1. Scenes and
Dialogue
CONCORDIA FILM SOCIETY
- Gabriel Reginaldo
- Justin Calandriello

2. Scene Breakdown
- Scene is everything that happens on the same location and continuous time.
- A scene should have a purpose and cause a change on the film’s plot. It should propel your
story forward.
● ANATOMY OF A SCENE
1. Prologue (Exposition)
2. Desire (protagonist + objective + emotion)
3. Action ( Active protagonist + objective + emotion)
4. Conflict (protagonist + objective + action + obstacle)
5. Change (Consequence of the action - positive or negative)

3. Scene Breakdown
● What is a beat?
- A beat is the smallest dramatic unit,
responsible for establishing a value
(+/-) inside the protagonist’s
trajectory.
- A set of beats can transmit emotion
and rhythm to a scene.
- It is a behavioural change that occurs
through action and reaction.
- Beat to beat, this behaviour shapes
the scene’s turning point.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/679004.shtml

4. Scene Breakdown

5. Scene Breakdown

6. Dialogue
Dialogue is simply conversation, but it is really a core narrative tool
Can be used to drive narrative forward by revealing information and developing characters and
their relationships
Best way to learn dialogue: practice!
- Use writing prompts
- Come up with simple characters and scenarios

7. Watch first 5 minutes

8. Dialogue: Three Key Questions
Who wants what from who?
What happens if they don’t get it?
Why now?

9. Dialogue Exercises
Bring a notebook into a public space and write down conversations you hear. Great way to
document realistic conversations.
Using two people you’ve recorded in your notebook, create a brand new conversation. How will
these two individuals interact with one another? What are there traits and personalities?
If you’re struggling with what a character should say, write down things they should not say.
Learning what your character would never do helps you narrow down what you think they will
actually do.

10. Subtext Exercise
● Breakout Rooms!
● Each group will write 5 lines of dialogue for one of the situations.
● Try to convince the audience what a character feels without directly saying it.
1. Anger
2. Sadness
3. Happiness
https://screencraft.org/2019/03/27/the-most-effective-screenwriting-exercises-to-boost-creativity/

11. Anticipation Tools
1. Set expectations - utilize the rising action to set up tension
2. Show, don’t tell - describe character actions and how they prepare
3. Depict emotion - tension leads to conflicting emotions, which can throw off expectations
Dangling Cause: only the first part of cause and effect is revealed
Foreshadowing: indications of future event, often subtle or metaphorical
Anticipation is built around cause and effect - subvert expectations!

12. Anticipation Tools
● Dramatic Irony
- Occurs when the public knows more than the characters
- Commonly used in the suspense and comedy genres
- Usually underestimated by beginners, who thinks that the characters must know
everything at the same time as the public

13. What Happened?!
● Your character walks into a room. Someone asks…”What happened?” Go!
● Give your character a nice, hefty monologue so you can start building the world, and then
start the dialogue with other characters as the scene progresses.
1. Your character walks naked into a room
2. Your character walks into a boardroom meeting in a dripping wet scuba suit
3. Your character calmly walks into his/her kitchen with a gunshot wound in their head
https://www.zacuto.com/screenwriting-exercises-to-get-your-creativity-flowing