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Day 5 Assignments
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11 Replies
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Rob Bertrand’s Anticipatory Dialogue
What I learned: I learned to use Anticipatory Dialogue to always leave them wanting more. Great tool to keep them turning the pages.
EXT. WOMEN’S RESTROOM – COUNTY FAIR – NIGHT
Anne walks with purpose towards the restroom. Danny in hot pursuit.
ANNIE
I’ll just be a moment.DANNY
Oh…okay. Yeah. I’ll be right here.Annie disappears inside.
INT. WOMEN’S RESTROOM – COUNTY FAIR – NIGHT
Annie closes the door to a stall and locks it. She sits on the toilet, clutching her bag to her chest. Her breaths come in heavy gasps. Full blown panic attack.
ANNIE
Why the fuck do I do this to myself?All at once, tears flood her eyes.
The stall door next to her closes. Annie catches a glimpse of punk rock boots. She tries to hold in her sobs. But it’s too much.
A voice from the next stall.
VOICE
Hey? You, okay?Annie shakes her head no.
ANNIE
Uh…yeah…I’m sorry.VOICE
Don’t be sorry. Never be sorry.Annie wipes her eyes with toilet paper. Steps out of the stall at the same time as voice in the next stall. It’s the girl from the Guidance Counselor’s Office.
JOCELYN
Hey! I know you…school, right?ANNIE
Yeah. You’re the girl from the front office. Your step-mom ever call your dad?Jocelyn laughs, as she checks her makeup in the mirror, before washing her hands.
JOCELYN
Becky? Fuck that bitch. She’s afraid of me.Annie washes her hands.
JOCELYN
What’s with the tears? Fair that bad?ANNIE
What? No…I mean…ughh. I’m kinda on a first date from hell.JOCELYN
Well, fuck that! Wanna bail? I got my step-mom’s Tesla.Annie is torn. She dries her hands, avoiding eye contact.
ANNIE
I really wanna sneak off with you in your step-mom’s Tesla…but I can’t. He’d kill me…JOCELYN
Whoa…is he abusive?ANNIE
No…no, just a bit handsy, I guess. I meant my dad would kill me. He’d think that’s rude.JOCELYN
Is he home?ANNIE
No, actually. He’s not.JOCELYN
What’s the problem then? Sounds like you have a real dilemma, here? Do you stay on your blind date with Mr. Handsy, while he tries to hide the boner he hopes you’ll touch later?ANNIE
Eww.JOCELYN
Or do you ditch him for the mysterious new girl with a fat blunt in her pocket? Shit’ll blow your mind, girl.Annie hesitates. There’s something about her that’s addicting.
DANNY (O.S.)
Everything, okay in there?Annie covers her mouth, to hide her laugh.
ANNIE
Sorry. That last ride really didn’t sit well…JOCELYN
Let’s get out of here.Jocelyn extends her hand. Annie takes it.
The girls run out the opposite door.
EXT. WOMEN’S RESTROOM – COUNTY FAIR – NIGHT
Danny waits nervously, by the bathroom door, checking the face of every girl that exits.
A BLONDE WOMAN exits. Danny stops her.
DANNY
Hey, did you see a girl in there? Uh…she was wearing a uh…beanie.BLONDE WOMAN
Sorry.Danny begins to panic. He screams into the bathroom.
DANNY
Annie! Annie? I’m coming in.Without hesitation, Danny disappears inside.
CUT TO:
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Budinscak Anticipatory Dialogue
Day 5
What I learned doing this assignment:
o The importance of Anticipatory Dialogue, we’ve covered it previously and circled back to it.
o It keeps the reader engaged and curious to what will happen.
o The frequency this dialogue trait shows up in movies of all genres.
Setup:
We’re in Act 2. Jack, Puck and Sal have pulled off the highway and into a rest area.
Scene:
EXT. REST AREA – NIGHT
Weary travelers, Jack, Puck and Sal, study a vending machine with very few selections and none of them appealing.
JACK
Ah, food.
PUCK
You know you’re going to get sick eating this stuff.
SAL
It’s going to be worse than that.
Jack feed coins into the vending machine and selects an apple pie.
PUCK
Oh, God.
JACK
We’ll know if this is any good in about ten minutes. (He takes a bite) Starting now.
PUCK
Do we need barf bags, garbage bags… body bag?
SAL
Uncle Jack, you may never be yourself again.
JACK
I’m taking the bullet for you two. You want to eat this?
PUCK
I bet there’s a great chance it comes out of both orifices.
Jack stops chewing – huh? Sal scratches his head.
SAL
So would he be the guy who farted and threw up, or would he be the buy who burped and shit himself?
Jack scoffs at his nephews and takes another bite.
JACK
I’m pretty sure this apple pie is perfectly safe.
Puck grabs the wrapper – oh, oh.
PUCK
Get ready. The apple pie expired six months ago.
Jack sniffs the apple pie and tosses it. He gags slightly, then stares in silence at the restroom sign down the hall.
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Amy’s Anticipatory Dialogue
What I learned doing this assignment is by writing anticipatory dialogue you can also create subtext.
INT. – NEWSROOM – DAY – 2001
It’s many years in the past and a younger Andrea can be seen sitting at a desk staring at a computer.
2022 Andrea appears seemingly out of nowhere, disoriented.
She looks around, confused.
A younger Tom walks from his office, spots one of his reporters, Julia Reese.
TOM
Julia, they found a body down by the creek. I need you to go cover it. It might be the missing girl.
Younger Andrea jumps out of her seat.
YOUNG ANDREA
Oh, Julia, can I come with you, please?
JULIA
All right, kid, but don’t try anything. This is my story.
EXT. WOODS – DAY
Younger Andrea walks alongside Julia and a CAMERAMAN.
2022 Andrea follows behind.
They come upon a search team. Julia motions the cameraman over.
JULIA
Hello, officer. I’m Julia Reese, WBEN. Can you tell us what’s going on here. Have you found the missing girl?
OFFICER
I know who you are. This is one officer you can’t push around. I’m not telling you anything I haven’t told anybody else.
YOUNG ANDREA
Uh, officer. Will you tell me?
Young Andrea sticks her hand out. The officer takes it reluctantly.
YOUNG ANDREA
Andrea Waldman.
JULIA
Intern.
OFFICER
Hi, Andrea. What do YOU want to know?
YOUNG ANDREA
Do you believe this to be the body of thirteen-year-old Deliah Simmons who’s been missing for two weeks?
The officer hesitates, then leans in towards Andrea. The cameraman is recording. Julia watches intently.
OFFICER
Yes. I believe this is a thirteen-year-old girl. Unfortunately.
Julia fumes.
JULIA
Now you’ve done it, intern. I’ll make sure you get exactly what you deserve.
Young Andrea looks at Julia nervously. 2022 Andrea smirks.
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I have always been terrible at making people turn pages so this is a technique I must implant into my stubborn brain and use every time I run through my outline or work on my accompanying novel. To get the momentum for this, I don’t want to focus on one scene, but on adding direct and implied consequences, questions, countdowns, deadlines, egregious reputations, worries, warnings, fierce ambitions, worry, dread, and fear of the future as I struggle to enjoy the present and wax nostalgic over the past, noting the difference in dramatic and personal writing and why I resent being pushed onto the narrative thrust treadmill everyday. I vow to spend a few minutes each day on this essential technique. I wonder whether other languages that read from right to left instead of left to right have this same forward momentum.
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Jodi’s Anticipatory Dialogue – Day 5
Using Anticipatory Dialogue makes the scene more fully rounded. It answers a series of questions and creates more questions which keeps the reader engaged.
INT. DOCTOR’S EXAMINATION ROOM – DAY
MARJORIE LATHAM, late 80’s is sitting on an examination table. The Neurologist, DR. CAMPBELL motions for her son DALE LATHAM to join him outside the room for Marjorie’s diagnosis.
INT. HALLWAY DOCTOR’S OFFICE – SAME
Dr. Campbell gestures to a chair.
DR. CAMPBELL: Let’s have a seat and talk a minute about your Mom’s diagnosis.
DALE: Sure Doctor.
DR. CAMPBELL: Along with giving her the basic tests as I just did, her xrays show gray matter grouping in the frontal lobe area.
DALE: What does that mean?
Dr. Campbell takes his hand and looks concerned. She rises.
Silence at a strange time:
DR. CAMPBELL: Sit tight here for a moment, there’s one more test I want to try.
Dr. Campbell walks into the examination room with Marjorie and shuts the door. Dale looks down nervous and concerned, his heavy breathing is audible. He tucks his face in his hands.
Indirect prediction:
DALE: Please let her be okay, please God let her be okay.
Dr. Campbell walks out of the room.
DR. CAMPBELL: Thank you for waiting Dale.
Dr. Campbell sits next to him.
Countdown:
DR. CAMPBELL: Your Mom has Senile Dementia stage three, there are seven stages.
DALE: Oh my God.
Dale looks panicked, Dr. Campbell touches his hand.
Imply hopelessness:
DR. CAMPBELL: It’ll take a good amount of time before she gets to stage seven, and we’re making great advances in attacking this disease, so try not to lose hope. You don’t want to go down that rabbit hole.
Indirect prediction:
DALE: Why did this have to happen now, I still have to work, who’s going to care for her?
Direct prediction and Imply consequences:
DR. CAMPBELL: You’ll be fine for quite a while, when the Senile Dementia starts hitting stage five she will become more confused, you’ll see wandering, more forgetfulness and possible Sundown syndrome. Eventually she will need more supervised care, but not for a while.
DALE: Is there a cure?
Imply hopelessness:
DR. CAMPBELL: Not yet. But we’re working on new drugs that could help stave off the effects of the disease.
Dale looks panicked.
DALE: My kids. Is this hereditary?
Warnings:
DR. CAMPBELL: One in seven over age seventy will get dementia, and in rare types of dementia there can be genetic links, but we won’t know until all her testing is complete what type of dementia she has and what that might mean for you and your family in the future. We’ll know more soon.
DALE: My kids and my wife are going to be devastated.
Confront someone hiding from a future consequence:
DR. CAMPBELL: I know this is hard to accept, take your time, but the sooner you start her on a memory care program the better, it’s not a cure, but it will stave off the symptoms a while longer.
Dale looks confused and heartbroken.
Create a reputation for the villain:
DR. CAMPBELL(cont.): I’m so sorry you and your family now must go through this pain. It’s hard to be strong facing this disease. Senile Dementia and Alzheimers takes our loved ones memories and eventually their lives at the end stage, but that could be a very long way away.
DALE: I’m going to have to start making arrangements for her.
Shield from consequences in advance:
DR. CAMPBELL: Yes, at some point she’ll need a power of attorney to protect her estate. It’s best to get those ducks in a row while she is still capable of signing consent.
DALE: Yeah, I’ll have to discuss this with my wife, make arrangements for the best plan of action.
Challenge issued:
DR. CAMPBELL: Please sort this out quickly though, every minute she goes without help is another minute lost to deterioration.
DALE: I will Doctor. Thank you for all your help.
At that moment Marjorie opened the door.
MARJORIE: Dale, what’s taking you so long. Let’s go.
DALE: Okay Momma, the Doc and I just needed to talk about a few things.
Dale shakes the Doctor’s hand.
DALE: Thank you again for your help.
DR. CAMPBELL: You got it. If you have any information, you call me.
DALE: I will. Thank you.
Dr. Campbell walks off down the hallway. Dale and Marjorie walk in the other direction.
DALE: You feel like having some lunch Mom?
MARJORIE: You bet. I could eat a horse.
They get on the elevator and the elevator doors close.
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BOB SMITHS ANTICIPATORY DIALOGUE
What I learned doing this assignment is…?
That the cataloguing of types of anticipatory dialogue is a useful template for creating it.
INT. STUDIO COMMISSARY – DAY
A lunch table.
Three crew members from the set of “The Blue Angel” are seated and eating lunch and complaining about director von Sternberg and his unreasonable demand for them to remove their watches because he does not want to be distracted by ticking. One of them, Karl, has swiped a large table clock from the Crew Union Office as a protest against the studio’s allowing Sternberg to get away with making bad working conditions for the crew coupled with a demand
That they appear to the studioin brass to do something to get rid of Sternberg.
At the table are also three crew members from another set. One is Jew (LEOPOLD) and another an Afro-German (ABU BAKR MUHAMMAD), a Hausa Muslim from Mahinland Nigeria (A German province until Versailles took away all of Germany’s foreign territories.
FRIEDRICH
Pommer is the producer. Is there any way we can get Pommer to rid us of this tyrannical director?
LEO
Can’t be done. Pommer’s committed to von Sternberg.
OTTO
I understand a star could get a director fired. It’s happened
In Hollywood.
KARL
Can you honestly picture Emil Jannings getting his own
Director-friend fired?
FRIEDRICH
True, the real star of the film has become Marlene. With
all the time von Sternberg spends with her, what else is she
but the star? She’s not going to fight on anybody’s behalf
to get von Sternberg sacked.
KARL
He is her director and mentor and more than a mentor.
That time they spend together is not all about mentoring.
Listen. How many more weeks are there in this production.
FRIEDRICH
At least six.
KARL
It would take a miracle to get me through this.
OTTO
In my opinion, the best way to make your
point is to present a list of grievances to the
Union. From now on, record everything von
Sternberg does that makes working conditions
hell.
FRIEDRICH
Good idea, Otto. I have a copybook.
(pulls out a notebook)
From now on it will be our grievance book to
get von Sternberg sacked.
OTTO
And, Karl. Put that damn clock back in
the Union Office before you get yourself and
maybe the rest of us in trouble. You don’t
want to anger the Union chiefs just when you
need their help against von Sternberg.
KARL
All right! All right!
FRIEDRICH
And by the way, where did this von Sternberg-
business come from? He is not a descendant of
German nobility.
KARL
Oh, something a Hollywood publicist thought up
to make him sound important like Erich von
Stroheim.
Friedrich writes in the notebook and as he writes it recites it.
FRIEDRICH
(reciting what he writes)
“Bullet number one; Sternberg forces us to remove
our watches because when he says, ‘Quiet on the set,’
he means he doesn’t want to hear our watches ticking.
Ordering us to remove personal items is an invasion
of union members’ privacy.”
KARL
We should not wait. That offens alone e is enough to
bring a complaint to the Union. First, we should all
sign the grievance book.
OTTO
I prefer not to sign it.
KARL
Why?
OTTO
The Union Officials will bring the
Grievances Book to Pommer and I don’t
want to get on Pommer’s bad side.
KARL
Then you will be on our bad side.
You are a scab and the rest of us will make
sure you don’t forget it.
OTTO
I will not be threatened. Call me a scab for
speaking my mind but your mind is the sane
mind of the fascists who want to run our
country.
Karl falls silent.
OTTO
Ah. Your silence convicts you.
KARL
So we are fascists. Well, I agree with the Nazis. They
are putting Germany back to work.
LEO
And shutting down independent thinking while they promote
anti-semitism and dangerous race-based propaganda against
people like me –
ABU BAKR
– And me. I am Abu Bakr Muhammad, I came here from Mahinland. I fought on the German army and after all that, now I face hatred in the land I fought for?
LEO
I also fought for the Fatherland and now I have to
hear that it’s because of the Jews that Germany lost
the war. I bled for this country and 11,000 Jews
died for it in the war and now we hear it is because of us
and there is a “Jewish problem.”
KARL
Leo, it wasn’t you or the 11,000 who stabbed us in
The back. It was those of your people among the
Communists and Socialists.
LEO
That’s just selective anti-semitism.
OTTO
Karl you are amazing, you protest the fascism of a
film director but you want a fascist control over us and
approve of a fascist to run our country. I’ve lost my appetite.
Otto rises from the table, so does Leo, then, rhe remainder of those at the table. Exit.
FADE OUT.
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Armand Anticipatory Dialogue
What I learned…
There are two very important reasons to be proficient at anticipatory dialogue.
1. The better you are at causing your reader to wonder/worry about the future of your screenplay, the more likely they’ll read the entire script.
2. Some readers and executives only read the dialogue. And in many cases, they skim it. That means that some of your dialogue needs to cause anticipation in a way that stands out
Anticipatory dialogue list:
1. Direct prediction.
2. Indirect prediction.
3. Countdown.
4. Imply consequences.
5. Imply hopelessness.
6. Shield from consequences in advance.
7. Warnings.
8. Create reputation for the villain.
9. Confront someone hiding from a future consequence.
10. A challenge issued.
11. Silence at a strange time.
ASSIGNMENT
Backstory: A seance has made Tyler tangible for the first time in the story.
MADDIE
If I can touch you…
LEX
Then the killer can touch you.
TYLER
I can be killed!
Tyler runs away freaking out. Out of habit, he crosses for the wall and bangs himself on the head, bouncing backwards on the floor.
MADDIE
We have to finish this. If we kill him first, this will be over.
LEX
We have about one hour until midnight. The seance won’t work after that.
TYLER
What will happen after that?
LEX
You will poof.
TYLER
Poof?
LEX
You’ll cease to exist. No ghost, no soul. No after-life.
TYLER
I don’t have the skills to do this. I’ll be dead, dead soon.
MADDIE
If you die, we’ll die together. I won’t let that bastard touch anyone else.
LEX
The killer is relentless, but he’s still human. We can defeat him. Together.
TYLER
You’re right. He’s only a human. A very determined, psychotic, blood-thirsty human.
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Janeen’s Anticipatory Dialogue
What I learned doing this assignment is that anticipatory dialogue also contributes to the attack/counterattack in a conversation.
In my scene below, I used direct prediction, indirect prediction, imply consequences, warnings,
SCENE
INT. PATROL CAR – MORNING
Cinda tells Rod about how successful Morgan has been. He is skeptical and wonders if it’s ethical.
CINDA drives. Her partner ROD scans the streets as they drive.
CINDA
You know my fiber guild?
Rod never stops scanning traffic and the sidewalks. Responds with little enthusiasm. Just killing time.
ROD
Yeah.
CINDA
One of our members is doing mind control to help women in the shelter.
ROD
Mind control? Help them how?
CINDA
She gives them confidence. Takes away their pain.
ROD
She a doctor?
CINDA
No. Just wants to help. Bridget, who runs the shelter, said this woman who’d been abused for years didn’t have the courage and self-confidence to get a job. Morgan did her mind control thing, gave her confidence, and the woman got a job at her old firm.
Rod stops scanning. Looks critically at Cinda.
ROD
What is this mind control stuff?
CINDA
It’s a little woo-woo, but seems to actually work.
Rod goes back to scanning.
ROD
You believe in it?
CINDA
Not sure yet, but she believes and she says it doesn’t matter if the people she uses it on believe. Only that she does. Bridget says it works.
ROD
So these shelter women signed up to have her mind controlled?
CINDA
No. She don’t even know Morgan did it.
Rod looks back at Cinda.
ROD
Something about that’s not right.
CINDA
What do you mean?
ROD
She gives women confidence without them asking for it or even knowing she’s done it?
CINDA
Yeah.
He ponders.
ROD
First of all, that sounds like a joke. Second, it sounds unethical.
CINDA
Unethical, how?
ROD
If it actually works and this mind control can actually give a woman confidence, what if confidence gives her the courage to strike back next time she’s hit? Maybe even kill her husband?
He pauses, laughs.
ROD
Maybe just knock’em in the nose with a can of carrots.
Cinda ponders.
Rod points to a car in the next lane.
ROD
Light’em up. Expired plates.
Cinda hits the lights and siren.
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PS 80 Michelle Damis Anticipatory dialogue.
What I learned doing this assignment is that I’m hoping that I’m naturally accomplishing many of these techniques. I’ve gotten several days behind and I have some other deadlines, so I’m trying to keep progressing.
INT. NIGHTCLUB – MOMENTS LATER
Osgood continues on his war path into the club, his body language warning people to stay out of his way.
His sights lock in on a group: Ellis, Yee-Ling, Pasha, and a few more. MAGNUS (40’s, 6’4, Viking-like) TOM ( 40’s, 5’2, Elf-like, often referred to as Tom Thumb for a laugh) And HELENA(her presence is such that no one dares laugh at the contrast of MAGNUS and TOM)
The group sees Osgood approaching, all shift to looks of concern but Magnus and his mini side-kick Tom.
OSGOOD
(to Magnus)I picked up your scent.
MAGNUS
Whomever smelt it dealt it…
This cracks Tom Thumb up.
OSGOOD
Why were you following me?
MAGNUS
Following you? Tom and I were just in the neighborhood. You’re being paranoid Ozy.
TOM
Yeah Ozy, take a chill pill man.
Magnus shoots Tom a “shut-up” kinda look.
OSGOOD
Just in the neighborhood(muttering to himself)…yeah right?
Tom pipes up again like a yappy-lap dog.
TOM
Are you calling Magnus a liar?
Helena intervenes.
HELENA
No one is calling anyone a liar. I’m sure this is a simple misunderstanding.
Helena certainly commands respect.
HELENA
(to Osgood) Now Ozy, what seems to be the problem?
OSGOOD
I picked up Magnus’s scent earlier this evening.
HELENA
And what’s wrong with that? I pick up scents all the time.
Osgood realizes his mistake.
OSGOOD
Never mind, you are right. My apologies.
Nodding to Magnus in a sign of submission.
HELENA
See how easy that was? We are all friends here.(turning to the group) Now, I’d like to hear more about Yee-lings latest language.
Magnus moves in tight to Osgood as if to give him a hug.
MAGNUS
Just so you know. I wasn’t following you, I was following your mortal. I’m so very curious about this new living situation of yours.
As Osgood pulls back preparing to lunge, just as Nina taps him on the shoulder
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Elizabeth’s Anticipatory Dialogue
What I learned: another great ‘tool’ to keep us on track. When I tried to write a variety of “implied consequences” etc. I eventually was able to stitch some of them into a scene.
INT. ED’S APARTMENT – EVENING
Ed uncovers his delivered dinner. Sprouts. Re-covers it—
INT. GARDENS BY THE WATER – DINING AREA CONTINUOUS
Across the room, Don and Judy, the only remaining diners, engage in a polite argument as—
Ed stares at the remains of a buffet. Bad as the sprouts.
As STAFF clear service dishes, Ed snatches a few rolls—
Sits in a chair, as far from Don and Judy as possible.
DON
Ed! Over here!
Ed pretends not to hear. Which makes Don—
Beckon so dramatically, you’d have to be blind—.
DON
(Loud as a fire alarm)
Ed!
Ed breathes through pressed lips—what can you do—and
Trudges to Don and Judy’s table. Sits.
DON
You’re exactly who we need!
(And)
Remember that Freud idea where a person forgets something that’s still in their brain? But in a different place where they can’t think it?
JUDY
(Partly-veiled annoyance)
The “I don’t want to think it” place.”
ED
That’s the unconscious.
JUDY
Right.
(And)
Though it wouldn’t be unconscious if the person’s ‘to do’ list hadn’t fallen out of his pocket at a poker game—and into the potato chip dip.
DON
(To Judy)
It wasn’t on the ‘to do’ list. That list was entirely still readable.
(To Ed)
I’m talking about, whatcha call, Reduction? Redaction in the brain?
ED
Repression?
DON
Repression! Yes. How’s that work?
ED
Uh.
Doesn’t want this; where it might lead. But as Judy and Don lean in. Rapt—
ED
Well, if a thought or feeling, or a memory or impulse is unpleasant or unwanted, it can be pushed out of conscious awareness without us realizing it—
(And)
That’s repression. Suppression is the same, only the pushing out is intentional.
JUDY
So it’s your fault, Don. Suppression is intentional forgetting.
Ed saw that coming, a continent away. Tries to fix—
ED
The terms aren’t judgements, good or bad. They’re just descriptions of mental processes. How the brain works.
Don and Judy frown. Confused—or maybe don’t want to buy.
ED
(Tries again)
Pretend you’re at work and you have important meetings. You don’t have time think about how you forgot to take your garbage out—and next week you’ll have to pay extra. So you suppress your thoughts and feelings about your garbage—and get on with your work.
JUDY
(To Don)
So you suppressed my sister coming because you think poker’s more important.
DON
Or you suppressed I had a very important game when you were planning your sister’s visit—seeing as you don’t like poker.
JUDY
Or you suppressed that you had the game when I told you she was coming, so I wouldn’t get mad. And because you don’t like her!
(And)
But however it was, Gloria’s Depends were still on your to-do list when you went to the grocery. And you came home with chips and dip instead!
(And)
The rest of the mess is history.
Don takes his glasses off. Closes his eyes. Feels for something in the air like he’s blind—
DON
I could not find that list after I scrubbed it.
(Opens his eyes)
That’s blindness. Or—
Don hand-bites the air for the words, like a dog snapping at treats—
DON
Dementia: Redaction. Reduction. My word-finding difficulties—?
(Point proven)
It isn’t suppression.
ED
(Maybe there is dementia?)
You scrubbed a paper list?
Judy reacts. Lovingly hits Don with her napkin—the play they easily fall into, that’s fed their marriage.
Besides, precious little time left to fight! Back to what matters—
DON
There anything major in your life, Ed, you’ve repressed or suppressed?
ED
That I was supposed to remind you to pick up Depends at the grocery?
Don laughs. Judy gives both men ‘the eye.’
DON
If looks can kill, repression could be lethal.
(Sobering thought)
You probably saw that? Or violence at least.
JUDY
(Empathic)
What was the worst for you, Dr. Ed. The patients you couldn’t help but ‘take home’?
Ed’s quiet. So many people’s struggles still in his heart.
DON
(To rescue—)
Judy. Patient confidentially.
ED
No, this won’t violate—
(As hard as it was then—)
The worst is when parents don’t or can’t or won’t let themselves see signs of their children’s distress. Like: it takes an overdose to face that a kid is using drugs—and depressed.
The weight here. Wisdom from raising three of her own. And Exactly what Ed, himself, has been trying to avoid—
JUDY
Ed, I know Grace isn’t your grandchild. But she’s a dear—and a mess. I hope you’ll go to her wedding. She might even need you to walk her down the aisle.
DON
She’s got a father for that.
JUDY
(Surprised)
Oh, Silly Judy.
(Is it dementia?)
Why did I think—?
DON
Well, I guess I’d add, at our age, there’s only so many days to share what we can. So, that probably argues you going.
Don pushes himself up. Like it’s Herculean work—
DON
And the girl is, seriously, a mess.
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Emmanuel’s Anticipatory Dialogue
What I learned doing this assignment is anticipatory dialogue is often present in scripts that the screenwriter has not identified. The key is to identify the techniques and use as many as possible in scenes.
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