Was Denis Villeneuve Right About Dialogue? (early access)
Added 2024-11-30 20:51:14 +0000 UTCWading through the weeds of the ongoing debate: should dialogue matter? Let me know what you think!
Comments
Not sure if/where it would have fit in, but in Sicario, Denis Villeneuve cut 90% of Alejandro's (Benicio del Toro's) dialogue and it made for a better character and movie. That praised change may have warped his ideas and opinions a bit.
Lootpack Jack
2024-12-05 07:42:07 +0000 UTCGreat video. I loved hearing Jamie’s perspective. I’m a storyboard artist who works in animation, and unfortunately writers are not the only ones struggling. I wasn’t as frustrated by Denis Villeneuve’s comments because, at least in animation, visual artists are seriously devalued by Hollywood CEOs. Even before AI, animation artists are often viewed as machines and not as creatives. With AI that thinking has only gotten worse, so it felt nice to have someone reaffirm the importance of thinking critically about visuals. I’m sometimes jealous of writers in my industry because they at least got a good deal after the strike, and our fight with the AMPTP is still ongoing and very stressful. Having said that, I forget that writers are struggling with the same problems that members of the Animation Guild and IATSE are struggling with. It’s not the writers that are devaluing us as artists, it’s the CEOs. Earlier in my career, it was much more common for storyboard artists to collaborate and have a friendly relationship with the writers. Now, it’s more common for artists to be told not to talk to the writers. I used to think this was because the writers were divas who were considered “the real creatives,” but I broke the rule on my last show and had a nice conversation with a writer. I later learned at an animation mixer that this is a tactic used by producers to keep us ‘in our place.’ So, if you’re a writer on an animated show and it seems like the storyboard artists are aloof and don’t like you, blame the producers haha. I think the best video essay I’ve seen criticizing dialogue heavy movies is Every Frame A Painting’s video ‘Edgar Wright: How to do Visual Comedy.’ He praises Edgar Wright and criticizes popular comedy movies from that time (the video came out 10 years ago) for relying only on dialogue to tell jokes. He uses Bridesmaids and The Hangover as an example. It’s interesting to rewatch that video and to think about how different the film industry has become. Mid budget comedies with A listers have been killed by streaming. Low-mid budget films for adults are now dominated by horror, which is a heavily visual medium. Maybe Denis Villeneuve is still salty about films from 10 years ago?
Kristen Gish
2024-12-02 00:38:00 +0000 UTCIt saddens me that screenwriters are so disrespected in the filmmaking process especially now because when I imagine my favorite movies/movie moments and in general the biggest culturally impacting movie moments it’s usually a line of dialogue no? We all remember amazing visuals no doubt but there are so many iconic movies that we all know simply off of very memorable lines. Idk im rambling here
Mr. Allen
2024-12-01 20:02:44 +0000 UTCReal top-notch stuff, thank you so much :) On a technical note, I felt the audio in the film clips was much lower than the rest, making it, ironically, difficult to hear the dialogue ;) Also, on a more pedantic note, Alexander Kluge's name is pronounced more like Kloo-gah. Not sure if these sort of things are important to you, just putting it out there. Hope I'm not being patronising <3
Major Tom
2024-12-01 13:06:39 +0000 UTC
