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Missed something? Sketchbook | Stories | Dispatches | Series
Non-Sequitur(s)
Pop Quiz - For research, a screenwriter/director friend decided to record “real dialog” during a roadtrip with another friend. He hoped to capture the unplanned, the nuance, something in the essence of conversation he was missing at the keyboard alone. It was a total failure.
Why? Because movie dialog is really just literature-style dialog with all the asides removed. Real people, that’s you and I, use sounds and non-verbal gestures to infer meaning. We don’t speak in complete sentences. We misuse pronouns, ask redundant questions and reference past conversations without the benefit of a (conversational) origin story.
As an example, here is my attempt at capturing a conversation between my 3yo and I while driving to preschool. See if you think this would make for good screenwriting, or not:Me: Ugh. [quickly stomps on the brake pedal]
Him: Why did you slow down?
Me: Um [thinking about how to answer] So I don’t hit the deer
Him: Why?
Me: Because we want them to live
Him: Why?
Me: If I hit them with the car they might not live
[Long beat]
Him: If you hit them with the car they could go to the doctor
Me: Maybe. It’s better not to hit them at all
[beat]
Him: why?
Me: because we don’t want to hurt them
Him: Why?
Sister Golden Hair - Summer is here and I’ve been reminiscing about roadtrips. We seemed to take them a lot as a kid, piling into the family truckster and traversing the Eisenhower highways to various destinations. Now, my parents never owned a car with a working cassette deck (yes, cassette). But, while cheap, my family is incredibly resourceful. Wedged between the sun-cracked naugahyde dash and bug-splattered windshield lived our state-of-the-art sound system: a
Radio ShackRealistic-brand portable cassette player. With its chunky, black buttons (on top for easy access), svelte, plastic red body and single mono speaker there was no way you could mistake its fidelity.You have to imagine it: the wide open road ahead of us, a Terminator-like father who stopped only when it was absolutely necessary and our crimson portal to a world of music at our fingertips. Mener la grande vie! Except, we only ever brought a one specific cassette. It was, maybe still is, my dad’s favorite. On one side was America’s greatest hits and the other, The Eagle’s greatest hits. Listening once or twice through on an 10 hour drive might have been acceptable, even comical. But, no. These albums were on constant repeat from before sunup until long after sundown. Hour-upon-hour the road’s white dashes would flicker outside while we were serenaded, infinitely, to the California country lullabies of A Horse With No Name, Muskrat Love, Take It Easy and, of course, the soulful, Desperado.
So burned into my psyche are these songs that just today, with my family in my own car, I nearly tapped the dashboard LCD to bring them up and relive the musical beating, handing it down to the next generation. Today, time and therapy won. But I’m wary about tomorrow.
The vomit comet - NASA uses a KC-135 airplane to help astronauts train for low gravity. They call it the vomit comet because it induces sickness when the plane ascends, dives down, then climbs again in large parabolic arcs. Gastric distress aside, during each dive the astronauts-in-training experience weightlessness for only about 30 second. Though I’ve never been in the Vomit Comet, I think about it nearly every day. I think about how 30 seconds is such a short interval, really, an infinitesimal amount of time to learn, to do, anything. I think about it every day because I’ve found a mirror of that same atomic time in my own life. It’s the few seconds right after I wake up, when I pad to the kitchen and consider the myriad things I’m going to accomplish, how the coffee that’s brewing will rush through my veins and I’ll get those golden words written, how I’ll finally get done with that home project. All those seconds are mine-all-mine to savor the possibilities…right before the kids wake up.
100% - Places I’ve written this week (roughly, by percentage) - bar top in the kitchen 10%, bed 5%, office 2%, parking lot/side of the road 15%, bathroom 15%, comfy chair 35%, Living room floor 18%
What season is it?
A few other conversations with my 3yo —
Him: Superheroes are real!
Me: Yes they are. You could be a superhero someday
Him: And I could chase all the bad guys…
Me: yup
Him: …and spill hot tea on them
—
Him: Mom, is it bagel season?
—
Him: If we could eat ideas, nobody would be hungry
Music
The Blanket of Night - Elbow
Reine de mussette (Valse) - Freddy Balta
The Wave - Lalo Shifrin
Words
Felt like I was in the car for the Terminator-like father and the California country soundtrack. And I love the dialogue excerpts with your kid.
I have tried experimenting with dialogue using “Ums” and “Yeahs” which sound great read aloud, but strangely don’t work well read. Hmm.