How do you get this type of blue sunlight cinematography?

[Brian Drysdale]

When the main storyline goes past the point of no return would be a suitable point.

Don't confuse the plot with the story, they're different. The Plot is your "choice of events and their design in time" according to Robert McKee.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay. Perhaps the acts are seperated by story points and not plot points then.

I suppose the witness being attacked and an attempt made her when she is driven home, would be more of a point of no return though. But that doesn't happen until a little after page 30. Is that bad? There still a other plot points to keep the audience busy that change the course of the plot, prior, they are just not point of no return ones.

[Brian Drysdale]

People here can't tell, we can't even tell if the rape victim is this witness, since you don't seem to know the difference.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay. Well perhaps I use the word witness in the wrong way, it's just the prosecutor refers to as a witness in court, but maybe that's the wrong term. Yes she is a victim of the crime.

Well when it comes to subtext in dialogue, it is hard for me to stop it. In this scene here for example, at 0:39 into the scene, where you have police talking over a case, where is the subtext in the dialogue, if I am having trouble spotting it?

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[Brian Drysdale]

Subtext will come across in how the actors deliver the lines and their body language, less in the words themselves. Much of how humans communicate isn't directly from words.

Using the term witness makes the prosecutor come over as a less sympathetic character, I don't know if that's what you intend.

[Ryan Elder]

Originally Posted by Brian Drysdale

Subtext will come across in how the actors deliver the lines and their body language, less in the words themselves. Much of how humans communicate isn't directly from words.

Using the term witness makes the prosecutor come over as a less sympathetic character, I don't know if that's what you intend.

Oh okay thanks. No I didn't intend that. I'll change it, thanks.

When you say that subtext will come across in the body language a lot more than the words, you said before though that the dialogue was lacking subtext though. So I thought therefore, that it was a problem with the dialogue, rather than the body language, the actors will use?

[Brian Drysdale]

You can indicate the subtext in the script.

During a directing exercise on a workshop I got the actors to play the scene the opposite way to the words they were saying. It worked very well, the actors enjoyed playing it that way,

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, so it's not so much that the dialogue needed subtext necessarily, it's just that I needed to write more subtextual physical action then?

[Brian Drysdale]

Just hint at it, good actors will automatically provide the sub text with very small hints.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, but is there anything wrong with the dialogue then, or is it just mainly the body language, or lack of action description of?

[Brian Drysdale]

The dialogue wasn't sharp and tended towards being expositional.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, but since everything they talk about matters in the case later for the pay off, how is expositional, if it matters for later?

[Brian Drysdale]

You want to reveal the exposition in the dramatic manner. Hiding it is a key skill required by a script writer.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay so having the police and prosecutors talk about the plot points or is not dramatic enough?

[Brian Drysdale]

No, this why writers have power struggles and various other sub plots going on.