Читать книгу Talk the Talk - Penny Penniston - Страница 10
ОглавлениеTOMMY: What do you mean, I'm funny?… You mean the way I talk? What?… Funny how? I mean, what's funny about it?
—Goodfellas (1990)
LESSON TWO:
Imitating a Voice
Who are the voices in your head? Who are the people with speech so familiar to you that you can hear them talking when you close your eyes? In your life, who talks so distinctively and with such clarity of personality that you could imitate his rants, raves, sputterings, mumblings, or musings on any topic? Is it your crazy Aunt Tillie? Is it your rambling college professor? Is it your overly earnest ex-boyfriend?
You don't have to limit yourself to people you know personally. Consider the familiar and distinctive speech patterns of actors such as Jack Nicholson or television characters such as Tony Soprano or Homer Simpson. Consider other public figures. I've listened to the same local radio station for the past fifteen years. The patter of the morning DJ is as familiar to me as my morning shower.
Often, art students are given the assignment to copy an existing painting. The act of imitating another piece of art forces the artist to go beyond her typical choices and expand her repertoire. She must learn to use the heavy brush strokes of Van Gogh or the tiny meticulous dabs of Seurat. She will experiment with Rothko's layers of colors or Picasso's disjointed perspectives. Each of these exercises expands her skill set — a skill set that she can draw on in her future work.
By listening to the voices around us, and then attempting to imitate them on the page, we writers get a similar benefit. By tuning in to other people's distinctive patterns of speech, we hone our own ear for dialogue. By recreating those patterns on the page, we force ourselves to understand the nuances of those voices and we stretch our dialogue-writing technique into new territory.
LESSON 2: SCRIPT ANALYSIS EXERCISE
NOTE: In this exercise, beginning and intermediate writers should analyze published work by established writers. See the Appendix for a list of suggestions. Advanced writers have the option of bringing in their own work for analysis.
Have the entire group see the same play, watch the same film, or read the same script. (See the Appendix for a list of suggestions.)
For Discussion:
1. Describe the speaking style for each character.
2. How did those styles differ from each other? How were they the same?
3. Which characters had the most memorable or unique voices? What made the voices memorable or unique?
4. Imagine you were writing an original scene for each character. As a writer, what would you do in the dialogue to capture each character's voice?
LESSON 2: BEGINNER EXERCISE
1. By yourself or with a group, come up with a list of famous voices. They might be actors, public figures, or famous characters from television, stage, or film. Whoever they are, they should a) be well known; and b) have done an extensive amount of speaking. In other words, it's not enough for the person to be famous. He should also have a famous voice. Here are a few examples from one of my lists:
• Kramer (from Seinfeld)
• Bill O'Reilly
• Tony Soprano
• Barack Obama
• Lisa Simpson (from The Simpsons)
• Blanche DuBois
2. Each writer draws a name from the list of famous voices. The assignment is to write a monologue in which that character speaks on the following topic:
Describe your favorite color to someone who has been blind since birth.
3. As you write the monologue, you must follow these rules:
• The goal is to imitate the voice as accurately and realistically as possible. Make sure that you avoid parody.
• In the monologue, avoid names or references that could instantly identify the character. For example, if you are writing a monologue for Lisa Simpson, it is cheating to include a line like “That's what I told my brother, Bart,” or “Here we are in Springfield.”
For Discussion:
1. Read each monologue aloud to the group. Evaluate the personality of the voice. How would you describe this character? What in the dialogue influences your perception?
2. Have the group look at the character list and try to guess who the speaker is.
3. Survey the people who guessed correctly. What was it about the monologue that made them able to identify the character?
4. Survey the people who guessed incorrectly. What was it about the monologue that threw them off and left them unable to identify the character?
5. Were there any sections of the monologue where the writer cheated? Did he use any specific names or references that immediately gave away the identity of the speaker?
6. Have each writer discuss how he approached the monologue. What specific vocal patterns did he notice in the character's speech and try to recreate in the monologue? What was the most challenging aspect of writing the monologue? In approaching the challenging parts, what did the writer do to overcome those challenges? What insights about dialogue writing can be gleaned from that approach?
LESSON 2: INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED EXERCISE
1. For this exercise, you will need to select a person whose voice is unfamiliar to you. This might be a distant acquaintance or it might be a well-documented but still obscure public figure. Whoever it is, the person should be real (not fictional). Immerse yourself in that person's voice for a week. If you know the person, interview her in detail and ask her about her life. Spend as much time as possible with her in different social settings. If the person is a public figure, spend a week listening to her speeches, public interviews, or broadcasts. Read material that will give you background information on her life (interviews, biographies, memoirs, etc).
2. After spending the week becoming familiar with the new subject, write a monologue capturing that person's voice. The monologue can be on any subject you wish, but it must obey the following rules:
• The monologue must be completely original. Do not simply cobble together existing statements by the subject.
• The monologue must be set in a particular time and place and it must be spoken to a particular person or people. In stage directions before the monologue, describe where the subject is when she speaks. Describe exactly whom she is speaking to.
For Discussion:
Each author should read his monologue out loud to the group. Do not read the stage directions out loud, only the monologue.
1. Upon hearing the monologue, what are the group's impressions of the speaker? How would the group describe her?
2. What verbal habits or tics do you notice in the speaker?
3. What is the subject of the monologue? What emotional overtones does it convey?
4. Where and when does the monologue take place? Who is the subject speaking to? What other context can you glean from the monologue?
5. Why is the speaker saying this monologue? What motivates her to speak these words?
6. Ask the author: How do the group's impressions differ (if at all) from your intent? Did the group miss out on anything that you intended to convey? Did the group read anything in to the monologue that surprised you?
7. If there are different interpretations of the monologue, try to identify the elements of the monologue that led to those different interpretations.
After hearing all the monologues out loud, discuss the following:
1. When your group answered the questions above, there may have been conflicting opinions over the interpretation of some monologues. There may have been distance between what the author wrote and what the audience inferred. When is it acceptable for different audience members to have different interpretations of something that a character says? When is it acceptable for the audience to infer something that the author did not intend? When is it not acceptable?
2. Which monologues gave you the most sense of context? Which ones gave you the clearest sense of who the speaker was, where he was located, whom he was speaking to, why he was speaking, etc.? What was it about those monologues that allowed you to make such clear inferences?
LESSON 2: SOLO EXERCISE
This exercise requires a bit of eavesdropping. When you are out in public, listen in on a nearby conversation. Note the location, tone, and subject matter of the conversation. Zero in on one of the conversation participants. Focus on that person. Listen for the particular personality of that person's voice. Jot down three quotes from him as he speaks.
Take the three quotes and weave them into an original monologue that captures the conversation participant's voice. The monologue can be on the same subject as the overheard conversation, or it can be on a completely different subject.
