet at the helm, wasn't up to much :-) The problem is the dialogue, of the on-the-nose-kind, that has characters directly telling each other what they know already, as a direct way to perform the function of exposition..

  • @12DAMDO
    @12DAMDO Před 8 měsíci

    this basically exposes the problem with a lot of modern adult animated sitcoms..

  • @BionicDance
    @BionicDance Před rokem +5

    Well, here'z the problem: _bleah._
    As an audience member, _I don't want_ the long, rambling anecdote full of subtext.
    As an audience member, I feel that's a _complete_ waste of my time and a complete waste _of the movie's time_ when there is _plot_ that needs moving forward.
    1 - I usually know _exactly_ where the anecdote is going already
    2 - It usually takes about 3x longer to get there than it needs to
    3 - The anecdote usually follows the same pattern as _every other_ movie anecdote, and ends up being trite instead of clever
    4 - By the time it's (finally!) over, I'm irritated and grumpy because _I genuinely didn't give a damn in the first place,_ and only wanted _the story_ to move forward
    It's like a musical number: maybe someone might find it beautiful, but it's really just a speed bump I have to endure until the story starts back up again.
    That's why, during the long, rambling anecdote in my last piece, I had the characters _doing other things, too,_ in order to keep the audience interested if the anecdote didn't grab them. The plot continued to move forward _while they were chatting_ about something (at best) peripherally related (and which was all about character stuff rather than the plot).
    It's like how every scrap of violence is there to serve the plot rather than just being a fight scene and nothing more; that was on purpose, too, because I hate sitting through fight scenes where the characters get martial-artsy on each other for five minutes without really hurting each other or advancing the plot. That's as boring as a musical number or a rambling character moment. I shouldn't be shouting, _"GET ON WITH IT!!!"_ at the screen, but these moments of character drama...? _Boooorrrrring._
    You want me to get invested in who your characters are...? Show me who they are through what they _do,_ not what they _say._

  • @gvphdYT
    @gvphdYT Před rokem

    Hall & Oates 1985

  • @Silverthemystic
    @Silverthemystic Před rokem +4

    👃

  • @AaroneousMaximus
    @AaroneousMaximus Před rokem +1

    You can’t have your characters state how they feel! That makes me feel angry!