Dexter enters annoyed at the fact that Hannah’s latest victim died in his apartment. He’s angry with her and asks her how she killed him. Hannah disarms Dexter by answering his question.

We could say the power holder at the start of the beat is Dexter, but at the end of the beat, Hannah.

Beat 2.

Dexter confesses he got rid of some evidence which would have incriminated Hannah. Hannah thanks him.

Power holder:

start of beat – Hannah.

end of beat – Shared.

Beat 3.

Hannah says she could ‘feel’ Dexter watching her when she was being interviewed by the police. She tries to draw him into an awareness of a spiritual, supernatural bond. Dexter refuses to go there.

Power holder:

start of beat – Shared.

end of beat – Dexter.

Beat 4.

Dexter needs to know if the story he heard about Hannah is true. Did she kill her husband because he wanted a family? Hannah again disarms him.

Power holder:

start of beat – Dexter.

end of beat – Hannah.

Beat 5.

Hannah tries again to draw Dexter in to an awareness of their deep, spiritual connection. This time she succeeds. Dexter is overwhelmed by her intoxicating power and the sexual ‘chemistry’ between them reaches its inevitable climax.

Power holder:

start of beat – Hannah

end of beat – Shared.

The shared power at the climax of this scene is echoed in Hannah’s line: ‘We were looking out for each other.’

So, the to and fro of power goes like this:

Dexter – Hannah – Shared / Dexter – Hannah – Shared

Two equal halves of the same sequence.

Interesting.

Do you agree? What else do you notice about this scene?

For a scene-by-scene breakdown of the entire, episode click here.

#screenwriting, Dialogue, Dialogue

DEXTER part 8a: Dialogue – Angel Batista

July 22, 2013 Steve Edwards Leave a comment

Angel Batista is dreaming of retiring and opening a restaurant on the beach. Joey is feeling guilty about the dirty money he took from the Koshka Brotherhood.

NB it’s not pure altruism from Joey; earlier in the episode Batista ‘suggested’ he may be the one who stole the evidence against the Koshkas, which of course he was.

INT. MIAMI METRO POLICE – NIGHT

All is quiet in the office. Joey writes a check for $10,000 and hands it to Batista.

BATISTA

What’s this?

JOEY

It’s for your restaurant.

BATISTA

It’s ten grand.

JOEY

You know I got that inheritance a while back. I’ve been looking for the right place to invest.

BATISTA

I can’t take this. What are you crazy?

JOEY

Come on, are you too good for my fucking money?

BATISTA

No. This is way too generous.

JOEY

Bullshit. It’s family money. You’re family to me.

BATISTA

Quinn…

JOEY

Look, you’re stuck with it. I’m not taking it back. I do expect a few free meals, though.

BATISTA

This is a loan you asshole. I’m gonna pay you back.

So, let’s take the last line of Batista and see what we can glean. What does it tell us about Batista’s character?

First of all, considering the context, that earlier in the scene Batista put his professional relationship before his ‘friendship’ with Joey, Batista falls easily for Joey’s snake-like charm.

For $10,000, Batista is ready to accept Joey as ‘family’ – a man, who, a few scenes ago he was ready to lock away and ruin forever.

With Batista, money talks.

But is he greedy? Or simply so desperate for his restaurant, to retire from the stress of police life, that he is willing to ignore the evidence staring him in the face – that this money is dirty.

Does Batista really believe this 10 grand is from Joey’s inheritance? If he does, does it make him naive, or gullible? Or is he just blind to the truth, unable to see what is in front of him?

John Lennon said, “Living is Easy with Eyes Closed.”

I would say here Batista is living with his eyes closed. Where he showed discernment earlier when he confronted Joey over the missing evidence, here he is either lacking discernment or willing to turn a blind eye. If he is lacking discernment that makes him kind of wavering, easily tricked. Is Batista, this hard-nosed, authoritarian, super-ambitious cop so easily susceptible to Joey’s charm? Is he really that gullible? On a positive note, his refusal to take the money as a gift shows Batista is fiercely proud and independent.

So, for me this dialogue suggests Angel Batista is:

Gullible, independent, and proud.

Would you agree?

#screenwriting, Dialogue, Dialogue

DEXTER part 8b: Dialogue – Joey Quinn

July 14, 2013 Steve Edwards Leave a comment

In JOEY QUINN the writers of Dexter have created a fascinating, multi-layered and deeply flawed character.

Remember, we’re analyzing Season 7 Episode 7.

Let’s take a look at Joey’s storyline.

Joey has fallen in love with Nadia, a sex-trafficked strip joint dancer under the power of Ukrainian mob the Koshka Brotherhood.

In order to earn Nadia’s freedom, Joey has put his career on the line, by doing a deal.

INT. GEORGE’S OFFICE – NIGHT

Joey enters.

JOEY

I did what you wanted. The evidence is gone. I want Nadia’s passport. She’s done with you and your whole fucking shitty organization… and so am I.

GEORGE

We’ve been working so well together. Why kill a good thing?

JOEY

Who do you think you’re fucking with? You think I’m some fucking asshole? One of your little fucking bad men? You know how badly I could fuck you up?

Calling the Koshka Brotherhood a ‘shitty organization’ isn’t very eloquent or smart. I get the feeling Joey doesn’t think about what he’s going to say before he says it. He’s not the type to go through his confrontations in front of the mirror beforehand. He’s rash, impulsive, all-guns-blazing. I would say his words here reveal him to be reckless.

‘You know how badly I could fuck you up?’ comes across as false bravado; he has no power to ‘fuck them up’ – if he did he wouldn’t have stolen evidence for them, risking his career and imprisonment. Therefore I would say that his macho talk here is masking a deep insecurity.

Yet, the fact he is prepared to put his neck on the line to save Nadia from her traffickers endears us to him. It’s a sign of his compassion.

To sum up then, I would say Joey’s dialogue reveals him to be reckless, insecure yet compassionate.

What do you think?

#screenwriting, Dialogue, Dialogue

DEXTER part 8c: Dialogue – Debra Morgan

July 8, 2013 Steve Edwards Leave a comment

I’m going to choose one line of dialogue from each character which, for me, defines the person.

Debra first.

For me, a character-defining line of dialogue comes when she’s meeting Sal Price, the True Crime writer investigating Hannah McKay, at a restaurant. Although their relationship is professional, and they’re working a case, this is a date, so Sal throws a perfectly normal ‘date’ question at Deb, who responds with a perfectly abnormal answer.

SAL
What kind of music do you like?

DEB
A jail house door slamming shut, that’s my idea of music.

Brilliant!

What does this tell us about Deb?

That she’s obsessed with her work – she is ALWAYS thinking about catching bad guys and locking them up! And because she’s obsessed with her job we might also say that she’s fiercely ambitious. What else does this line of dialogue say about her? It’s a cool answer, right? It’s a unique, acerbic sense of humor, but still funny.

So, we could say this line of dialogue defines three of Deb’s character traits: she’s work-obsessed, ambitious, and funny.

Do you agree ?

What about your characters? What one-liners define their personality?

Can you think of any more character-defining dialogue from other movie /TV characters?

#screenwriting, Dialogue

DEXTER part 7: Old Cliches Die Hard.

February 1, 2013 Steve Edwards Leave a comment

Let’s face it, no professional writer should be using cliches, unless it’s for good reason, like a character trait or dialogue tic, especially when you’re writing for a Showtime hit like DEXTER.

So why, 2 minutes into the episode is true crime writer and Deb’s new love interest Sal Price saying the age-old maxim:

‘Old habits die hard’ ?

Because it’s brilliant foreshadowing, in 2 ways –

a) the habit he’s referring to is going to be the poisonous chalice he sips from later

and

b) he literally does ‘die hard’

Without spoiling too much, watch the episode and see this ingenious set-up.

Season 7 Episode 7. Scene breakdown available here.

#screenwriting, Dexter, TV

Dexter extra: what do Chayefsky + Dexter have in common?

January 3, 2013 Steve Edwards Leave a comment

Scott Meyers @GointotheStory tweeted a vulture interview with Chris Terrio on the toughest scene he had to write in ARGO.

In the interview Terrio references Paddy Chayefsky, whose wiki page states:

Chayefsky was considered one of the most renowned dramatists of the so-called Golden Age of Television. His intimate, realistic scripts provided a naturalistic style of television drama for the 1950s, and he was regarded as the central figure in the “kitchen sink realism” movement of American television. He was a successful writer, the most successful graduate of television’s slice of life school of naturalism.”

Slice of Life made me automatically think of Dexter’s boat.

Could this be coincidence ? Clicking on the wiki link to this school of naturalism we find a further definition:

Slice of life is a phrase describing the use of mundane realism depicting everyday experiences in art and entertainment.

During the 1950s, the phrase had common critical usage in reviews of live television dramas, notably teleplays by Paddy Chayefsky.

The literary term refers to a storytelling technique that presents a seemingly arbitrary sample of a character’s life, which often lacks a coherent plot, conflict, or ending.

In anime and manga, “slice of life” is a genre that often parallels teen melodrama in addition to using slice-of-life narrative techniques.

Oh the irony!

So, the answer to the question ‘What do Dexter and Chayefsky have in common?’ is:

A Slice of Life !

#screenwriting, Dexter, TV

DEXTER part 6: Titles and Meanings

December 31, 2012 Steve Edwards 1 Comment

Remember we’re studying Season 7 Episode 7.

The episode is called CHEMISTRY.

In Dexter’s opening lines of dialogue – an internal thought – he tells us:

DEXTER (V.O.)

Chemistry, I've heard some people have it,
an attraction that can't be quantified or explained.
Is that the reason behind this? Loss of control?
Maybe the desire to get Hannah on my table was
just a way to deny the affect she has on me.

But what is the affect Hannah has on him? Why did Dexter choose to fuck her instead of kill her?

Perhaps because Hannah is beautiful, but also deadly, just like the flowers she uses to kill, the flowers she is constantly surrounded by – the symbol of her beauty as well as the source of her evil – the perfect rose and its thorn.

The writer takes great care in selecting Hannah’s toxin of choice – from the plant aconitum – also known as aconite (from a Greek word meaning ‘without struggle’). Aconite has been nicknamed ‘the queen of poisons’. Isn’t Hannah Dexter’s queen of poisons ?

The writer not only contrasts chemistry with botany but also compares the healing and destructive potential of both with the healing and destructive potential of Dexter’s relationship with Hannah.

Chemicals and plants can be both medicinal or poisonous – healers or killers.

In Season 7’s main plot which will Dexter and Hannah’s relationship turn out to be – poisonous or medicinal?

And when the entire series’ main plot is tied up in Season 8 which will Dexter eventually be – healed or killed ?

I’ll be looking in greater detail at the dialogue in this opening scene soon.

Read it here: Dexter Season 7 Episode 7: scene 1

The episode scene by scene breakdown can be found here.

Comments welcome.

#screenwriting, Dexter, TV

DEXTER part 5: Screen Time.

December 22, 2012 Steve Edwards Leave a comment

In one episode, out of 50 scenes, how many are Dexter in?

1.51 Hannah + Dexter (1)
2.06 Deb + Sal Price
1.24 Hannah + Dexter (2) + 1 extra Biker
0.44 Dexter (3) + Hannah
1.37 Dexter (4) + Sal Price
1.15 LaGuerta + Deb
1.39 Dexter (5) + Deb
0.33 Dexter (6), Batista and Masuko
0.58 LaGuerta, Batista, Masuko, Joey, Deb + Dexter (7)
0.9 LaGuerta + Deb
0.12 Batista, Joey, Masuko, Dexter (8) + 1 extra Cop
0.42 Batista, Joey, Masuko, Dexter (9) + 1 extra Cop
0.48 Batista + Joey
0.34 Dexter (10) + Deb
0.52 Deb + Sal Price
0.53 Joey + Nadia
0.24 Isaak Sirco, George + Jurg
1.14 Deb + Hannah’s dead husband’s sister
1.20 Hannah + Price
0.12 Price + Dexter (11)
0.59 Dexter (12) + his dad.
0.58 Joey + George
2.51 Dexter (13) + Hannah (MIDPOINT)
0.15 Deb + Hannah’s dead husband’s sister
0.33 Deb + Lab Technician
0.33 Deb + Hannah’s dead husband’s sister
1.21 Deb + Price
0.34 Hannah + Price
1.30 Dexter (14) + Dad
2.00 Price + Hannah
2.38 Isaak + Dexter (15)
2.11 Dexter (16) + Price
0.19 Joey + Jamie
0.36 Dexter (17) + Batista + Joey
1.16 Deb + Dexter (18)
0.16 Hannah + Dexter (19)
0.12 Dexter (20) + Hannah
0.10 Deb + Hannah
0.11 Dexter (21) + Hannah
1.15 Deb + Hannah
0.02 Dexter (22)
0.36 Hannah + Deb
0.08 Hannah
0.04 Dexter (23)
3.00 Dexter (24) + Hannah (CLIMAX)
0.51 Joey + Batista
0.25 Masuko + Deb
0.27 Maria LaGuerta
0.29 Deb + Hannah’s V.O
1.34 Dexter (25) + Hannah + Deb

Exactly half. 25 out of 50.

Exactly 23.06 minutes of screen time – just less than half of the 50 minutes episode.

Read the full scene breakdown here: DEXTER – Season 7 Episode 7

#screenwriting, Dexter, TV

DEXTER Part 4: Script Facts.

December 3, 2012 Steve Edwards Leave a comment

Out of 50 scenes, 38 have 2 characters (duologues).
2 further scenes have 3 people, but only 2 people actually talk (duologue).
Scene 49 is 1 character reacting to another character’s Voice on tape (duologue).
So, actually 41 out of 50 scenes are duologues!
3 scenes have 1 character and are less than 10 seconds.
ONLY 1 full scene has just 1 character & sets up the MAIN PLOT (27 secs).
2 scenes have 3 talking characters.
2 scenes have 5 characters.
1 scene has 6 characters.
The Midpoint scene is a discussion on the nature of murder.