26) CONTRAST IN LOCATIONS
Contrast is also the key to “fish out of water” stories like “Beverly Hills Cop” and
“Witness”. Axle Foley in “Beverly Hills Cop” is a street smart Detroit cop who has to solve a case in wealthy, polite Beverly Hills. Contrast = humor. He is constantly making fun of Beverly Hills society! Every “polite” situation he is thrust into sets him up for a oke or a witty line. Characters can react to each other, but also they can react to their environment. If you place Axle Foley on the tough streets of Detroit, not only does he fit in to that world, he sees that world as “normal” and won’t comment on it. But Beverly Hills is unusual to Axle, and when a character is surrounded by things they find unusual they are likely to comment on them… an that can either give you insight to character and/or humor.
The Clint Eastwood movie “Coogan’s Bluff” is about a non-nonsense Arizona Sheriff who chases his suspect to New York City – where everything is very different. The
*customs* are different, and that produces conflict and interesting dialogue. Instead of observing the world he is used to, Coogan observes a strange world where characters do unusual things. And the things that Coogan thinks are “normal” the people of New York City find completely strange. Part of this story is that Coogan has to figure out how to get what he wants in this strange world, and that means changing his methods… but also
“typical western” story with horses and six guns and saloons, but seen through the eyes of a British butler. Situations which might have been cliché in a typical Western are now interesting and unique… and that carries over into the dialogue as well. Just compare
“cowboy dialogue” to “butler dialogue” and you can see how this creates some interesting exchanges. It’s like these people are speaking entirely different languages!
When you are coming up with your script idea, you can have “built in” humor or interesting dialogue by looking for contrast between characters, between characters and environment, or between characters and situations. All of these can lead to witty dialogue or just interesting dialogue that allows us to see more of each side by using the tools of conflict and contrast.
Your Assignment:
Your Assignment: Your character is a ballet star: make a list of three interesting locations for stories with this character, guaranteed to bring out some great dialogue exchanges.
Your Assignment:
Your Assignment: Your character is a garbage man: make a list of three interesting locations or venues for stories with this character, and a couple of dialogue exchanges with someone in those worlds.
27) UNDERSTATEMENT 27) UNDERSTATEMENT
Understatement uses contrast in situations. If your hero’s in the middle of a shoot out when the love interest calls on his cell phone, having him say “This isn’t a good time - can I call you back?” is going to work better than having him explain his situation.
Understatement automatically improves dialogue because it acts as a counterpoint to the situation.
Ted Talley’s screenplay for “All The Pretty Horses” is a text book on understated dialogue! In one scene Matt Damon has just been released from a Mexican prison where he was involved in a violent knife fight and almost died - he is bruised, his face is scarred, he looks awful - but he refers to his incarceration as “his recent difficulties”. Lucas Black says he’s fired a gun before… and ends up being an expert marksman! Understatement is especially effective when the events are larger than life.
When I do my big two day class I use a clip from John Milius’ excellent gangster biography “Dillinger” (1973) where Harry Dean Stanton plays Homer Van Meter – a man who has the absolute worst luck in the world. When the FBI surrounds the hotel he’s staying in, he is almost killed before having breakfast or even his morning coffee… goes on the run, gets to a road and hitchhikes – and cars keep passing him by! Um, soon the FBI will find him! Finally he gets a ride, but the people dump him in the street… as an armed angry mob approaches to kill him for the reward! And Homer says, “This just isn’t turning out to be my day.” Things don’t turn out well for his character… but throughout the film he’s had this great understated dialogue.
Understatement is probably some cousin to irony in that it is dialogue at odds with the situation. It can be used to show a character is world-weary or clever or unfazed by the situation. It’s a great dialogue tool to show character… and sometimes get a laugh.
28) HUMOR 28) HUMOR
Every character should have their own sense of humor. Not the writer’s sense of humor, *their own* sense of humor. The big problem with Woody Allen movies is that all of the characters sound exactly the same and tell exactly the same style jokes… though
“Midnight In Paris” gets great mileage by having famous characters with distinctive voices like Hemingway and Zelda and Dali. Woody could use the voices of real people instead of his own. But Owen Wilson still played Woody Allen, the way Martin Landau played Woody Allen in “Crimes & Misdemeanors” and Hugh Jackman played him in
“Scoop” and Anthony Hopkins played him in “Tall Dark Stranger”!
Your characters should all use different styles of humor, which will be an aspect of their character. One character may be sarcastic, another may use innuendo, another might have great zingers. One of the best things that made the TV show “Friends” work was that each character has a very distinctive type of humor. A “Chandler line” had a much different style of humor than a “Phoebe line”. You can actually cover the character slugs on a “Friends” script and know exactly which character belongs to what line.
Three of my favorite stand up comics are Wendy Liebman, Steven Wright and Louis Black. Liebman is the master of the last minute reversal. She makes a statement, then tacks on a couple of words that change the meaning of everything she’s said so far. Her humor is based on a twist at the end of a sentence. “I’m a writer. I write checks. Mostly fiction.” And “I’m 23 years old and I just found my first gray hair… on my chest.“ And
“Most of my childhood is a big blur… I needed better glasses.” And “My mother is an actress… I was raised by her understudy.”
Wright creates bizarre images through wordplay - I love the idea of being so drunk you use your car keys in the front door of your house… and it starts up! “I have a decaffeinated coffee table. You’d never know it to look at it.” And “I bought some powdered water, but I don’t know what to add to it.” And “Right now I’m having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I’ve forgotten this before.” And the one about the restaurant that serves breakfast any time, so he ordered French toast during the Renaissance.
Black begins speaking calmly and then gets so steamed up by his stories he can hardly contain himself. His humor is all based on how really stupid the world can be. Each of these comics requires a different kind of joke. You couldn’t swap their material - their delivery and persona are based on a specific type of humor. Each of your characters needs
a sense of humor that fits their persona, their character… and you want each character’s humor to tickle a different funny bone.
One of the most popular film comedy teams of all time is the Marx Brothers, because each supplied a different kind of humor. Zeppo Marx was the group’s straight man – usually the romantic lead in their films. Though you may not think supplying the set ups to
okes and looking handsome is a style of humor, but Zeppo was the “normal” one in a family of lunatics. When you put a lunatic in a crazy situation, you lose the contrast and conflict that help top create humor – so we *need* characters like Zeppo and Margaret Dumont to make the *situations* funny. Groucho Marx was the verbal wit – the king of the one liner. He had a clever zinger for everything. A master of wordplay, he could joke circles around any character. Harpo Marx never said a word – his area of expertize was slapstick, physical humor and visual humor. In “Horsefeathers” in order to gain entrance to a speakeasy you needed to say the password “swordfish” - so Harpo pulls a sword and a fish from his pocket and gains entrance. Harpo’s pockets could hold *anything*! He was also expert at all kinds of physical comedy – in the film “Love Happy” and “Duck Soup”
and an episode of “I Love Lucy” he did his famous mirror gag where he would perfectly mimic the movements of someone else, as if he were their reflection in a mirror. Chico Marx had a completely different kind of humor based on malaprops and misunderstandings. Though his humor style is what David Letterman might call “dumb guy”, Chico’s character was a sly schemer who thought he was more clever than he was…
so his schemes usually backfired on him.
The great thing about the Marx Brothers was that no matter what kind of humor made you laugh – it was represented by one of the brothers. If you didn’t find sight gags funny, wait a minute and Grouch will come in with some clever wordplay! This variety of humor styles is the key to the success of TV shows like “Friends” and movies like “Hangover”. If you are writing a comedy film (or any other genre) make sure each character has their own distinctive style of comedy so that everyone’s funnybone can be tickled.