Scene structure
Comments on scene structure
Gooch, Writing a Play 79
(Problem) where a playwright feels he's left something out, not emphasised something enough, or needs to insert some vital information about a character but hasn't yet found the active way to do so. Sometimes there is a recourse to monologue, sometimes the anecdotal telling of a story which happened in the past, sometimes even a flashback. Almost always such moments come as a huge hold-up in the forward momentum of the play. Nothing demonstrates better the need for everything in drama to be shown as a product of action and conflict than this kind of tedious retrospective explanation.
It can even happen over a relatively short span of dialogue where a character does something out of the blue and then, because it's so unexpected or out of character, explains why they did it. It often happens because of an instinctive feeling by the playwright that a character should react in a particular way to the situation in hand.CONTINUING THROUGH THE SITE: to dialogue is more than words
dialogue is more than words SOUND BOX - production sound effects archive atmos and soundscapes double frame - triple frame clustering underscoring music - fighting the dialogue Noise 'moving camera' technique Music montage 'Will you turn that music down!'
18-second rule drop-ins sound pictures memorability number the scenes carefully with a system voice in the mind = interiorizing time-space rule or jump cut
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